Raised Vietnamese style pots

Oh, I am familiar, friend!

But have not read that book.
Thank you for sharing.

:)
No thank you! While diving headfirst into the rabbit hole, found this:
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That's FANTASTIC!!!

Interesting to see the poverty stretching JUST beyond the walls.

They make their "pads" differently..

Almost a marriage of the Penjing Schools of platform and "handsome cloud"..

SUPER neat!
 
I also was able to find this..

To convey something I was speaking of earlier. I REALLY like these pots... but, ideally, with vague skirts and accentuated lips.

 
The Vietnamese tradition of Hon Non Bo is near a thousand years old and is a tradition that is uniquely developed in Viet Nam. It developed independently from Penjing, and like Penjing predated the Japanese tradition of Bonsai by at least 500 years. Just to say it is a unique aesthetic that does not follow the Japanese rules or our Western bonsai rules.
You are in Saint Louis, see if you can make contact with someone knowledgeable in the Vietnamese community. There may be an importer of Vietnamese goods who is could bring in these pots. The Hon Non Bo pots typically would be several hundreds of pounds, you would need a fork lift to move them, the Vietnamese "bonsai" tend to be 2 or more meters tall and 2 or more meters wide. They "Go Big", everything is "Imperial size" it is more garden size.

Making concrete pots is a pain. But is you remember to reinforce using fibers and armatures where you have unsupported spans, you can create work that will stand up to freeze thaw cycling.
 
The Vietnamese tradition of Hon Non Bo is near a thousand years old and is a tradition that is uniquely developed in Viet Nam. It developed independently from Penjing, and like Penjing predated the Japanese tradition of Bonsai by at least 500 years. Just to say it is a unique aesthetic that does not follow the Japanese rules or our Western bonsai rules.
You are in Saint Louis, see if you can make contact with someone knowledgeable in the Vietnamese community. There may be an importer of Vietnamese goods who is could bring in these pots. The Hon Non Bo pots typically would be several hundreds of pounds, you would need a fork lift to move them, the Vietnamese "bonsai" tend to be 2 or more meters tall and 2 or more meters wide. They "Go Big", everything is "Imperial size" it is more garden size.

Making concrete pots is a pain. But is you remember to reinforce using fibers and armatures where you have unsupported spans, you can create work that will stand up to freeze thaw cycling.
I notice specific parallels between Vietnamese and Indonesian MiniTree Aesthetics.

🤓
 
These are fantastic. It's the first of seen/heard of them!

Thank you for sharing. Unfortunately I can't help you on sourcing pots like these.
I may have to make one in this vein in the future though.
 
@HorseloverFat - The Indonesians and the Vietnamese would probably take issue with you glibly drawing the parallels. These cultures have very long, very independent histories. And for both, "mini" would be trees more than one or two meters tall, nothing "mini" about what they do.

I finally discovered how I can watch a Nigel Sanders video without my stomach churning and my head aching. Increasing the playback speed to 2x gets rid of his excessively long dramatic pauses in every phrase. His information content is so low that if you miss a few sentences you really have not lost anything. I really do dislike Nigel Sanders videos. There are much better sources of bonsai information.
 
@HorseloverFat - The Indonesians and the Vietnamese would probably take issue with you glibly drawing the parallels. These cultures have very long, very independent histories. And for both, "mini" would be trees more than one or two meters tall, nothing "mini" about what they do.

I finally discovered how I can watch a Nigel Sanders video without my stomach churning and my head aching. Increasing the playback speed to 2x gets rid of his excessively long dramatic pauses in every phrase. His information content is so low that if you miss a few sentences you really have not lost anything. I really do dislike Nigel Sanders videos. There are much better sources of bonsai information.
It has more to do with Architecture from these cultures influencing their presentations, that I noticed.

And, dude. "Mini" refers to miniature.. meaning scaled down evenly. right. Soooo ANYTHING under NORMAL, tree size... would be a miniature... right?

And I am quite aware of these differences as well. I try to read and learn BEFORE i talk.

I'm sorry for whatever is going on.

But your swinging at folks.. more lately..

And I'm not one who CARES about being "swung at"... so you're wasting that energy.

Good vibrations, Leo.
 
Also I DO understand what you are saying about The Indonesians and Vietnamese not appreciating it...

Albanians get upset when you assume that they are Russian..They have distinct, developed national heritages.
But it's Understandable to NOTE the similarities between their cultures as well.. because of Religious beliefs, because of Albanias Slavic origin, because of shared architectural as well as cultural interest.

Wasn't intending to "generalize" asia... just pointing out some Architectural similarities between TWO Asian nations.

Just wanted to clarify, in case what I said was offensive.

But I DON'T think it was.
 
The Vietnamese tradition of Hon Non Bo is near a thousand years old and is a tradition that is uniquely developed in Viet Nam. It developed independently from Penjing, and like Penjing predated the Japanese tradition of Bonsai by at least 500 years. Just to say it is a unique aesthetic that does not follow the Japanese rules or our Western bonsai rules.
You are in Saint Louis, see if you can make contact with someone knowledgeable in the Vietnamese community. There may be an importer of Vietnamese goods who is could bring in these pots. The Hon Non Bo pots typically would be several hundreds of pounds, you would need a fork lift to move them, the Vietnamese "bonsai" tend to be 2 or more meters tall and 2 or more meters wide. They "Go Big", everything is "Imperial size" it is more garden size.

