Traditional New Year picture - Boys on buffalo flying a kite (Vietnames: Chăn trâu thổi sáo)

Southeast Asian Collection

Accession Nr.: 61.1.12
Type: print; woodblock print
Date of production:
between 1950 and 1960
Place of production:
Materials/Techniques: paper, coloured woodblock print
Dimensions: height: 25 cm
width: 35 cm
The engraving, made in the Ðông Hồ workshop in Vietnam, shows boys on water buffaloes flying kites. Others pass them on foot, one of them following the flying kite with his eyes. The buffaloes turn towards each other.


The buffalo is an animal of great importance in Vietnamese agriculture, and the scene of a boy on a buffalo's back playing the flute is one of the most popular depictions of the buffalo in Vietnam.