St. Josephs Cathedral. Hanoi

A little corner of Paris in Hanoi

'Let's meet outside the 'big church' near the lake' I said. What a surprise I got when I arrived.

On previous visits to Hanoi I had somehow managed to miss St. Joseph's cathedral. I must have been too busy dragging around the 'big' tourist spots or losing my way in the maze of streets of the old quarter. But, this time, determined to find the 'big church'  I arranged to meet a friend there to do some sketching together. I was early so I was able to soak in the unexpected atmosphere of this quiet corner of the capital city for a little while.

As soon as I entered the secluded square which is dominated by the modest facade of the church, I was transported back twenty years to a misty evening spent in Montmartre in Paris. The church bells marked the quarter hour. There is something about the scale of the buildings, the layout of the streets and the crooked trees that is reminiscent of that romantic quarter of Paris that was the haunt of so many artists. There are the same muted colours of green, grey and browns and I began to imagine that this collection of streets and bars in Hanoi could easily be the centre of a modern day art movement for the talented young artists of modern Vietnam if they wished.

The church itself is rather underwhelming in scale. It is styled on the massive Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, as is Notre Dame Cathedral in Saigon. It was built in the 1880s on the site of the demolished Bao Thien Pagoda, an ancient and sacred meeting place which, coincidentally, had been constructed about the same period as the Paris cathedral.

In front of St. Joseph's is a charming railed garden that is home to a small statue of the virgin Mary 'Queen of Peace'. But I suspect that this corner of Hanoi has not always been a haven of tranquility.

There must have been protests and riots when it was declared that the old Pagoda was to be demolished to make way for the 'new religion' of the invading French. Hearts will have been broken as 700 years of tradition and community was so wilfully destroyed.  Later, in 1954 when the Viet Minh took control of Hanoi, the church and all its property was confiscated. It was  over 40 years before the church was, once again, permitted to reopen for services. Then, in 2008 there were more protests, this time by Catholic priests who demanded the state return land that had previously been occupied by the church. Maybe it is the fear of more conflict that caused the church and the little Madonna to both be surrounded by protective railings.

Today, this square is peaceful. The street that leads to the church( Nha Tho) has a collection of international restaurants, local cafes and shops housed in two slightly faded rows of pretty shop houses and many have been there for many years. My friend says that nothing much changes in this neighbourhood where he founded his business nearly 20 years ago. 

The bells chime the hour with that flat two-tone of every church in France, big or small. It all adds to that haunting feeling that I could easily be walking those cobbled streets of Montmartre once more.

Charming Vietnamese Lion dogs

A visit to Phat Thic Pagoda, Bac Ninh

There is a current debate concerning the guardian lions of Vietnam that stand in pairs at the entrances of religious and government buildings.

A pair of guardian lions comprise of one male (yin) and one female (yang). The male has his foot on an embroidered cloth ball that represents power and the whole world. The female has one paw on a reclining lion cub, as if stroking its stomach; this represents nurture and care. They are there to repel invaders and to protect the people within.

In Vietnam there is movement to eject all the fierce-looking, Chinese lions (often called foo dogs by westerners) and replace them with the more traditional, happier-looking Vietnamese variety. 

Experts have been referring to the oldest surviving guardian lions in Vietnam to uphold their claims for change and it seems that the two lions flanking the steps to the Phat Thic pagoda in Bac Ninh Province  in the shade of old hoa dai blossom trees, I expect many visitors just pass by without noticing them.  But these lions are amongst the rarest in South East Asia and may be Vietnam’s oldest examples of the original style of guardian lion

I was taken to see Phat Thic one misty autumn afternoon about two years ago. I was visiting the home of a recently deceased artist and was invited, by his lovely widow, to get on the back of her scooter and visit her local pagoda. I could not possibly have imagined the treat in store as we bumped along country lanes and through a small town to the imposing entrance of a large religious, mountain site.

Ahead of me was a steep climb of steps to a low, wide building altar building. This structure is only 30 years old but it replaced a temple founded in 1057 by the Ly dynasty that was, unfortunately, bombed to ashes by colonising forces in the 1950s.

I was led by hand into the richly decorated interior furnished with large painted statues of all the usual suspects. Somehow they seemed more real, more awe inspiring than others I have spent some time with. This was a special place – there was no doubt.

Deeper into the temple I found something wonderous; a large marble Buddah that has been carefully stitched and pinned back together with iron staples and pins, after being shattered in that bygone disaster. At nearly 2 metres high, this Buddha was once the nation’s most important and is now considered to be a great treasure of Buddhism in Vietnam. It certainly has an unforgettable presence.