Making concrete pots is a pain. But is you remember to reinforce using fibers and armatures where you have unsupported spans, you can create work that will stand up to freeze thaw cycling.
Certainly didn’t intend to demean, or mislead about Hon Non Bo but put it in terms so that someone on this forum that had never heard of it could get a general idea. Hope it didn’t come off that way.
The Vietnamese import is a good idea … if/when I have the money for it. I know one guy in the St. Louis club that I believe emigrated from Vietnam, I’ll have to ask next time I see him.
 
Also, I have an honest question...

Are you sure of the Origins/development of Hon Non Bo?

Because, while I know (clearly) not as much as I should of Hon Non Bo.. I DO know a deal of Penjing/Penzai/Xie-zi-jing/Penwan
and I always thought that Penzai was picked up by Vietnam/Indonesia/Korea AFTER it's establishment (granted while still in it's juvenile state). This is what I had THOUGHT.

I did NOT know it developed separately and independently. That's interesting.

Information... LOGGED.
 
Also, I have an honest question...

Are you sure of the Origins/development of Hon Non Bo?

Because, while I know (clearly) not as much as I should of Hon Non Bo.. I DO know a deal of Penjing/Penzai/Xie-zi-jing/Penwan
and I always thought that Penzai was picked up by Vietnam/Indonesia/Korea AFTER it's establishment (granted while still in it's juvenile state). This is what I had THOUGHT.

I did NOT know it developed separately and independently. That's interesting.

Information... LOGGED.

I am not 100% certain I remember what my Vietnamese mentor had told me. The Han Non Bo tradition is quite a bit older in Vietnam than the bonsai tradition in Japan. I believe I was told Han Non Bo was developed independent of influence from the Chinese Penjing tradition. BUT, I'm getting older and I don't want to take the time to check references. So if someone finds a citation that proves me wrong, I can accept that. I'm pretty sure, but won't bet big money on it.
 
I am not 100% certain I remember what my Vietnamese mentor had told me. The Han Non Bo tradition is quite a bit older in Vietnam than the bonsai tradition in Japan. I believe I was told Han Non Bo was developed independent of influence from the Chinese Penjing tradition. BUT, I'm getting older and I don't want to take the time to check references. So if someone finds a citation that proves me wrong, I can accept that. I'm pretty sure, but won't bet big money on it.
My intention was not to try and devalue what YOU say, as it was that I wanted to know the correct information. 🤓
 
I am not 100% certain I remember what my Vietnamese mentor had told me. The Han Non Bo tradition is quite a bit older in Vietnam than the bonsai tradition in Japan. I believe I was told Han Non Bo was developed independent of influence from the Chinese Penjing tradition. BUT, I'm getting older and I don't want to take the time to check references. So if someone finds a citation that proves me wrong, I can accept that. I'm pretty sure, but won't bet big money on it.
The history of Viet Nam and China have intertwined for more than 4000 years. China has colonized us numerous times for a total of about 1000 years. There is no way to claim that Hon Non Bo is developed independently from the Chinese Penjing tradition. However, there are many features of the trees from Viet Nam that are unique in style. There are numerous forms that have unique names and features that must be matched in order for the tree to belong to that form. Still they are bonsai and the principles for development of the trees remain the same as those of the Japanese Bonsai or the Chinese Penjing. Looking back in Vietnamese history, there is no direct mention of Hon Non Bo in the early years but it is safe to say that the practice is well more than 1000 years old. However, with the Chinese taking over and burning all our books and forced the official language to be Chinese every few hundred years, the Hon Non Bo technique was not well documented and never reached the level of sophistication that the Japanese Bonsai has become.
 
The history of Viet Nam and China have intertwined for more than 4000 years. China has colonized us numerous times for a total of about 1000 years. There is no way to claim that Hon Non Bo is developed independently from the Chinese Penjing tradition. However, there are many features of the trees from Viet Nam that are unique in style. There are numerous forms that have unique names and features that must be matched in order for the tree to belong to that form. Still they are bonsai and the principles for development of the trees remain the same as those of the Japanese Bonsai or the Chinese Penjing. Looking back in Vietnamese history, there is no direct mention of Hon Non Bo in the early years but it is safe to say that the practice is well more than 1000 years old. However, with the Chinese taking over and burning all our books and forced the official language to be Chinese every few hundred years, the Hon Non Bo technique was not well documented and never reached the level of sophistication that the Japanese Bonsai has become.
I am currently reading "Mountains in the Sea"...

And you are correct about the sophistication and development of the TREES in the presentations...

For "bonsai eyes".. they need... "more"

I'm looking forward to taking a whack at it.. I will be hunting rocks, soon.
 
Y'all should just get this:


As for the history, I'm always skeptical when histories of this kind of thing are compared to reveal the "first" county to do it. Trying to determine whether Indonesia, Thailand or Vietnam came up with whatever is odd. Those countries' borders were hardly set back in the first century, same for China....



 
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