Thanh Hai Water Puppet Village

Thanh Hai Water Puppet Village is a traditional craft village in Thanh Hai Commune, Thanh Ha District, Hai Duong, now part of Hai Phong municipality in northern Vietnam. Recognized as one of the country's preserved water puppetry villages, it maintains the centuries-old art of performing puppetry on water. The village is notable for its artisan families, hand-carved wooden puppets, and performances depicting rural life, folklore and festivals, offering insight into Red River Delta intangible cultural heritage.

Visitors can expect a rural village setting in the Red River Delta with workshops where artisans carve and paint wooden puppets and a water stage or pond used for performances. Visits typically include observing puppet-making, learning about the control mechanisms and stories behind the acts, and watching short water puppet shows depicting farming, fishing, village festivals and folklore accompanied by traditional music.

Thanh Hai is documented as a long-standing water puppetry village in Hai Duong with a history spanning several centuries, where the art has been transmitted through generations of artisan families and preserved as part of northern Vietnam's folk performance tradition.

The village represents the traditional water puppetry art form of the Red River Delta, an intangible cultural heritage featuring wooden puppets performing on water to narrate stories of agricultural life, village festivals and folklore, accompanied by traditional music and recognized as a distinctive cultural attraction of Hai Duong - Hai Phong region.