Of the ancient river-side village , there remain only stone stelae lying where once stood the village pagoda. Erected under the Mac dynasty (16th century) , they give us an approximate age of Dong Ho. One of the stelae, the "Do Ho Tu Bi" dated 1680 , has on its upper part a full-moon shape engraving depicting two mice - folk art characters - pounding rice. This to a certain extent, confirms the existence of folk painting in Dong Ho and its links with the village pagoda in the past.

Dong Ho Village is famous for its folk paintings drawn by craftsmen of Dong Ho village in Bac Ninh province. They are drawn on do paper with natural colours taken from half-baked bricks, tree leaves, powder of grinded burned tree – roots and back- ground made from a mixture of lime ( taken from burned arca shells)and resin. The traditional paintings reflect aspiration of people for peace, prosperity and happiness. In the old day, whenever Lunar New Year came, a painting market took place at Dong Ho’s communual house and visitors from many regions came here to revel in art works.

Nowadays, woodprint making in Dong Ho is not as bustling as it was centuries ago. But, local families still preserve hundreds of ancient printing woodblocks as a precious heritage with which year after year they keep printing new copies on orders placed by customers.

The Dong Ho Paintings are printed by hand, each colour having its own printing block. (As an exception, there could be seen some Dong Ho hand-coloured Paintings). The printing paper is made of "zo", a papyrus-like plant, bark fibre, and coated with a thin layer of "diep" (oyster shell dust) , that gives the paper a typical, much appraised, feeble-glittering texture.

The printing inks come from domestically available materials of vegetal or mineral origin : soft black from dried and charred bamboo leaves, red from cinnabar dust, and silvery white from finely ground oyster shells.

The Dong Ho Paintings appear only on the occasion of the Lunar New Year Festival. Therefore, both their form (lines, colours) and contents suit Spring time and bring out man's aspiration for a life of plenty and happiness. They represent an original genre of folk pictorial art, with a distinct national identity and a centuries' old tradition.