Disabled Artists Create Beauty In Sand

Do Dang Phi Long was born in 1988 as a normal child.

- Khanh Le

But at the age of 1, he contracted pneumonia, which led to loss of hearing and speech. ‘He is my first child, and that devastated me. Negative thoughts filled up my mind. It was so unbearable,’ Phi Long’s mother, Ms Dang Thi Thu Ha, recalls those most terrible days of her life.

When Phi Long was 7, Ms Ha, living at that time in Phan Thiet took him to a boarding school for disabled kids in Binh Duong Province.

In 2005, attending the ‘Green Convergence of Binh Thuan’ fair, Phi Long by chance saw the very unique sand paintings of artist Y Lan. The famous artist’s paintings impressed him so much he, implored his mother to come down to the artist’s residence in Ho Chi Minh City to ask her to admit him as an apprentice. Just a year later, the young man became a skillful sand painting artisan.

Back in Phan Thiet, Phi Long asked his mom’s permission to open a sand painting school for disabled youth. ‘I was so happy that my son wanted to help other underprivileged people. So our family spent all our savings to open a school of sand painting at home,’ Phi Long’s mother said.