Conical hat
To date, there are no historical documents that clearly specify the period of creation of the conical hat. However, only its primitive form (feather hat) has been seen engraved on artifacts of the Đồng Sơn culture (such as the Ngoc Lũ bronze drum or the Đào Thịnh bronze situla) between 2500 and 3000 BC.
Since ancient times, for living and protecting themselves from the sun and rain in a tropical climate, our ancestors thought of using materials easily found in nature such as the leaves of certain plants (pandan, coconut palm, buông, hồ, cối) and straw and succeeded in inventing the conical hat. The latter has since become an essential element in the daily life of the Vietnamese. It is seen everywhere in all corners of the country. It becomes inseparable from the peasant, from the dike to the rice field or from the shore to the river. Sometimes it’s used as a fan to relax under the scorching sun. It’s often seen following street vendors through the city streets. It has long become a distinctive symbol of Vietnamese culture. It adds a touch of elegance to Vietnamese women, whether worn with a tunic or a jacket with wide sleeves.
According to historical sources, the first person to mention the Vietnamese conical hat was Zhou Qunfei (Chu Khu Phi) of the Southern Song Dynasty in the book: Linh Ngoai Dai Dap (嶺外代答序) written about the customs of our Lý Dynasty in 1178. The people of Giao Chi wore conical hats [the original text is 螺笠 le loa lap, a conical shell-shaped hat].
Later, based on the book Zhou Qunfei, the Yuan Dynasty historian Ma Duanlin (Mã Đoan Lâm) described it in “Văn hiến thông khảo” in 1307 as follows: the hat being spiral-shaped, its shape resembles that of snails… made in a very meticulous manner from thin strips of bamboo. […]. The earliest image of Vietnamese conical hats is found in the painting « Trúc Lâm đại sĩ xuất sơn đồ (The Painting of the Zhen Monk King Trần Nhân Tôn) » illustrated by the monk-drawer Trần Giám Như. This one depicting the return of the Zhen Monk King to royal life in 1363. In this painting, two men are seen wearing hats of different shapes. The first person was wearing a wide-brimmed hat with the protruding part in the middle. The other was also wearing a wide-brimmed hat very pointed. At that time, hats were intended for many different categories of people, from the rich to the poor or from officials to servants. During the Trần Dynasty, the village of Ma Lôi (present-day Hải Dương) produced conical hats. At first, Ma Lôi hats were popular and known only to the common people, but later, the Trần king found them so beautiful. He soon made improvements to these hats for use by concubines in the royal palace. From then on, these hats were known as nón thượng. The Ma Lôi hat was later used in the national navy commanded by General Trần Khánh Dư to differentiate it from the one worn by soldiers coming from the North.
Through the painting above “Trúc Lâm đại sĩ xuất sơn đồ” by Trần Giám Như, we can firstly identify the social status of each person wearing the hat. Then secondly the hat has undergone a long journey of transformation over many centuries with many different models, each inspired by the local culture (such as the Ba Tầm or Quai Thao hat in northern Vietnam, the Huế hat, the Bình Định hat, the Quảng Nam hat, etc.) so that today the conical hat has become a familiar and simple object of all classes of society, an inseparable companion of the Vietnamese people. Being known not only in everyday life, the image of the conical hat is also exhibited at fashion shows and has become a source of inspiration for fashion houses today. It is also a souvenir that foreign tourists often like to buy when returning to their country.
By wearing a Vietnamese tunic with a conical hat, Miss Isabelle Menin
honors the beauty of traditional culture at the Miss Grand International 2023 (Viet Nam)