Today’s A Journey through Aesthetic Realms will be presented in Aulacese (Vietnamese), with subtitles in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, and Spanish.

Where are you from, lovely seller of Gon mats?

Do you have more of them or not? How many springs have you seen, young lady?

Are you married with children, and how many?

I’m from West Lake, selling Gon mats. Why do you ask if I have more or not? I’m almost sixteen moons in age.

I have no husband; how can I have any children?

You’re indeed a celestial fairy sharing with me night and day the joy of poetry.

No, I’m not a fairy, just an earthling.

Let us tie a love bond between two poets.

What beauty have I that enchants you so?

Your charm enthralls the gentlemen. I love your gaze of passion. Your every word is imbued with poetry.

I’m from West Lake, selling Gon mats. Why do you ask if I have more or not? I’m almost sixteen moons in age. I have no husband; how can I have any children?

You’re indeed a celestial fairy sharing with me night and day the joy of poetry.

No, I’m not a fairy, just an earthling.

Let us tie a love bond between two poets.

What beauty have I that enchants you so?

Your charm enthralls the gentlemen. I love your gaze of passion. Your every word is imbued with poetry. I love your gaze of passion. Your every word is imbued with poetry.

You’ve just enjoyed the song “Asking the Gon Mat Seller,” adapted from a poem by His Excellency Nguyễn Trãi, a high-ranking mandarin of Later Lê Dynasty in the 15th century. His Excellency Nguyễn Trãi was outstanding in many fields such as literature, diplomacy, and music. He was also renowned as a man of virtue. “Asking the Gon Mat Seller” was set to music by composers Dương Tiếng Thu and Diễm Nhi, with vocals by Thùy Trang and Chế Phong.

Âu Lạc, a beautiful country situated in Southeast Asia, with her longstanding traditional culture, has formed and developed in all areas, from literature, art, religion, to costume and cuisine. In addition, graced by Mother Nature, Âu Lạc has favorable conditions to create many well-loved local specialties.

Indeed, at a public lecture in the United States in March 1991, Supreme Master Ching Hai especially praised the rich natural resources of Âu Lạc.

Âu Lạc is among the most enriched nations in this world: there are mines of gold, silver, uranium, lead, zinc, and tin. Âu Lạc has everything. There are morals, piety, harmony, and four thousands years of civilization. It is one of the most ancient countries in the world. Our land has always had abundant foods and fruits.

I remember when I was a student there, there was a great variety of fruits when I went to Bình Dương and Long Thành. And rice! Aulacese indigenous rice, called Tám Thơm, is the most famous in Southeast Asia and in the world. There are also other products, dried or fresh, that are most popular in the world.

We are deeply grateful to Supreme Master Ching Hai for her treasured words and boundless grace for the nation and people of peace-loving Âu Lạc.

Since time immemorial, the Aulacese sedge mat has been closely connected to people’s lives as an intimate friend from the cradle. The sedge mat exists in every Aulacese family, from the countryside to the city, from thatched huts of rural folks to palaces of the noble class. Today, all three regions of Âu Lạc have famous sedge mat making villages, such as Nga Sơn village in the north, Bàn Thạch village in the central, and Định Yên village in the south. Although sedge mats are called by different names according to the local culture, the main raw material to make them is still the sedge. In today’s program, we’re pleased to introduce to you the sedge mat of Âu Lạc.

The basic raw material to make a mat is the sedge, which is also called the rush. It is a triangular stemmed grass that can reach 2 meters in height and grows naturally in marshland or alluvial- rich fields alongside rivers. We now invite you to visit Vũng Liêm in Vĩnh Long province, a district specializing in sedge cultivation since long ago, with a few hundred hectares in farming area at times.

Vũng Liêm is one of the main suppliers of sedges for the southwestern region, as it produces high quality sedges which are flexible and durable. After being harvested, sedges are often split on-site and then sun-dried. After enough sun exposure, the sedge shrinks in size and is greenish white. The sedge splitting machines we have just seen were made by Mr. Đỗ Văn Minh and are currently used widely in the country.

Are you officially the person who invented this machine?

