Ha Dan – Tien Phong Newspaper
On November 29, 2022, UNESCO officially inscribed the art of pottery making of the Cham people on the list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent protection. This is the 15th intangible cultural heritage of Vietnam, honoured by UNESCO. We were present at Bau Truc pottery village – located in Phuoc Dan town, Ninh Phuoc, about 10 km south of Phan Rang city, Ninh Thuan.
Bau Truc people are mainly Cham ethnic people. According to some researchers, ceramic making has existed for hundreds of years, and since then, it has remained essentially unchanged, considered the oldest craft in Southeast Asia.
Hundred years of pottery
Following the British Council’s delegation, I went to Bau Truc to see firsthand the results of the project “Development of heritage-based community-based tourism in Bau Truc village” by this organization in collaboration with the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Ninh Thuan tourism with the local implementation.
At this time, the tourist market has just reopened, and a group of foreign tourists are standing to listen to the tour guide introduce pottery. An official of the Department told me: Bau Truc people have been guided and trained to welcome tourists, market products, and teach guests how to make cakes and traditional dishes of the Cham people. Recently, people’s income has increased, besides revenue from ceramic products.
Cham women make pottery entirely by hand and walk backwards to shape.
Mr Dang Chi Quyet, Head of the Management Board of Bau Truc Quarter, Phuoc Dan Town, said: Bau Truc Village (known as Palei Hamu Crack in the Cham language) currently has one cooperative, four companies and nine ceramic production facilities, Operate regularly, one-third of the people in the village now live off of pottery. Bau Truc pottery was once considered a “left-hand” profession that was only produced during leisure time, but now it has become the main occupation that brings a stable income for many families.
Bau Truc pottery products are rich, meeting all market needs, from fine art ceramics such as the Apsara goddess statue, Cham tower, interior decoration reliefs, feng shui water vases, and flower vases to ceramic items. Necessary for daily life are earthenware, cake moulds, Banh xeo, water jars, earthen pots, charcoal stoves… In addition to being sold in the domestic market, Bau Truc pottery is now available in international markets such as Russia, USA, Italy and Japan.
The “magic” of Bau Truc pottery skills was revealed by Cham guide Su Van Tien (Management Board of Po Klong Garai Tower Monuments): “Po Klong Garai Tower in Ninh Thuan today is the reason most It seems that there have not been many renovations even though it was built in the 17th century because it was made with bricks fired by Bau Truc pottery village.
The bricks here are not old but young; when cut in half, in the middle, there is still the black colour of the unripe earth. Young bricks work when it rains, expanding and sealing the openings so that moss can’t get in. That is why Cham towers have almost no moss and lichens.”
Making pottery by… walking backwards
Legend has it that the pottery ancestor in Bau Truc, Poklong Chanh, only imparted the profession to Cham women. That also explains why pottery making is hard work. Still, when entering the village, visitors only see female workers mixing, kneading, shaping, and decorating patterns… very few men are mixed in.
Mr Dang Chi Quyet said: in the past, the distinction and characteristic “only women can make pottery” was very clear: if a tourist asks the price of a product, a talking girl can. Quote, but a grey-haired older man did not. Or girls from the age of 5 who have learned to make pottery by holding hands must master all shaping techniques before marriage, and boys are the opposite.
But now, many men have engaged in pottery making to stimulate tourism development. Few women can make large-sized fine art products to supply the market, so men have to take care of them whenever a customer orders.
The way pottery is in Bau Truc is different from other places; the product is moulded by hand, without any machine intervention. The craftsman measures the thickness of the item by hand-in-hand method. Instead of using a turntable, Bau Truc potters have to rotate the material backwards to shape, stroke and shape the product. Therefore, making pottery in Bau Truc is counted as a challenging job. Every working day workers have to walk an average of 10 to 20km. When I tried to make Bau Truc pottery, I was dizzy, just like the feeling I had when I practised “The Fountain of Youth” for the first time.
Although each artist can shape dozens of vases simultaneously, the products are unique.
Bau Truc pottery is unglazed and dried, fired in the open air with wood and straw for 7 to 8 hours at about 800 degrees Celsius (not in a kiln like Bat Trang pottery). According to artisans of Dang View, this traditional way of firing, combined with colour mixing and smothering smoke, has created unique and bold colour stains on each ceramic product, such as red gold, rose red, and streaks. Brown… that few places can do it.
Po Klong Garai Cham Tower in Ninh Thuan was built with bricks by Bau Truc pottery village with almost no moss and lichen.
Pottery land is collected only once a year on the banks of the Quao River, a few kilometres away from the village, after the rice harvest season. People bring the soil to clean, grind it, soak it in water and then stuff it with small-grained white sand according to the ratio of two pieces of clay and one part of sand to make it very smooth and store it at home for use throughout the year.
This stage of soil preparation must be meticulous because, according to the artisans, as long as little dirt is left, the product will be cracked and damaged immediately after firing. Food and drinks in pottery made from river Quao clay are less likely to be damaged because the temperature inside the ceramic product is usually more excellent than on the outside.
Matrilineal story
The Cham community in Ninh Thuan also has a unique custom of matriarchy. In the family, the head and strong voice are women. That is also why pottery, after being created by Cham women, is only passed on to daughters in the house. Artisan Dang View is considered the first man in Bau Truc to master pottery (in 1999) and create fine art ceramic products with his mark.
During this trip to Ninh Thuan, we were invited to the Cham village of Phuoc Hau (where the most critical costume procession of the annual Kate ceremony was held) and had an actual Cham meal. It is made from whole goats, de-fishing with roasted rice and young tamarind leaves. The main dish is stewed goat meat, served with finely chopped young banana stalks and guise leaves. Every house here has a towed speaker rig. Summer parties are indispensable speakers.
There are already some men involved in pottery making.
Teacher Thach Thi Ngoc Lan – who welcomed us, said: Outside of class time, on average, every month, she makes 5-6 trays to receive guests, hers and her husband’s. In the family, Ms Lan is mainly responsible for making money and has a “final” voice in big things like building a house, getting married and having children.
Each Cham house in Phuoc Hau is enormous and beautiful; according to locals, the Cham people invest in a vast place. They feel this is an affluent village even though their main occupation is farming.
According to the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the number of artisans, practitioners and apprentices in Cham pottery villages is still tiny. Despite many efforts to protect it, the heritage is still in danger of being lost due to various threats, such as urbanization affecting the space of traditional craft villages and the availability of raw materials. The cost of raw materials has increased, skilled artisans are old, the younger generation is not interested in the profession, the product needs more variety…
