In the beliefs of the Vietnamese people, the tiger is the “king of the animals”.    

NDO – These days, artisan Nguyen Tan Phat from Duong Lam Village, Son Tay Town, Hanoi, is busy with a project of making 2022 tiger sculptures to welcome New Year 2022 – the Year of the Tiger.

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To date, Phat has completed work on more than 700 tiger sculptures, and his entire collection is expected to be complete by April 30, 2022.

Phat’s tiger sculptures are entirely manually made and come in a range of sizes and colours.

Through Phat’s great skill, a piece of wood undergoes many processing steps to become a sophisticated sculpture, from carving to dyeing and gold inlaying.

Artisan Nguyen Tan Phat and a wood sculpture of a tiger with two wings.

Several tiger sculptures made by Nguyen Tan Phat.

Among the completed sculptures, the most time-consuming ones were the five solid wood tiger chairs in five ritual colours of yellow, blue, white, red, and black, which match the Five Elements: Earth, Wood, Metal, Fire, and Water, respectively.

Photos: Minh Duy