I just re-invented it. In the past, it was made with the four immobile rotation axes. But now, I re-invented it to make these four axes be able to expand and retract to accommodate the sedges: expanding for bigger-sized sedges and retracting for smaller ones. So they look nicer than before.

In the southwestern region, dry sedges ready for making mats are often bought from merchants who transport sedges from sedge growing areas such as Vũng Liêm. The making of a beautiful mat from these dry sedges must go through the 3 stages: dyeing sedges, preparing the loom, and mat weaving.

Dry sedges bought or harvested from the fields will be split into strips, then sun-dried for about 3 days. The sun-dried strips shrink in size and have a nice greenish white hue. Now, we begin to dye the sedge strips. Often, the 3 main colors are red, yellow and green.

Usually we dye yellow first. When the water boils well, we put in the dye, then the bundles of sedges, and turn them every 5 minutes for even coloring. Remove them afterwards. You may add red dye to continue the process. Next, boil another pot to dye green. Sometimes to change color, we can dye purple in addition. After dyeing, dry the sedges outside.

Next, we tightly twist and install the “trân” onto the loom. “Trân” is a kind of tree bark. After being immersed in water and sun-dried, it’s torn into long strings and coiled up into big skeins. Trân strings are then attached to the loom. The loom consists of a weaving shaft and holder shafts.

The weaving shaft is made from 2 wood bars connected together by the weaver teeth made from dry bamboo. A hole is bored in each tooth, and the trân string is secured through these holes. The person making the weaving shaft is also an artist, because whether the sedge mat is completed beautifully or not depends mostly on this shaft. If this shaft is not skillfully made, the sedge strips won’t stay tightly together.

Now we begin to weave the mat. The worker secures the trân strings over the weaver shaft and around the two holder shafts, which are set far apart for mat weaving. It takes 2 people to weave a mat. The worker at the lower end is the sedge inserter. This person’s job is to hold a small stick, called “the inserter,” and when the worker at the upper end turns the weaving shaft, either up or down, the sedge inserter just wraps a sedge onto the inserter and inserts it in-between the trân strings. The worker at the upper end will weave the sedges in, one after another.

After weaving each sedge strip, the worker must knot it with the outermost trân string, so that the sedge won’t loosen. After finishing one mat, the worker uses a sickle to trim the unused sedges at both ends.

Skill and precision in every stage are the necessary factors in making a beautiful mat.

The following steps are needed to make a beautiful mat. First, the split sedges must be sun-dried thoroughly. Second, in dyeing sedges, the dyes must be in correct proportions in order for the mat colors to shine brightly. Dyed sedges must be sun-dried just right. If there’s too much sun, it will be brittle, and if too little sun, it’s prone to get moldy. Third, in inserting sedges, workers must skillfully integrate the colors to produce a beautiful mat. Fourth, workers must weave evenly and avoid breaking the sedges or leaving gaps, so that the mat looks nice and lasts long.

When dyeing, we must make sure that the water boils well for the color to be bright and beautiful.

Before weaving, we must make sure the sedges are dry enough. Otherwise, it’ll get moldy or lose color in a few days; then the mat will lose its brightness.

Although nowadays there are bamboo and plastic mats, consumers are still fond of sedge mats. Let’s find out the advantages of sedge mats through information shared by the professionals.

According to common folks’ experience, using the sedge mat gives people a comfortable feeling. One advantage of the sedge mat is that it’s good for our circulation.

First, when using the sedge mat, our perspiration is easily absorbed, so we don’t get bodily aches and our body feels better. Second, it’s light, easy to wash, and easy to dry. Sedge mats are biodegradable, so they don’t pollute the environment.

Sedge mats disintegrate easily and leave nothing dangerous to our environment. After it disintegrates, it only adds more nutrition to the soil. It adds nitrogen, phosphorous, and calcium, all good for the environment.

The sedge mat has a special characteristic; it keeps you cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Therefore, consumers like it because they won’t have to change to another mat when the season changes.

