Ritual boat, gilded wood, 17th century AD., Restored Le dynasty, Keo pagoda, Vu Thu district, Thai Binh province)
Ritual boat, gilded wood, 17th century AD., Restored Le dynasty, Keo pagoda, Vu Thu district, Thai Binh province).
The boat is 290cm long, 72cm wide, 58cm high, and has a roof. The boat is carefully carved, then painted red and gilded, which makes it more majestic and splendid. The carver used a dragon as the main motif to decorate the bow and the stern of the boat. On the boat there is a bronze gong, two oval shields, a wooden drum covered with animal hide, two wooden guns, two thatch roofs and 20 oars on either side of the boat. These ritual offerings indicate that this boat is a model of a battle boat. Along with the rituals, boat processions continue until today. The boat also helps us to have a better understanding of the cultural identity of farming cultivators in the wet land of the northern delta.