Phuoc Tich pottery- making village

Phuoc Tich village in Phong Hoa Commune in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue’s Phong Dien District has been recognized as a national cultural heritage site by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Lying silently 40 kilometers to the north of Hue, the ancient village is well-known for its traditional pottery crafts and ancient houses and temples that have been preserved for 500 years in the traditional style that makes them invaluable architecturally and culturally.

Founded in 1470 by Hoang Minh Hung, a marquis under the reign of King Le Thanh Tong, the village at that time was called Con Duong, lying near peaceful O Lau River, and was a sanctuary for local Cham villagers. A 500-year-old Chinese fig tree, a temple worshipping Confucius and a twin tower honoring Hung and the founder of Cham pottery are historical proofs of the ancient village.

Phuoc Tich village has 117 houses, 27 of them highly valued for their cultural integrity, and 10 churches. Most houses in the village are between 100 and 500 years old and are so well preserved as to astonish cultural anthropologists, architects and historians alike.

The homes in Phuoc Tich are considered representative of the homes throughout Northern and Central Vietnam with their open structures and their surrounding fruit orchards that are as large as 1,500-square-meters.

Phuoc Tich houses are mainly made of breadfruit wood and are adorned with exquisite and lively carvings, most of them undamaged despite being surrounded by so many wars through the years. The interiors usually include parallel sentences, a horizontal lacquered board, wooden scrolls, a plank bed and an altar wardrobe. Moss covered tile roofs sag a little under the weight of time and brick walkways, wind screens and old water wells complete the picture. Green lines of tea trees are a charming green substitute for walls.

Traces of Cham culture remain in the village. Recognition of these national cultural relics brings opportunities for development of the village’s tourism potential. Local authorities have organized many activities and folk games for tourists to learn more about the ancient village as well as ancient ceramics.

Phuoc Tich was a famous pottery village in its heyday, supplying the entire central region. It achieved great honor when the Nguyen Court in Hue commissioned the village to produce “om ngu”, or clay pots, for cooking in the Forbidden City.

The pottery has no enamel, so it is called soil pottery primitive and has few vignettes. It is simple and has a natural beauty. During the Nguyen Dyansty, trade was brisk throughout the land; boats and ships from Nghe An, Quang Tri, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Quy Nhon and South Vietnam all sailed here to buy pottery.

Every year Phuoc Tich villagers jubilantly hold the festival to honour their craft making ancestors on November 5 of the lunar calendar at Doi Temple. With its unique value in terms of architecture and traditional craft, Phuoc Tich Village was ranked by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a national relic.

Thanh Ha pottery- making village

The Thanh Ha Pottery Village is located by the Thu Bon river, Cam Ha ward in the Quang Nam Province, 3 Km to the West of the ancient quarter. The Thanh Ha Pottery Village in Hoi An is a famous example in this type of establishment that aims at furthering tradition as well as employment. The pottery village has a long historical legacy and it used to play an important role in the  development of Hoi An ancient town.

The village originated in Thanh Hoa province and it formed at the end of the 15th century, developing vigorously in the later centuris, at the same time  as the Hoi An port. The products made by the villagers mainly serve the daily lives of the native people in domestic markets. The pottery products include bowls, jars, pots, animal shapes, in multiforms and colors, and they are lighter than the same products in other places

Although they have experienced various challenges over time, economic difficulties and foreign competition, the local inhabitants are always trying to preserve a traditional profession, inherited from their ancestors. The techniques that they use are unique and very diferent from those prevalent in other provinces. Therefore, the village is more of a live museum and it holds precious documentation resources for scientists who study about traditional pottery in Viet Nam and in South East Asia.

Thanh Ha pottery products are made by very well-trained craftmens. They use special clay mixing, burning and baking techniques, and heat modulations to bring out different colors. Depending on the time of burning and the temperature of the kiln, the color can be changed from pink, pink yellow to red, light brown and ink-black. Thanks to the special technique of processing soil and the combination of successive manipulations, the durability of their products is ranked at the top as compared to others in the country, and the brightness is the same as enamel. A soft and clear sound with echo can be heard by knocking on the product. Some products are offered on request or used for planting orchids; they are decorated with the sink and float vignettes that are simple but very nice.

Thanh Ha Pottery craftsmen have been invited by the Court of Nguyen Dynasty in Hue to create special products for various activities of the imperial palace. The same as Kim Bong wood craftsmen, they were placed at the eighth or nineth grade of the mandarin system. In the recent decades, Thanh Ha pottery has been sold throughout the country and sometimes abroad (Canada, America, France). It is also the most trusted name for contractors engaged in tasks of renovation.

Tourists visiting this wonderful village will take pleasure in collecting souvenirs they have seen the skillful craftsmen make before their own eyes.

