Bamboo in Vietnam - its role in the life & culture of the people

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May 6, 2022, 10:07:31 PM5/6/22

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1 - What does bamboo in Vietnam look like?

Bamboo is the common name of a group of plants belonging to the bamboo subfamily of the rice family. Bamboo in Vietnam is a perennial woody plant, hollow inside and having canopy roots. The bamboo stem is divided into segments at which eye nodes grow at . The tree trunk has a green color and turns a bit yellow when it is old.

The origin of the bamboo tree is still unknown. However, it is found more often in warm and humid tropical regions as well as in warm temperate climates. The remaining areas also appear diverse types of bamboo from cool mountains to tropical areas and highlands.

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This is one of the plants with the fastest growing rate currently. There are bamboo trees that grow up to 91cm in just 24 hours (average 1mm taller every 90 seconds). In addition to its rapid growth, its strong roots and trunk make bamboo a good choice for planting trees to form forests and reduce the effects of storms and floods.

The types of bamboo in Vietnam must be mentioned such as ornamental bamboo, Buddha bamboo, ivory bamboo, giant umbrella bamboo, dwarf green stripe bamboo, etc. These are all familiar and attached to the people of our country since a long time ago. Because of its popularity in Vietnam, you can buy ornamental bamboo anywhere in the country.

2 - Bamboo in Vietnam and its link to Vietnamese culture

In Vietnamese culture, bamboo is described as an upright, simple but resilient tree. A Vietnamese martial art called Vovinam considers bamboo as a symbol of the spirit of martial arts. The image of Vietnamese bamboo represents Vietnamese villages which are often surrounded with bamboo groves. It is like a concretization of the Vietnamese soul with the virtues of frankness, solidarity and gentleness.Bamboo is not picky about soil and weather. It grows in ramparts, bushes together to cope with harsh weather. Its root tries to dig deep into the ground in search of nutrients.

Bamboo helps people with hundreds of thousands of jobs. It is likened to the arm of the farmer. In daily activities, the tree is spreading, embracing and shading villages and hamlets. In the arms of bamboo, the houses become cool; new buffaloes have shade to graze and farmers have a place to take a nap... Under the bamboo shade, people preserve their long-term culture, do business, and have a chance to start a career. When there were no bricks, concrete, bamboo was used to make sturdy houses to protect people from the sun and rain. Bamboo is used to make familiar household items, ranging from pairs of chopsticks, baskets, to beds, bamboo curtains, a cot, a cabinet... Bamboo is associated with old people via the Vietnamese bamboo plow. For children in the countryside, bamboo can give them interesting and useful games: playing with bamboo sticks, running and cheering to a kite which is also made of bamboo. …

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In daily life, Vietnamese people also make utensils familiar to almost every person: chopsticks, bamboo cot, bamboo bed. For each farmer family, bamboo is an extremely close friend. In addition, one type of bamboo also helps people tie the house. Bamboo is used to make a framework for growing vegetables in the field and in the garden. For children in the countryside, bamboo can also make interesting and useful games. Thanks to bushes of lush bamboo, children have a good area for playing on the field in summer, no matter how burning the sun is.

The girls have nothing more interesting than playing volleyball with bamboo sticks. The boys ran and cheered to the sound of flutes on a kite which is also made from bamboo. Those kites bring their dreams to far away places. Nowadays, life is more and more modern and many utensils are made of plastic and stainless steel. But people are having a tendency to come back to nature. The proof is that salon sets made of rattan and bamboo are very popular and become an expensive export item of Vietnam. Nowadays, many people have given up growing rice or potatoes, cutting down bamboo trees to have a place to build houses, but if there is a time when this country does not have a single shade of bamboo, life will be difficult and boring!