42 Rare Color Photographs Capture the Lives of the People in Northern Vietnam in the 1910s

Photographer Leon Busy was assigned by the Albert Kahn Museum in France to go to Vietnam to capture the lives of the people in northern Vietnam (Tonkin) from 1914 to 1917. Here are some of amazing photographs from his work.

Woman Smoking Opium, Hanoi - French Indochina circa 1915

Rue Paul Bert, Hanoi, 1914-1915

Haiphong, 1915

Baie d'Halong, 1915

A district chief reading a patent Imperial, 1916

Two young girls wearing the non-ba tam

Banane Hanoi, 1915

Mine de cuivre, 1915

The highlands on the border of China, Na-Cham village

Group of Tonkin girls, 1916

Village chief smoking a water pipe, 1916

Young girls play the pawns in a human chess match, 1920

Un étalage de jouets en fer blanc vendus au moment de la fête des enfants, 1915

The Governor of Tonkin and his family, 1915

Hanoi, sampans and Paul Doumer Bridge, 1915

Actor and actress, Hanoi-Tonkin, 1915

Tonkin - Hanoi: Two opium smokers drinking tea, 1915

Mandarin militaire, mandarin chef de province et préfet en costume d’audience solennelle, 1915

Tinsmiths' Street, Hanoi, 1915

Le Pont Paul Doumer, Hanoi, 1915

Sampan en baie d'Halong, 1916

Two opium smokers, 1915

Village actors, Hanoi, May June 1916

A district chief and district authorities gathered at the town hall, 1915

Hongay, 1915

Chaloupe Chinoise, 1915

Marchand de sentences, Hanoi, 1915

Marchande de riz, 1914-1915

Marché de Bac Lè, 1915

Mine de Hong Gay, 1918-1921

Groupe de notables, environ de Hanoi, vers 1920

A North Vietnamse girl whose teeth are tinted black, 1915

Rue du Chanvre, Hanoi, 1915 (Hemp street)

Prêtresse des 3 mondes, 1915

Buddhist Temple on the road to Tam Dao, June 4, 1916

A nun and two novices, circa 1916

Un lettré lisant environ de Hanoi, 1915

A local authority in hearing ordinary costume, 1916

An elder village notable near Hanoi, 1920

Making betel quid, about Hanoi, 1916

Priestess of the cult of the 3 worlds, 1916

A Hanoi girl, 1914-15