Aug
27
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The 200-year-old self-turning table
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When people lay their hands on the table, within three minutes, the table begin cracking and turning in a counter-clockwise direction.
Mr. Dinh Tham, 93, is the only artisan in Van Ha carpentry village in the central province of Quang Nam, who can make turning tables.
In an ancient house, the artisan was hard of hearing but he talked mischievously. Asking him about the restoration of an ancient wood table which can turn itself, Mr. Tham said that the restoration finished two years ago.
“At that time, some officials carried two old timber tables to my home. These round tables were damaged but patterns on the tables were very sophisticated. I immediately realized that they were products of our village so I agreed to fix them, so that they could turn themselves whenever someone lays their hands on the tables,” Mr. Tham said.
The senior artisan said that carpenters in his village could make self-turning tables in the past. However, these carpenters have died and self-turning turning tables have gradually disappeared. There is only one table of that kind in the village. This 200-year-old table belongs to Mr. Tran Ngoc Tuan, a disciple of artisan Dinh tham.
Tuan told correspondents that the table is his family’s heirloom. He placed the table next to the family altar. He did not allow any stranger to see the table. Tuan broke his rule and permitted correspondents to see and touch the table, under the guarantee of Mr. Dinh Tham.
The old table is around 80cm tall. Its leg is in the shape of a flower vase. The table is in circle, around 70cm in diameter and 2cm thick.
Tuan said the table face is made from jackfruit wood while its leg and other parts are produced from chuon timber. This table is special because it can turn when people place their hands on it.
Before making a test with the table, Tuan asked participants to take off their shoes or sandals and stand close to the table. He said if participants place their palm on the table, it will turn in clockwise direction and if they lay their palms upward, the table will turn in counter-clockwise direction.
The test began. The room was completely quiet. People put their palms on the table and waited for one minute… two minutes and three minutes… The table began cracking and it began to move with increasing speed. When people took their hands off, the table still turned around for a while.
Again, participants laid their palms upward on the table. In less than three minutes, the table began cracking and turned in counter-clockwise direction.
Correspondents were very astonished. They surrounded the table, trying to find out its secret. However, they did not discover any special things related to the table, by their eyes. The table is made of wood. Its structure is very simple and there are no metal parts.
Tuan told one participant to make a test. This time the table still turned in clockwise and counter-clockwise directions when the man laid his palm downward or upward. But the speed of turning was slower.
Tuan said that he is the eldest son in the family so he is assigned to hold this table. The table is only used during ancestor worshipping days. Many people tried to buy the table but Tuan did not sell it, at any cost.
According to senior artisan Dinh Tham, Van Ha and Kim Bong (in Hoi An city) are the two oldest craft villages in Quang Nam province. Van Ha village is believed to be formed in the 14th century, under the reign of King Le Thanh Tong. The village ancestor was a man from Thanh Hoa or Nghe Tinh provinces, in central Vietnam.
Artisan Dinh Tham said that he began learning carpentry from his father when he was 17. He added that only Van Ha’s carpenters in the past could make self-turning tables like the one owned by Mr. Tuan.
The artisan confirmed that he made four or five self-turning tables. “Previously, only rich people could afford to buy turning tables of Van Ha village because these tables were priced equivalent to buffaloes or several hundred bushels of rice,” he said.
Mr. Tham said that at the beginning, Van Ha’s carpenters only thought of making round tables for worshipping. These tables had size and made by the same techniques. All of them were created from Jackfruit timber.
Tham did not know who created the first turning table, but for a hundred years, Van Ha carpenters always used ancient jackfruit timber, which have a yellow core, to make self-turning tables.
Self-turning tables have three legs and 12 piers in the form of flower vases. Only Van Ha’s carpenters knew the secrets to make the piers. The table face can be made from one or two pieces of wood. But they must be extremely flat.
Tham said in 2010, after the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism asked him to mend two self-turning tables to introduce at the festival of unique handicraft products of Quang Nam, many people ordered him to make similar tables but he refused. Tham explained that it was very difficult to find ancient jackfruit timber and he was unhealthy to be able to saw and build tables alone.
“Van Ha village is falling into oblivion. The number of carpenters who hold secrets of carpentry is handful. There are over ten families doing carpentry in our village but they heavily depend on machines. They only make products that do not need high skills,” Tham said.
In early 2012, the local authorities invited Mr. Tham to open a traditional carpentry class for young people. The class had 10 trainees but only four of them were eager for learning secrets of carpentry.
This sad fact makes artisan Dinh Tham to be sad whenever he talked about Van Ha’s carpentry because the village’s secrets would disappear with him.
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