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This is another shot from Chuong Market — a village with long history of making conical hats. After obtaining the processed palm leaves, hat-makers buy the bamboo sticks (shown in picture) and do the final touch before bending them into 16 round hems to form the frame where they are going to cover with leaves and hand sew one by one stitch using one hand above and one hand under the layer of nón leaves.

Currently, Chuong Village provides to the market about 3 millions conical hats annually. In the recent years, nón have followed the foreign tourists on their ways home, mostly to Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan.

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The conical hats worn universally by peasant farmers and even by some women in the city are distinctly different from those worn in China. The Vietnamese nón lá, or ''leaf hat,'' is shaped on a bamboo form and consists of exactly 16 rings of woven palm leaves with its edge finished by hand and then painted with a sealer to make it waterproof.

This hat and the đòn gánh, or ''carry stick,'' which is used to balance large loads for carrying on one shoulder, is one of the common sites across southern Vietnam.

The rural dress is a loose-fitting, pajama-like top and bottom, often of black, but the graceful national dress of Vietnamese women is the áo dài. Pronounced ''aow yai,'' it consists of a close-fitting top with long panels dropping to the ground in front and in back. Commonly white, the top is worn with white or black loose-fitting pants. (Mike Philipps)



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