Dong Ho village, formally called Mai village, belongs to the Song Ho commune, Thuan Thanh District, Bac Ninh province which is located along the southern bank of Duong River Dyke, 30 km to the East of Hanoi.

 Dong Ho village is famous for an old and special art form called Dong Ho. This art is attractive to the local and foreign people alike. Coming here visitors watch the artisan’s produce pictures using carved boards painted with various colors of ink.

Each family is a workshop. Because the picture is colorful and each color needs its own carved board, each family has many boards. Typically a single picture needs 5 or 6 boards. The artist draws the portion of the picture represented by one color on paper which is then glued to the board.  The board is then carved to leave only that portion of the picture.  The carving or sculpting is deep and strong.

The paper used to print the picture is poonash paper which is made by a traditional technology. The main material is from the wild poonash trees from the mountains nearby. Then it is polished by Diep, made from a small shell pounded, ground and cooked with rice white and splendid color.

The printing process follows a strict regimen: each carved wood stamp is painted with a color and pressed on the paper to form the picture. The colors are made from natural materials: black from the charcoal of dried bamboo branches and leaves, red from soil of the surrounding  hills and mountains, indigo from forest leaves, blue from verdigris, amber from turpentine, yellow from aniseed, orange from gardenia flowers, and glitter white from ground egg and sea shells. The colors and materials used in Dong Ho folk painting are very durable; they dim very little with time or sun light.

 Dong Ho pictures have many themes, some are used for worship, some tell old stories, some depict historical people and events, some show happy ambitions. Many of these pictures are highly valued and they are indispensable in Vietnamese houses during the Lunar New Year festival or “Tet Nguyen Dan” in Vietnamese. Visiting Dong Ho village during the 12th lunar month is especially interesting because you will be able to catch a glimpse of Dong Ho's past. On the 6th, 11th, 12th, 21st and 22nd days of the 12th lunar month, Dong Ho hosts a Tet market. Here, prominently displayed, you'll find the festive prints that made Dong Ho famous.

 Dong Ho paintings for Tet decoration often model animals that stand for each of the 12 years of the lunar zodiac. The fat, comfortable and happy mother pig among her offspring, the smiling buffalo, the imposing tiger or the alert mother hen are all expressions of the desire for a happy and comfortable life of the Vietnamese, past and present.

 As well as being decorative, these prints are designed to convey popular fables, social values or historical struggles. Some are both instructive and humorous. For example, "Mouse Wedding", depicts a fat cat demanding bribes of fish from a mouse bridal party.  “Catching coconuts” and “Teacher” depict old educational practices and “Jealousy scene” satirizes the polygamy system of old. Above all, the pictures of pigs with Ying and Yang circles on the bodies are the most famous.

 Dong Ho art is not as sophisticated as Japanese block printing, nor as splendid as Chinese woodblock prints. It reflects the Vietnamese traditional society and the simple ambitions of the people. It is homey, honest and pure like the soul of Vietnamese farmers.