Bamboo is used widely in Vietnamese everyday life in a variety of ways, from instruments to architecture, from furniture to cuisine.

Bamboo bridges are a common sight near waterways throughout Vietnam.

Here, a bamboo bridge serves as a passageway from the shore to a boat.

During Tet, especially in areas in northern Vietnam, villages set up contests for participants to try to cross the bamboo bridge without holding on. It's challenging!

The long, thick pieces of strong bamboo stalk are valuable materials for building houses, making furniture or crafting agricultural tools.

Bamboo furniture sits in an outside courtyard.

Lattice fencing is made with bamboo, shown here along the road in a small village near Ha Noi.

Baskets, brooms, and roofing are often made from various parts of the bamboo.

The roof in this Vietnamese pavilion is covered with bamboo leaves.

A round basket boat is created entirely out of bamboo, including the clamps that hold it together while it is being built.

Bamboo has good nutritional value, and bamboo shoots are commonly found in Vietnamese cooking.

Bamboo is also used to create decorations such as lamps, plates, chopsticks, hats and souvenirs.

The performing arts in Vietnam also use bamboo in different ways. A bamboo dance, which originated in the northern part of the country, features long bamboo pieces tapped on the floor to create rhythm. Dancers jump over and through the bamboo. A flute made of bamboo has a rich, melodious tone. Farmers used to play this instrument when taking a break in the fields.

One Vietnamese legend, called the Hundred Knot Bamboo, tells the story of a hardworking young man trying to earn the right to marry a landowner’s daughter. He is sent into the forest to try to find a piece of bamboo with 100 knots, an impossible task. With perseverance and the help of an old man (Buddha), the young man outwits the landowner and wins the right to marry.

The Voyage to Vietnam exhibition features bamboo in many ways. Look around and find bamboo used in a variety of places including in the bamboo bridge, as a bamboo flute, and as a part of many of the decorations.