The sedge mat is very familiar to the Aulacese. Since birth, a baby is supported by the sedge mat in his sleep. Poets also use the image of the sedge mat to depict the tender happiness of a young couple:

“Two mats laid side by side under the moonlight, On one, I read books, as you weave fabrics on the other.” There are many more love tales connected with the sedge mat that have been portrayed in the arts, such as the silent sorrow of a mat seller in the legendary southern Aulacese nostalgic song entitled “Heart of a Mat Seller” by Mr. Viễn Châu. We invite you to listen to the vocals of Mr. Út Trà Ôn, who performed brilliantly in more than 200 Aulacese modern folk operas and sang in about 1,000 nostalgic songs. Much admired by audiences, he was praised as the “Number One Singer.”

The Cà Mau mat is brightly dyed; I’ve endured much rain and shine. This particular mat I will not sell. It’s my pillow nightly as I haven’t found you.

The boat carrying Cà Mau mats has docked at the Ngã Bảy canal. Why hasn’t the young woman of yore come to greet me? Your garden gate has been locked since long ago. As I carry the patterned mats from my boat to Rẫy village, my muddy shirt is dotted with beads of perspiration. Your house is quiet, front and back. Cold wind chills the winter evening. From somewhere comes the sound of the moon lute, as if to stir a deep sorrow in my heart.

You ordered a pair of two-meter-long mats to decorate your bedroom, perhaps. Today, you already forgot about me and wedded your husband. These mats I wove myself, selecting every single sedge and jute fiber. Now I’m here but you’ve left for another town. Standing at the garden of old, I feel such sadness. To whom shall I offer these sedge mats?

Last year when my boat docked at the Ngã Bảy River, you smilingly took me to your house. You led me to your own room to measure your sindora-wood bed and ordered a pair of mats. You asked me the price; I gave a low figure to make your acquaintance. Five days later, when I was about to row away, you stood on the pier and carefully reminded the requirements. Then you turned and walk away; your rose-blossom blouse disappeared behind the bamboo grove. You did not know that I covered my face with the hat to hide my tears, as I didn’t want people to laugh and call me a love-struck man.

In the past, Cà Mau sedge mats have followed the mat sellers to all the southern cities. Gradually, mat weaving spread far, and nowadays, many mat weaving villages have sprung up in the southwestern region, among them, the most famous is the mat weaving village Định Yên in Đồng Tháp province. Định Yên village has existed since 1920, with approximately 20,000 residents, of which 80% are mat weavers.

Just in Định Yên village alone, 1. 4 million sedge mats are produced every year. Định Yên village has many mat weaving facilities, small and large, both hand-made and machine-made mat making. Định Yên village is like an exclusive world of sedge mats: sedge mats appear everywhere from inside to outside houses; people are seen drying sedges and dyeing mats everywhere. The colorful bundles of sedges are left to dry in the sun in the front yard of every house, with the sedges’ scent permeating the air all around.

We now invite you to visit a weaving facility in Định Yên village to find out more about the machine-weaving technique. The professionals also commented on the differences between hand and machine weaving processes.

Before, when mats were hand-woven, we used the loom. Later we started to use machines. The first step is to process the raw materials. We must choose good sedges and dry them. After drying, we shake them flat, then dip them into the dyeing liquid. After dyeing, we sun-dry them again, then bring them in to the weaving machine.

The second step is machine-weaving. Machine-weaving requires a worker to feed sedges into the machine. That worker must select the correct colored sedge, according to the pattern or design decided for a certain mat. Once a colored sedge strip is fed into the machine, the machine will weave it into the mat. While the machine is operating, it automatically moves left and right to position the sedges. When the mat is about 2 meters, we stop the machine, then begin weaving another mat. After a mat is woven, we will have it trimmed neatly, cleaned, and sun-dried. After drying, we will sew the hem, then flatten it the mat.

We buy the machines to increase productivity and output. Two hand-weaving workers only produce about 10 mats a day, while a machine-weaving worker can produce about 40 mats.

Today our village does both hand and machine weaving. There are mainly two kinds of sedge mats: plain and patterned. The plain mat contains no dyes and has a natural sedge hue of light green. The patterned mat is diverse in color and designs. In the past, to make a patterned mat, workers had to weave the colored sedges and white sedges alternately to produce the desired pattern. But today’s market demands that workers provide higher quantities, and therefore the pattern printing process emerged. Let’s visit a facility in Nga Sơn village, northern Âu Lạc to find out about the techniques of mat printing.