Chu Dau pottery- making village

When talking about ancient pottery villages, one immediately thinks of Bat Trang, Hanoi’s ancient ceramic village. But another ancient pottery village named Chu Dau, thanks to a discovery made in the 1980s, is beginning to rival Bat Trang. Chu Dau’s ceramic craft, once famous worldwide, has been resurrected after disappearing for 3 centuries. 

The name Chu Dau literally means “wharf”. Chu Dau village in the northern province of Hai Duong was known only as a busy trading hub until evidence was uncovered that it used to produce ceramic vases that were renowned around the world.

The story of Chu Dau’s revival as a ceramic village began with a 1980 letter from Makoto Anabuki, Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam, to Ngo Duy Dong, Secretary of Hai Duong Province's Party Committee. In this letter, Anabuki wrote that during a working trip to Turkey, he had visited Topkapi Saray Museum in Istanbul and was very interested to see an ancient Vietnamese ceramic jar on display. On the jar was written: "In the Year of 1945 of the 8th Thai Hoa reign, a ceramic maker of the Bui Family in the Nam Sach area drew on this jar just for fun." Makoto Anabuki asked the Party Secretary to find the origin of this valuable jar 4 years later. From the information given, excavations uncovered relics proving that Chu Dau village used to produce ceramic products of high artistic merit. The discovery that wowed pottery experts also shocked the local residents. Nguyen Minh Tu, is a village elder of Chu Dau, says: "I never knew there were pottery kilns in this village although I sometimes found pieces of glazed terra-cotta in my garden. Only when experts came to my house and conducted excavations did I learn that those were pieces of national treasures. My fellow villagers and I are very happy and excited to receive experts, even foreign experts, to our village to research the village’s ancient craft of pottery."

In 1993 and 1997, at shipwreck sites in the Philippines’ Pandanan sea and near Vietnam’s Cham island, scientists found more than 340,000 porcelain objects from Chu Dau village, 240,000 of them unbroken. This proved that Chu Dau ceramic items were exported across the globe. Research has confirmed that Chu Dau’s ceramic craft was at its height from the 14th to the 17th century. There are currently 46 museums around the world displaying pottery products from Chu Dau village, some of the items worth as much as 1 million USD. In 2000, Nam Sach district native Nguyen Huu Thang, Director of the Saigon Haprosimex Company, wanted to revive Chu Dau as a ceramic village, copying excavated fine ceramic pieces for export and developing the village’s tourism potential. Villager Nguyen Van Luu was assigned the task of reviving the craft. He elaborated: "Our village’s ceramic craft has been highly praised by the international community. After much research, we decided it would be a very good thing to revive ancestors’ ancient craft. We believed this would generate jobs for many local people."

As part of this effort, in October, 2001, a Chu Dau ceramic workshop was established. Efforts were made to find and collect ancient ceramic pieces, and invite experts and artisans from other ceramic villages to collaborate on research into the colours of traditional ceramics. About 200 young people from Chu Dau Village were selected and taught the basic techniques and professional secrets of each production process. These apprentices will become expert artisans in the family ceramic groups of the future. From this workshop, many Chu Dau ceramic items have been exported globally, earning the villagers a better living now while paving the way for them to do even better when craft village tourism begins to spread their reputation to every corner of the world.  

Dong Trieu pottery- making village

Dong Trieu is one of the compulsory stops for local and foreign tourists who come to visit the magnificent site of Ha Long bay, with its population of islands rising from the clear and emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. Dong Trieu district, situated some 60km from Ha Long city, on Highway 18A, owns some of the most famous ceramic villages in Vietnam.Dong Trieu ceramics has developed more recently than other traditional ceramics villages in Vietnam as the first master craftsman, Mr. Hoang Ba Huy, started his family production workshop around 1955. Few years later, in 1958, he established the Ceramics Co-operative Dong Thanh in Cau Dat village with several other family production workshops. By the end of 1960, he had created another co-operative named Anh Hong Ceramic in Vinh Hong village, Mao Khe town.

Dong Trieu products are listed in the category of refractory ceramics. Artisan mainly use oval kilns firing at 1300C. Main raw material is a soft-white variety of clay from Truc Thon village and refractory kaolin exploited in Tu Lang village, Hai Duong province. To catch up with centuries old know how, artisans have dedicated a tremendous amount of time and energy to find out the most effective methods of material preparation and kiln structure. As a result of extensive research and because of high firing temperatures, Dong Trieu ceramics guarantee a high degree of durability as well as of purity of glaze. All impurities and Fe2O3 are removed from the raw clay and material treatment is strictly controlled to achieve stable quality and pleasant colour.

There are currently 20 oval kilns in Cau Dat village, and around 36 in Vinh Hong, providing work to almost 1500 local labourers. Some production units with low output of small products such as bowls, plates, cups, etc, have started using gas kilns.

