Born in 1944 in Mỹ Bang commune of Tuyen Quang province’s Yen Son district, folk artisan Lê Hải Thanh made worshipping paintings when he was a child and currently he is one of few people in Dao community who could made worshipping paintings.
Therefore, over the years, Dao people in many provinces of Yen Bai, Ha Giang, Phu Tho, etc came and asked him to draw worshipping paintings.
When he was 12 years old, artisan Lê Hải Thanh learned Nom Dao language and drew worshipping paintings. In 2019, he was awarded the title “Folk Artisan”.
According to artisan Lê Hải Thanh, he overcame many hardships to stick with the craft of worshipping paintings.
According to Dao people's conception, if a painter violates any ethical standards his life, created works would not bring good values.
According to the custom, the worshipping paintings are usually drawn in autumn and spring seasons. Dao people choose a good day before painting and ask for their ancestors and deities’ permission.
The painting room is a separate place arranged with brushes, color boxes, painting papers, and cloths. Only shamans draw worshipping paintings, others must get permission. Especially, anyone wants to see paintings, they have to keep their mind and body pure.
To draw worshipping paintings, Dao people mix five colors (blue, red, purple, yellow, white) into 12 colors of different shades. Each color has its own meaning. In particular, red color is a main color and symbolizes strength and beauty; yellow represents majesty, power; purple to show powerful mystical; blue represents harmony, growth in the spiritual world, etc.
According to folk artisan Lê Hải Thanh, worshipping painting of Dao Quan Trang people includes two types of face and portrait paintings. The face painting draws appearance of deities in 30*40 cm paper size. This type is only used to perform “cap sac” ritual. The shamans put them on their faces and forehead in order for gods to witness.
The portrait painting consists of 11 paintings in order to practice rituals of Dao people, such as “Cap sac” (maturity) ceremonies, funeral, and burial rituals. They have strange, narrow, long layouts, filled with various picture of deities. These deities appear in the painting based on their power levels. Those with more power are placed in the centre of the paintings while those with less power appear simple and small.
Mr. Lê Thanh Hải is really a folk artisan of worshipping paintings and culture of Dao people, folk culture researcher of the folklore association in Tuyen Quang province Tống Đại Hồng said.
Artisan Lê Thanh Hải carefully teaches his techniques and experiences of worship paintings to next generations in order to preserve the worshipping culture of Dao people. He always considers worshipping paintings as a treasure of Dao people and that anyone has to preserve and transmit it to the next generations.
PH (dantocmiennui)
