A worker makes Lanh My A (My A silk) in An Giang Province’s Tan Chau District

A unique type of silk is in danger of vanishing forever as only one family in Vietnam still holds on in producing it.

But today, the village in An Giang Province’s Tan Chau District has just one workshop still producing My A silk.

Owned by 81-year-old Tam Lang, the workshop, which once produced the silk only for the rich, now has just two weaving machines. The shop turns out 15 meters of silk a day and supplies 4,000 meters a year to a single French buyer.

According to employees at the workshop, My A silk must be made from only the best silk threads to be glossy. The fabric must be dipped into a dyeing solution about 100 times to absorb the color well. The strong black dye consists of flesh from the mac nua (Diospyros mollis) fruit, a kind of wood tree, and water.

It takes about 40 days to dye enough silk to produce 15 meters of My A fabric, and dyeing is the most important step of the production.

The workshop is operated by Bay Hong, one of Lang’s children, who has managed the facility since her father stopped working because of old age.

The Tan Chau Silk Village, according to Hong, now has just four households involved in weaving fabric and only her family still weaves My A silk.

As the silk is difficult to weave and sell, the other households have turned to weaving nylon threads. Lang’s family has only maintained My A silk production because of continuous orders from one Frenchwoman known as Rose.

Rose visited the workshop ten years ago and has since continued ordering the unique silk. Lang says his family was very grateful to be able to keep the craft alive.

Hong’s younger brother, Huu Tri, devoted himself to the family’s traditional occupation in 2003. He was the first person in the village to weave My A silk with seven other colors aside from the traditional black.

Tri was very eager to learn new ways of coloring the silk. He searched forests to seek out materials and traveled to Cambodia to look for more tree bark to make dyes. He carried out his experiments so passionately that he sometimes forgot to eat and sleep.

When he finally succeeded in producing his new silk colors, he immediately brought them to the market. However, his products were not accepted as eagerly as he had expected.

Undeterred, Tri began working with a well-known fashion designer to introduce My A silk to Vietnam’s fashion scene. The fabric gained short-lived popularity but in time, it eventually fell back into obscurity.

Following that letdown, Tri made the decision to quit producing his silk.

“I don’t want to make My A nor mention the story about it any more,” Tri said. “Perhaps, my attachment with silk has gone.”

“A heap of silk and materials for his experiments remains upstairs,” Hong said, adding that perhaps no one believed Tri’s products were genuine Lanh My A silk since they weren’t colored the traditional black.

Lang, who still looks robust at age 81, said, “When Tri managed to make My A silk with different colors, I thought the village would survive.”

From 1975 to 1985, nearly 300 weaving machines in the village continuously operated day and night to meet local consumers’ demand, and mac nua fruit sold so well that Lang struggled to supply them to the workshops, he said.

At that time, locals were very productive but now, villagers must buy raw silk in other localities and there are few mac nua fruit as less people grow the trees nowadays.

Asked how he feels that his family is the last to weave My A silk, Lang simply sighed and said, “We will still weave as long as it is possible.”

Reported by Diem Thu