The two ancient lions, mentioned in the debate, sit in line with kneeling pairs of four other sacred animals on a terrace. There is a pair of elephants, two horses a couple rhinoceros and two buffalos. These dark, sandstone creatures are beautifully carved and, especially, the fine details of teeth, claws and imperial motifs of the two charming lions are amazingly well preserved. 

I would definitely support the movement to replace the forbidding Chinese- styled lions with the more affable Vietnamese breed. I think they reflect this country’s unique culture and character better.

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Flying colours - the temple flags of Vietnam

Flying Colours

Traditional flags in Vietnam

Flags have been used to communicate meanings, directions and identities for over 6,000 years. The earliest known is a bronze relic from Iran dated around 4,000bc.

I never thought much about the meanings of flags until I moved to Vietnam where flags are far more common than in my native England.  Neighbourhoods are transformed on festival and national holiday days by the brilliant  red and yellow national flags and are sometimes festooned with striped bunting which is strung from post to post in the vicinity of temples.

The National Flag with its red ground and yellow star takes its styling from the Soviet ‘hammer and sickle’ flag which also includes a yellow star. In Vietnam, the star represents the five sections of society; the farmers, intellectuals, factory workers, businessmen and the military. Yellow is the colour of the Vietnamese people and red is universally used to signify revolution, strength and courage.  In the alleys and narrow streets of Hanoi, a few scarlet and yellow flags projecting from balconies and upper story windows instantly injects a feeling of national pride and celebration.

The large temple flags with the jagged or toothed edges make a bold statement don’t they. These are Buddhist in origin but have been adopted more widely within the special blend of religion and ancestor worship practiced in Vietnam. The flags outside a large temple will each have a different colour for the central square. Blue is the colour of compassion, yellow is balance, red is for the blessings of Buddha’s teaching, orange is for wisdom and white represents purity and liberation. 

The size of the flag will denote the importance of the site, ancient temples display much larger flags than more modern or lesser temples and meeting houses. Sometimes you will see a small flag outside someone’s home – this usually indicates that there is a monk resident within. So, don’t display Buddhist flags at your house unless you want the neighbours to bring offerings to your door!

Triangular flags mark the route to the home of the deceased during the funeral week. Black and white is often used for these flags in Hanoi. In Hoi An and Da Nang I saw maroon and dark blue and ochre to mark these sad occasions.

Small striped and squared flags will lead the way to the temple door. The closer to the temple, the larger the flags become. Once inside the temple enclosure, the positioning of flags around main courtyard convey meanings about festivals or other temple events. Usually, a yellow flag representing the sun occupies a central position, Blue and green flags representing nature and sky will be in the eastern corners. A white flag for the moon and metal will be in the west and black or indigo in the north represent water.

For parades, the flags take on even more meanings. The red flag representing the Phoenix should take the lead. Behind that the dark turtle is flanked by the Blue dragon to the left and the white tiger to the right. These complex messages are easily read by locals, but I just marvel at the spectacle and now I know never to pass a massive temple flag without stopping to explore the ancient temple within.

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Absentia

My goodness it has been weeks since I last posted so I had better give you a whistle stop tour through the past four or five weeks.

On Saturday 10th May, to mark the end of my 7 months in Hoi An, I had an exhibition of my work at Ami Galerie in the beautiful old quarter of the town. The gallery is at 46 Nguyen Thai Hoc, in a listed building that will have, originally, been a merchant's home or a 'shop house'. It is a beautiful structure constructed of wooden pillars and beams. It floods to a depth of about a metre every year during the wet season so there are hatches in the ground floor ceiling to make it quick and easy to lift everything up to the first floor for dry storage.

I had lots of helpers on the morning of the exhibition to get everything framed, labelled and hung. Here are Pandy and Susan doing the framing. 

Here is Tuan (too-an), the artist from the space next door who is helping My (mee) with the technical complexities of our French-styled framing system.   On the right you can see My talking to Mikayla and Asia who are labelling all the pictures.

It was a veritable hive of activity and everyone joined in so enthusiastically. Unfortunately, Pandy had to fly back to England that afternoon so she missed the opening party that evening. 

The launch party was great! About 60 people came along and I sold 7 pieces of work. Considering how small Hoi An is and how few tourists there in town (because of the Chinese drilling rig dramas), I think it's not bad. The press and a TV crew turned up and I appeared on Saigon TV the next evening! 

