Visit Xuan La clay figurine village

Since our ancestors' time, the craft of making to he figurines was also called the craft of "making animal figurines" because the figurines at that time were only animals like chickens, pigs... but the most popular were still the figurines of birds.

As for the name "to he", it may be because in the past some people used to mold the dough into the shape of a trumpet to attract customers' attention.

Over time, the sound of the trumpet became familiar, associated with people making figurines, and was mistakenly called "to he".

The main ingredient to make to he is rice flour mixed with a little sticky rice in a ratio of 10 parts rice, 1 part sticky rice, mixed well, soaked in water, then ground, boiled and kneaded quickly. After that, people hold the flour into balls and dye each ball separately.

The four basic colors are yellow, red, black, and green. As for the color, the long-time artisans of Xuan La village always want to use natural colors, mainly made from leaves or edible vegetables. For example, red can be taken from gac fruit, yellow is extracted from turmeric, and cajuput leaves and galangal leaves will create green...

Heritage Magazine