SILK FACTORY DALAT
Approximate distances from the city center Nam Ban town, around 30 kilometers from Da Lat, is noted not only for its natural beauty but also for its famed artisan communities. The ancient silk weaving business transported from the North and put into operation by the Cuong Hoan Silk factory Dalat is prominent among them. This location has become a popular tourist site for numerous people, the majority of which are international tourists.
Every year, the factory attracts about 30,000 visitors, mainly international visitors to learn and research the Vietnamese silk weaving industry with a long tradition that is being preserved and developed in the plateau.
- Silkworm production process:
1. Step 1: Grow silkworms:
This is a stage that requires high technology and the right foods to avoid hindering the silkworm's formation. The main food of silkworms is mulberry leaves, however, mulberry leaves must be taken from safe, fertile, and fertile places, without pollution conditions. Depending on the size of the silkworm choose food. With the first stage, silkworms go through 3 molting processes along with 3 eating periods to grow, in this phase increase their food consumption from 75-80%, they eat about 10 meals a day and must provide a sufficient amount of food to be able to afford during cocoon formation.
2. Step 2: Making cocoons and extracting silk:
When the silkworms are ripe, they have to catch the silkworms and lie down to release the silk to create the cocoon, release the silk to create the cocoon from the outside in. For two days and nights, the silkworm diligently weaves silk lines around itself and lies still in the house for about 6 days. . Silk is a liquid, transparent protein fiber secreted from the saliva of the main silkworm, when exposed to the air it forms a pair of silk threads, after releasing all the silk they lie still in the cocoon and turn into pupae. This is the right time to remove the cocoons and go to the nursery.
3. Step 3: Silk incubation:
After a week to keep the silkworms on the tray, we start to incubate silk and within five days have to incubate all the closed cocoons, if slow, they will turn into moths, which will affect the silkworm incubation process as well as the quality of the silk. The cocoons are brought in and put in hot water to pull out the silk. Those threads will be linked together, depending on the number of yarns and the number of twists, and handmade or modern weaving techniques to produce fabrics of different colors, thickness-thinness, or elasticity together.
4. Step 4: Weaving:
Workers begin the process of weaving silk from the generated silk strands and depending on the substance of each fiber, they make final items with varying durability. In this step, whether manual or modern, producing textiles that fulfill market demands involves diligence and hard labor.
5. Step 5: Dye:
Of course, if the preceding procedures have been done, the last step cannot be ignored since the aesthetics, whether they catch the customer's eye or not, are dependent on the dyeing stage. The original ivory-white hue of silk fibers is now covered with a newer, richer variety thanks to modern equipment, and many people appreciate them because of their gorgeous colors.
- The History of Silk Factory Dalat:
Mr. Pham Van Cuong, owner of Cuong Hoan silk factory (Cuong Hoan Silk) in Trung Vuong quarter, Nam Ban town - Lam Ha district, shared with us the difficult days when choosing silkworm farming. Born and raised in Dong Anh district - Hanoi until 1980, Mr. Cuong followed his parents to the new land of Nam Ban, Lam Ha to establish a business.
After finishing high school and 4 years of training in the military environment, in 1989 he started to get acquainted with the profession of buying silkworm cocoons. That day, young man Pham Van Cuong with his bicycle as his most valuable asset went around Lam Ha, Duc Trong bought silkworm cocoons to sell to silkworm factories in Bao Loc. Even if the profit is not high, for Mr. Cuong, this is also a job that brings joy and is also a premise for him to extend his dream in the future.
Then, when there were foreign tourists coming to the locality, especially to visit Elephant Waterfall - a famous scenic spot that is increasingly crowded, Mr. Cuong once again turned his thoughts into actions: "I have to restore the traditional silk weaving method. The system to combine with sightseeing and tourism will probably be better.” With the idea just shaped, Mr. Cuong once again returned to his homeland and the northern provinces to learn the stages of silk incubation - silk weaving. After days of wandering in the land of "Ha Dong silk shirt", Mr. Cuong has also "gathered" for himself some basic principles of silk weaving.
When he returned to the new land, Mr. Cuong developed a closed model: buying cocoons - incubating silk - weaving silk - dyeing - designing products - sewing embroidery - selling goods to tourists. After a period of operation, Cuong Hoan Silk Factory has stabilized production step by step to win the goodwill of tourists when visiting.
How to find Silk Factory Dalat?
It takes 20km from Lam Vien Square Dalat. If you start going from Dalat market. Then you should follow the 3/2 street of Da Lat city. Next, you will meet at a roundabout and go to Hoang Van Thu street in Dalat. You continue to run straight along the road along Cam Ly Waterfall to Van Thanh Flower Village.
When you get here, you just need to go a little further. You will meet a fork in the road and see a signpost in the direction of Ta Nung Pass in Da Lat. Visitors continue to run all the way to the end of the pass to reach Me Linh commune.
The starting point is from the city center. If you go to 3/2 street, you will see a roundabout and turn right to Hoang Van Thu street. Keep going straight until the Van Thanh Flower Village. You only need to run about 5 more km, you will reach Me Linh Plantation Dalat, provincial road 725 that you are looking for.
