The prestige of the Non Nuoc Fine Arts Stone Village situated at the foot of the Marble Mountains in Ngu Hanh Son District’s Hoa Hai Ward in Da Nang, has been enhanced year after year. Thanks to this, the incomes of carvers have increased significantly, and more importantly, the preservation of the time-honoured traditional craft is still on track.

Many carvers at the Non Nuoc Fine Arts Stone Village are satisfied with their stable incomes

Tran Hung, who has worked as an apprentice at the Village for nearly 3 years, happily said he earns a monthly income of between 6 and 7 million VND. He will have finished his apprentice course in the next 5 years, and as a skilled carver at that time, he is expected to earn 10 million VND or more each month.

Hung said recent years have seen a growing consumption of arts stone products in the domestic market. Many high income earners show their interest in buying sculptures for the decoration purpose.

The locally-made products are not only widely consumed within the country, but they also penetrate into many foreign markets. The quality, design and sophistication of products are thus increasingly high. Many businesspeople or tourists from foreign countries have made orders of the Village-made products.

Phan Thuong, the owner of a stone carving establishment in the Village, said experienced artisans here breathe new life into stone to create beautiful arts works. Each work of arts expresses the talent, highly professional skills, creativity of artisans.

The experienced sculptor remarked, “To carve beautiful statues of historical figures, I usually spend much of my time learning about their lives in order to vividly reflect the features of the characters in terms of their general appearance and personalities”. 

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

All patterns are meticulously and extremely sophisticated carved. These statues are extremely exquisite and come in many sizes, from a small statue measuring just a few centimetres to a giant one.

Visitors to the Village will comfortably contemplate a variety of product categories, from statues of Buddha and Vietnamese celebrities to types of jewelry and such decorative household products as ashtrays, toothpick canister and millstone. In addition, visitors coming here have the chance to take a firsthand look at artisans creating unique products. Particularly, the craft village-made artworks have been exhibited in many countries around the world.

The village is now home to about 500 stone carving establishments employing a total of more than 1,500 people. These facilities produce between 120 and 130 billion VND in sales revenue every year, and they have made great efforts for the Ngu Hanh Son District’s progress.

In reality, the existing dedicated production area can accommodate only 368 out of the total 500 stone carving establishments. This means that there is not enough rental space for the remainder.

Mr Vo Duc Huy, the Head of the Management Board of the Village, therefore, underlined a must-do to conduct the expansion of the existing production area in order to accommodate the remaining stone carving establishment which are still located in residential areas.

Special attention should be paid to promote the tourism development potential of this time-honoured traditional craft village in the coming time.

Boasting a history of more than 300 years, the Non Nuoc Fine Arts Stone Village was recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2014 by the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.