Artisan Ngoc Minh and his co-workers are busy completing his unique artwork – a map of Vietnam made from 1,000 dragons.

Ngoc Minh from Duy Xuyen district, the central province of Quang Nam, began making this artwork three years ago to celebrate the 1,000^th anniversary of Thang Long – Hanoi in 2010.

“The idea of Vietnam in the shape of a flying dragon came from the dream of King Ly Thai To 1000 years ago. I wanted to make this painting,” Minh said.

To prepare for this unique work, the artist traveled around the country taking photos of dragon statues or patterns. Each of his 1,000 dragons are different from each other. It also took Minh a long time to choose suitable wood to carve the dragons. Finally, he decided to use mut timber, a wild tree in the forest.

This artwork is Minh’s vision but it is made by 30 workers, including 15 jewelers, five carpenters, five carvers and five painters. Each dragon is a small work of art. To make just one dragon, artists had to work for 4-5 days.

The dragon map is 6m high, 3m wide, with two sides. One face is the map of Vietnam with the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos, which is made from 500 dragons. The other side is a flying dragon-shaped Vietnam, also combined of 500 dragons.

Of 1,000 dragons, there is a golden one, which put at the site of Hanoi on the map.

Artists have completed 1,000 dragons and they are arranging them into a Vietnam map. Minh said that this map will be complete on November 2 and will be displayed at the Quang Nam Culture Week in Hanoi.

VietNamNet/Dan Tri