Poonah paper has been used to paint or write as seen in the renowned Dong Ho paintings, calligraphy and water-colour paintings or in many documents about the past dynasties and family annals.
Poonah material comes from the bark of poonah trees which are planted in northern provinces, such as Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Thai Nguyen and Cao Bang. It takes several complicated and precise processing steps to make poonah paper, including selecting the material, soaking it in water, pounding, flattening poonah pulp into paper, and keeping it dry inside the house.
Phong Khe has only four families engaged in producing poonah paper for the Dong Ho painting village. But with two artisans making Dong Ho paintings on this material nowadays, poonah production is likely to fall into oblivion.
