A thousand-year-old pottery village
When mentioning famous pottery villages in Hanoi , many people often think of Bat Trang. But not far from there, across the Bac Hung Hai canal, Kim Lan is also a place with a long history, closely associated with pottery making and the lives of the people in the Red River Delta.
According to 90-year-old Mr. Nguyen Viet Hong, who has spent almost his entire life working in pottery, each flood season, the Red River causes erosion of the riverbanks, revealing fragments of pottery, ancient bricks, and building materials accumulated over centuries.
Mr. Nguyen Viet Hong introduces the exhibits on display at the Kim Lan Ceramic Museum.
Since the 1960s, local people have collected and preserved thousands of artifacts found in the riverbanks. Between 2001 and 2003, the Institute of Archaeology, Vietnam National Museum of History, along with the late Dr. Nishimura Masanari ( Japan ), excavated the Ham Rong site, contributing to clarifying the history of habitation and production in Kim Lan over various periods.
Archaeological artifacts reveal traces of habitation here dating back to around the 2nd-3rd centuries. By the 9th-10th centuries, Kim Lan was engaged in the production of building materials for the construction of the Dai La citadel. Notably, the gray bricks embossed with the Chinese characters "Giang Tay Quan" found here bear similarities to bricks found in the Thang Long Imperial Citadel , suggesting a connection between the production activities in Kim Lan and the formation of the ancient capital.
During the Ly-Tran dynasties, particularly in the 13th and 14th centuries, traces of ceramic production became even clearer. Kiln supports, supports, and discarded items indicate that the artisans of Kim Lan once produced celadon, brown glaze, and brown-flowered ceramics. Some artifacts bear the character "Quan," suggesting a possible connection to supplying products to the royal court. The similarity in patterns to ceramics found in the Philippines and Indonesia also suggests that products from this region once participated in a broader trade network.
Mr. Nguyen Chi Phuong, Chairman of the Kim Lan Pottery Village Skilled Craftsmen Club, with pottery fragments recently unearthed during the Bac Hung Hai River dredging project in October 2026.