The Dao Tien women's costume

The dao Tien are mainly settled in a large area spreading from southern Ha Giang and Cao Bang through Tuyen Quang and Bac Giang.

On the base of brocade material with indigo and other colourful hues, the Dao Tien women have made unique patterned costumes that highlight their simple beauty.

Dao Tien women's charming radiant attire is attributed to their skills in decoration and indigo dying. The sparse embroideries revealing part of the black and indigo base material help to lessen the radiant and strong colours, bringing about the harmony in colour blend. The use of colours and patterns on clothing, especially women's, represent an ethnicity's cultural identity. For the Dao Tien, such a cultural feature can be seen in their beeswax printing technique.

The Dao Tien people usually pay great attention to the combination of ornaments on their clothes. The blouses and headscarves are decorated with courbary beads and silver coins while the colourful brocade collars, fly front closings and sleeves are decorated with patterned silver ornaments. It is customary for a Dao Tien girl to start her married life wearing the clothes, which she made the year prior to the wedding, and the silver jewellery items as the dowry from her parents. Her dowry will then be treasured and handed down to her descendants.

The Dao Tien girls seem more beautiful in new radiant costumes and silver jewellery items that ripple with their steps. The Dao Tien's patterned jewellery items and brocade costumes constitute the beauty of the scenic north-western region and their own cultural identity.