Hoa serves her delicious drinks and cakes

Two children play in the doorway after their art class

Over the next two weeks, very few people came through the doors of the exhibition and no further work was sold but I got to know the local children and enjoyed the quiet streets of Hoi An.




This is the view from Ami Galerie through to the old courtyard that is used by Tuan to display some of his paintings. On Saturdays, he give free art classes to local children, in the space upstairs. 

Next ................

I cleared out the lovely little house we had been living in, stored my boxes and cases and flew down to Saigon to make some progress with my next book with my lovely Graphic Designer, Ani Petrova. Whenever I see her she always gives me more work to do that I ever I've her!  How does that work?!!  I left with a list of jobs to do while she is in France this summer. Ha ha!  The drawings are almost complete so now i must write the stories that will make the next book come alive.

Whilst there, I received a phone call from Heritage magazine (the inflight glossy for Vietnam Airlines) asking me to write an article about Hoi An and send some examples of the paintings I did there. Fantastic! I only have 4 days to do the writing but I sent it off on time and hoped it would be ok.  Two weeks later, I heard that they loved the story (printed in English and Vietnamese) and had chosen a detail from one of my paintings for the front cover!!! 


This is the second time they have featured my work and it brings such a lot of enquiries for me. Thank you Heritage!

Back in Hoi An, I dismantled the exhibition, was paid for the work I sold and prepared to move to Sapa for four months to be the artist in residence for Sapa Rooms boutique hotel in the land of clouds and mountains.

A few months ago I met a fascinating novelist from Scotland - one A.D.Scott. After only three meetings, Deborah (her real name), introduced the idea that it may be interesting for me to go to Sapa for an extended stay and told me about her friend Pete who owns a hotel up there.  

Pete, an Australian who studied Japanese, Buddhism and Anthropology at a Japanese university, opened his first business, a small hotel in Sapa, after discovering a derelict building with a wonderful view near Sapa market.  He invited a Vietnamese artist to be his business partner and together they make amazing art, delicious food, connections with Sapa communities, and differences in the lives of children in the mountains. 

It is an inspiring business model that is truly based on that Utopian ideal that 'if you do the things you are passionate about, a successful business will emerge'. So, I went up to Hanoi to meet Pete and to listen to his stories. 



I discovered that he has always wanted to write a cookbook based on the recipes used in his businesses, that no-one has published a good pocket guide of Sapa, that they need some sort of sustainable income to pay for every day running costs at the school the sponsors.

So, in a moment of pure clarity, and with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc in hand, I volunteered to make some of those wishes come true. Pete puts a roof over my head ( and a goose down duvet) and good food to eat (prepared by his chefs) and all I have to do is draw, paint, talk, write and wander around discovering things........... sorry, what I really meant to say is, produce the drawings to illustrate his cook book and design and illustrate the pocket guide.  

These two items will be sold to fund his education projects. I am also going to work with the ethnic minority children to produce some artwork (hopefully) that will be turned into good things for the tourists to buy. Then, I am going to design some upmarket products for the women to make that can also be sold to fund young futures. 

We are calling these projects 'Art for Communities' and 'Are for Education'. I am so honoured to be involved in this work and proud to be associated with this exhilarating business that touches so many lives in different ways



Also................ my dear friend Jennie came all the way from Leeds (with her mate Mandy) to find out what the heck is keeping me away from home all these months ( 20 now!!! ........ that's  about 632 days ..... oh my word).   

We had a blast in Saigon then they went to Siem Reap while I went up to Hoi An where we met once more. Then I flew up to Hanoi where I met then two days later. We 'did' the town and saw some amazing countryside. Mandy flew home and then I brought Jennie up to Sapa for her final week accompanied by Mr. Sapa Rooms himself, Pete Wilkes. 

With Jennie by my side and with the aid of a Red Dao (red zow) guide we discovered the beautiful valleys, stepped with rice paddies and topped with rain forest, that runs south west from Fansipan mountain (Vietnam and Indochina's highest peak at 3,143 mfrs). Cloud swirls around these peaks and changes the weather from moment to moment. Sometimes you can see the glory of the whole valley and sometimes you can hardly see across the street! Often it rains and sometimes you are praying for a cooling breeze. At the moment the temperature is about 70-80 degrees every day even when it rains.

Jennie also brought a wealth of experience and practical ideas to help with Pete's educational ambitions for the local people. Her college is interested in forming partnerships in SE Asia and maybe she has met some of the kinds of people who can help to make that happen. The potential is overwhelming! 

So, forgive my absence - I have been distracted by some exciting projects!