Vietnam · Basketry / Woven Mat
Dệt Chiếu Miền Tây
The Mekong Delta sedge mat weaving tradition — centered in Dinh Yen village (Dong Thap province) and Long Dinh (Tien Giang) — produces the traditional Vietnamese sleeping mat (chieu) from locally harvested sedge (coi — Cyperus tegetiformis) on large horizontal frame looms operated by two weavers simultaneously. The chieu is the most universally used traditional textile in southern Vietnam — every household has sleeping mats woven from sedge. Dinh Yen village's tradition is particularly renowned for its night market — where mats are sold by torchlight — one of Vietnam's most distinctive traditional trade practices. The two-weaver horizontal loom requires synchronized throwing of the shuttle between weavers — a collaborative weaving gesture unique in the database.
Risk level: Endangered · Not inscribed
The Red Dao (Dao Do) people of northern Vietnam — named for the dominant red color of their traditional dress — produce one of the most visually striking embroidery traditions in Southeast Asia.
The Cham people of south-central Vietnam — the descendants of the ancient Hindu-Buddhist Cham kingdom (2nd–17th century CE) — maintain a textile weaving tradition of extraordinary antiquity that was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative…
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.
The Hmong flax-and-indigo textile tradition of Vietnam's northern highlands is one of the most complete craft chains in the database — encompassing every stage from growing flax on mountain slopes to wearing the finished garment.
The Mekong Delta ikat tradition — centered in Tan Chau (An Giang province) and practiced by the Khmer minority communities of the southern delta — produces a warp-ikat silk textile (lanh My A) of extraordinary fineness, also known as the…
The gong culture of Vietnam's Central Highlands — practiced by the Ede, Jarai, Bahnar, Mnong, and other highland ethnic groups — was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2005 as one of the first Vietnamese UNESCO nominations.
The Kiribati pandanus weaving tradition (te bwai ni katei — the thing of the culture) — the production of the distinctive I-Kiribati woven pandanus mats and baskets whose specific plaiting technique and the atoll pandanus leaf quality…
The hand-knotting of wool and silk carpets on vertical looms, a Persian craft tradition regarded as an object of high artistic and utilitarian value since it was first mentioned by ancient Greek writers, continuing largely unchanged for…
The Sámi tuohi (birch bark) craft tradition — the making of containers, boxes, and household objects from the inner bark of the Arctic birch (Betula pubescens ssp.
The tribes of Northeast India — particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Mizoram — have developed among the most sophisticated cane and bamboo working traditions in Asia.
The hand-spinning and ground-loom weaving of long woolen and goat-hair strips used to construct the beit al-sha'ar, literally the 'house of hair,' among the largest woven structures ever built, produced by Bedouin women across Jordan's…
Ringal (Himalayan dwarf bamboo, Drepanostachyum falcatum and Thamnocalamus spathiflorus) is the primary material for the traditional basketry and tool-making tradition of the hill communities of Uttarakhand.