Situated at the foot of the Marble Mountains in Ngu Hanh Son District’s Hoa Hai Ward, the Non Nuoc stone carving village’s history stretches back nearly 400 years.

Mr Buu and his work.

The village is now home to 20 businesses and around 400 stone carving establishments in total, together employing over 3,000 carvers. They create a total of more than 105,000 sculptures every year, producing over 100 billion VND in sales revenue. The average per capita income is between 5 and 6 million VND per carver per month.

This craft village’s products are extremely diverse. In addition to household utensils, statues of Buddha, sphinxes, birds and animals, national heroes, and famous characters are available for sale. These statues are extremely exquisite and come in many different sizes, from a small statue measuring just a few centimetres to a giant sized one.

More interestingly, small-sized statues featuring such symbolic images of the city as bridges, Nghe - a spiritual animal in Vietnamese culture, and red-shanked douc langurs, are the most favourite items by foreigners.

Many Non Nuoc stone products are associated with the names of passionate and enthusiastic sculptors. One of them is Mr Nguyen Long Buu, who has become the first craftsman in Viet Nam’s stone sculpture sector to be awarded the title ‘People’s Artisan’ by the Vietnamese President.

Born in the renowned stone carving village, Mr Buu is the 4^th generation of a family of traditional sculptors.

Mr Buu said he had a strong passion for spiritual statues. He has carved a large number of Buddha, Bodhisattva and Arhat statues. Many of Mr Buu’s impressive sculptures are now on display at many domestic and foreign localities. 

Most notable is a statue of Guanyin, an East Asian bodhisattva associated with compassion, which is displayed in Thailand.

Specifically, Mr Buu was selected to carve statues for displaying at a sculpture garden in Ha Noi and Da Nang on the occasion of the APEC 2006 and 2017 respectively.

These were considered as important milestones in advertising the images of the local craft village to international friends.

Every day, in spite of life’s ups and downs, the village is full of the laughter of the craftsmen and the sound of the hammers striking chisels. With their skillful hands and love for the art, they produce impressive polished statues and petite, sophisticated items incorporating both traditional and modern motifs, and these have been taken to many parts of the world by visitors.

Many merchants and tourists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia, France, Canada, the Netherlands, and the USA have signed contracts to purchase products from the village. Thanks to this, the village’s products have been exported to many countries and territories worldwide.