Mysterious Indochina: 100 years ago
The Indochina Peninsula, located in southeast Asia, is a favorite destination for tourists all over the world. Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia — each of these countries is attractive in its own way. Here you can spend a wonderful "vegetable" vacation, swimming in the sea and enjoying exotic fruits.
However, if you want to get to know the real Indochina, you should go outside the hotel and drive at least to the nearest, or better — to the farthest village in the province. Take pictures of everything you see, and you will realize that the pictures you received can hardly be distinguished from those that were taken 100 or more years ago. Here is a woman rinsing laundry in Halong Bay (Vietnam), and here are high-altitude tea plantations. Go a little further and see the village market, the way of which certainly has not changed over the past 100 years. Here is a hut of opium smokers, a drug common in this part of the world, side by side are the houses of a wealthy and poor family, and near the river is an ancient Buddhist temple.
All this and not only is in the pictures of 1914-1916, which reached us a century later thanks to an unknown traveler who miraculously wandered into these mysterious lands. The photographs depict not only the life of ordinary village people and their way of life, but even the family of the head of the province of Ha (Vietnam), as well as important local chiefs and the military.
Hong Gei, 1915
Tonkin. Live chess. onethousandninehundredeighteen
Halong Bay. 1915
Hanoi. Opium smokers drink tea. onethousandninehundredfifteen
Hanoi, 1915
Hanoi. Paul Dumer Bridge, 1915
Sampan in Halong Bay, 1916
Hanoi. Military Mandarin, Governor and Chief Prefect of the province
An opium smoker. onethousandninehundredfifteen
Village market, 1915
Haiphong, 1915
Buddhist Temple on the way to Tam Tao, June 4, 1916
Hanoi. Hemp Street, 1915
Hong Gei Mines, 1918-1921
Hanoi. Paul Bert Street
Hanoi. A group of local nobility, circa 1920
Halong Bay. 1915
Copper mine, 1915
Municipal officials gathered in front of the town hall, 1915
Hanoi. Rice market, 1914-1915
Hanoi. Sampans and the Paul Dumer Bridge, 1915
Hanoi. Street Tinsmiths
Highlands on the border with China
Two opium smokers, 1915
A wealthy family in French Indochina. onethousandninehundredfifteen
Chinese huts. onethousandninehundredfifteen
In the photo on the left: members of the Saigon Theater troupe, 1915. In the photo on the right: Tonkin. Hoang Chong Pu, Governor of Ha Dong Province in 1914
In the photo on the left: Tonkin. The head of Ha Dong Province and his wife. 1915. In the photo on the right: Tonkin. The head of Ha Dong province with his family. onethousandninehundredfifteen
Members of the Saigon Theater troupe. onethousandninehundredfifteen
In the photo on the left: Hanoi, 1914. In the photo on the right: priestess of the three worlds, 1915
In the photo on the left: the priestess of the three worlds, 1915. In the photo on the right: Tonkin. The local boss. onethousandninehundredfifteen
Keywords: 20th century | Archive | Vietnam | Indochina | Then and now