Actually, this is like a form of virtual painting. Painting on a mat requires a pre-designed model. As in any family-kept profession, everyone has his or her own special method in the techniques of printing and steaming. Whether the color comes out nice or not depends on an individual’s skill. After printing, we put the mat into a steam furnace to make the color bright and shiny; then the mat will look beautiful and the color doesn’t come out when we wash the mat and when we lie on it. Both the printing and steaming stages must be correctly timed. Even just a little too soon or too late is not good. From printing to steaming, the timing must be precise. So it also depends on experience. Not any printing will necessarily come out looking good.

Aside from Nga Sơn mat village, there is Hới village which is also an ancient mat village in Âu Lạc. Hới village has the Gon mats, which are beautiful, durable, and well-loved. Âu Lạc’s literary history still chronicles a tale about a Gon mat seller, named Nguyễn Thị Lộ, in the 15th century. Legend has it that His Excellency Nguyễn Trãi, a high-ranking official and a gifted poet, one day during his stroll at West Lake met a lovely mat seller. Light-hearted in nature, His Excellency Nguyễn Trãi recited a few verses to her in jest:

“Where are you from, lovely seller of Gon mats? Do you have more of them or not? How many springs have you seen, young lady? Are you married with children, and how many?”

The mat seller responded by reciting verses without any hesitation: “I’m from West Lake, selling Gon mats. Why do you ask if I have more or not? I’m almost sixteen moons in age. I have no husband; how can I have any children?” The fluent, poetic response of the charming mat seller made the high-ranking mandarin Nguyễn Trãi not only feel for her beauty but also admire her talent, and so he wed Miss Nguyễn Thị Lộ. These timeless verses were set to music which we enjoyed in the opening song of this program.

Sedge mats have since long become an indispensible convenience in the Aulacese life. In the last few decades, Âu Lạc’s sedge mats have been exported and greatly enjoyed by many countries.

After finishing a mat, we trim both ends and sun-dry it. After drying, we clean it again and then sew the borders. After making the borders, we put it through the machine to straighten the sedges, so that the mat doesn’t get warped. After that we polish it and remove the tiny hairs. Then we put the sedge mat into a paper or plastic bag, and pack the mats into bundles of 10 mats each. By that time, the sedge mats are ready for export, that is when you export them yourself.

As for exports that go through big companies in Sài Gòn city, then we only roll the mats in bundles of 10 and transport to those companies, and they will pack, label, and export from there. The sedge mats here have been exported to South Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), as well as Cambodia.

The sedge mats here mainly go to markets in China. And now, we’re expanding to Japan, Korea, Russia, and Thailand as well.

Whether it is hand or machine weaving, the mat making business has helped many families maintain a stable income.

This mat making industry has created a lot of employment opportunities. Just in Định Yên and Định An villages alone, there are about 15 to 16 thousands families that participate in mat making. It doesn’t bring high profits, but never losses either.

This handicraft helps the farmers to have work during post-harvest time, and it also creates jobs for the youngsters. For example, in this region, the students go to school in the morning, and they can help their families in their free time. From 10 years old up, one can participate in this mat making business.

Life with this job is very stable. The income is also good. If you work hard, you can always earn money, more or less. This job is very easy to make a living.

My family has been in this business for over 20 years. Our income is enough to cover the expenditures of our children’s studies at universities. I have three children who are now studying at universities in Hà Nội.

The Âu Lạc’s sedge mat is very versatile, affordable, and quite comfortable for our bodies. Sedge mats easily disintegrate when you can’t use them anymore. Nowadays, with technological advances, the sedge mat has become more sophisticated, meeting the needs for convenience and aesthetics as well as the world’s increasingly higher environmental awareness.

Thank you for watching our program today on the sedge mat, a specialty product of Âu Lạc (Vietnam). Please tune in to Supreme Master Television for more on Aulacese specialties in future broadcasts. Coming up next is Vegetarianism: The Noble Way of Living, after Noteworthy News. Farewell for now.