Dệt Thổ Cẩm Thái Đen
The Black Tai (Thai Den) are one of Vietnam's largest ethnic minority groups — living in the limestone valleys of Hoa Binh, Son La, and Lai Chau provinces. Their weaving tradition produces cotton and silk brocade on a horizontal frame loom (khung det) using a supplementary weft technique that creates raised geometric patterns in a vocabulary of diamonds, hooks, and spirals drawn from Black Tai cosmology and daily life. The tradition is centered in Mai Chau valley (Hoa Binh) where weaving cooperatives have developed a cultural tourism model that directly supports weavers. The Black Tai horizontal loom is distinct from the Hmong backstrap loom — larger, fixed-frame, allowing wider cloth widths — and the supplementary weft technique uses the weaver's toes to control the shed stick while both hands manage the shuttle and pattern pick-up. This foot-hand coordination (toes holding shed, hands weaving) is unique in the textile traditions of the database.
Risk level: Endangered · Not inscribed
The nón lá is Vietnam's most iconic cultural symbol — the conical palm leaf hat worn by farmers, women, and children as sun and rain protection across the country.
Van Phuc (formerly Ha Dong) is Vietnam's most celebrated silk weaving village — located 10km southwest of Hanoi, producing silk brocades continuously for over 1,200 years.
Hue royal court embroidery (thêu cung đình) is the most refined embroidery tradition in Vietnam — developed under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802–1945) to decorate imperial robes, court textiles, and ceremonial objects for the Hue royal palace.
Dong Ho woodblock printing is the traditional Vietnamese folk painting tradition of Dong Ho village in Bac Ninh province near Hanoi — producing bold, colorful images on paper made from bark using hand-carved woodblocks and natural pigments.
Water puppetry (múa rối nước) is Vietnam's most distinctive performing art — puppets operated by hidden puppeteers standing waist-deep in water behind a split-bamboo curtain, manipulating figures through submerged bamboo rods and string…
Kim Bong carpentry village sits across the Thu Bon River from Hoi An — and its woodworking tradition, active since the 15th century, supplied the artisans who built the ancient town of Hoi An and its extraordinary layered architecture.
Sasak Songket is the supplementary weft gold and silk thread weaving tradition of the Sasak people of Lombok — producing lustrous cloth with raised gold or silver thread patterns on a silk or cotton ground.
Tais is the warp ikat cloth of the Timorese people — produced across both West Timor (Indonesia) and Timor-Leste (East Timor), making it a rare trans-national craft tradition in the database.
The Süvepfü is the warrior's prestige shawl of the Sumi Naga people of Zunheboto district, Nagaland.
The design, cutting, and hand-finishing of the Moroccan caftan, a central-opening, button-fastened garment richly decorated with embroidery, beads, and sequins, produced across distinct regional schools each with their own signature…
Kullu shawls are handwoven wool textiles from the Kullu Valley of Himachal Pradesh, characterized by bold geometric patterns — typically temple border (mandir) motifs, diamond lattices, and stylized floral forms — worked in bright,…
The Blekinge linen weaving tradition of southern Sweden — the production of the distinctive Swedish damask linen (drawloom weaving) that made Blekinge province Sweden's most important linen production region from the 17th to 19th centuries.