Dong Trieu ceramics has specialized in the production of specific items that other ceramic villages are not able to manufacture, such as 100 cm diameter flower-pots, wide flower support seats, basins, etc. Artisans do not fail to the ethics of Vietnamese craftsmen to add the sensitivity and strength of their heart to the dexterity of their hands, as well as modern technology. Styling is made on electric turning tables to generate high productivity. Designs and decorative patterns are well protected as they are drawn under the glaze. They include four seasons, charming scenery, etc.

Dong Trieu ceramics are highly appreciated by foreign customers and flowerpots, indoor and outdoor plant support seats and basins are exported to many countries such as Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, Canada, etc. Many local enterprises are now aware of the important potential for ceramics development in Dong Trieu. Attracted by abundant material resources, skilled workforce and favorable transportation conditions, they have invested in Dong Trieu and created a solid basis for further economic development in the region.

Lai Thieu pottery- making village

Binh Duong Province is located in the eastern part of South Vietnam, with the town of Thu Dau Mot only 30 km south of Ho Chi Minh City. The province covers an area of 2,716 km2 of highland between the Sai Gon and Dong Nai Rivers and it has a population of 743,000. In the Binh Duong province is a network of traditional craft villages spreading all over the province, specializing in ceramics, lacquers, sculpture, brass castings, etc. Its ceramic industry have for generations produced a great diversity of ceramics and outdoor pottery wares.

Ceramics production appears to have originated in Binh Duong in the 18th century. Around the beginning of the 20th century, the Lai Thieu region of Binh Duong province emerged as South-East Asia’s central ceramics market due to its accessibility from both land and river. Its importance grew with the arrival of some Chinese potters that came to Binh Duong on trading ships and saw the potential in the available natural resources as local clay, large tree reserves available for firewood and the huge kaolin deposits that could be easily mined. The immigrants from China stopped in at Lai Thieu and built pottery kilns, and local workers and artisans gathered here to produce ceramics items.

However using Chinese technique and very influenced by the Chinese the Vietnamese potters did not copy Chinese ceramics directly; they combined elements in original ways, experienced with new ideas and adopted features from other cultures such as Cambodia and Champa.

Binh Duong ceramic featured a vast range of decorative motifs. Besides the traditional blue pattern ceramics, a new style soon became famous under the name of Lai Thieu cock-figured pottery. It was mostly items for household use such as bowls, dishes, teapots and cups, cooked rice containers with dome shaped tops, bottles, etc.

Decorative patterns were drawn on the glaze in both elaborate and free styles usually using three colours, either crimson red, green and black or, red, black and indigo. Popular motifs were a cock, a banana tree or a bunch of chrysanthemums while other patterns included flowers and birds, or leaves and landscapes. Binh Duong ceramics remained a kind of porous earthenware, with mostly whitish (ivory-white) glaze.With time, decorative motifs carried on developing due to the demands of domestic as well as foreign customers.

Binh Duong’s ceramics are fired in chambered and pipe-typed kilns. Through time, products, kiln technology and production processes steadily improved as Binh Duong potters went through successive stages of modernization and mechanization in order to increase productivity as well as the quality of their products.

Lai Thieu pottery from the last century is said to be a fusion of three lines of the southern Chinese ceramics – those from Chaozhou, Guangdong and Fujian. The Chaozhou line includes household commodities like bowls and plates decorated with the images of Bat Tien (the Eight Fairies), or the legendary stories of Chaozhou. The Guangdong line comprises of ornamental pieces including vases and flower pots, while the Fujian line includes vases and small jars which are enameled and painted brown.

In Vietnam, The Lai Thieu and Southern Household Pottery exhibition, featuring around 639 pieces, was displayed at the HCMC Museum of Fine Arts until the end of May, 2009. Currently, Minh Long 1 Co pottery (also in Binh Duong) is produced using advanced technology and sophisticated equipment.

Bau Truc pottery village

Bau Truc pottery village- the name is popularly known by many local tourists as well as foreign ones. It is the oldest pottery village in Southeast Asia and famous for hand-made pottery products and unique way of baking potter.

 Bau Truc pottery village is in Phuoc Dan town, Ninh Phuoc district, Ninh Thuan province. It is about 10 kilometers away from Phan Rang city to the South, right on National Highway 1A. Bau Truc pottery village is proud of being one of two the oldest ones in Southeast Asia.

Bau Truc village is over 200 years old. It means that the pottery village was originated from a long time ago. There are more than 400 households in the village. Most of these households are Cham people, of which over 80 percent of households make this traditional craft.

Bau Truc is named after original Cham name Paley HamuTrok, means “Lang Trung”- protruding part of the end of river. Pottery craft is started by Poklong Chan from ancient. He is one of Patriarch of ancient pottery craft and it has been remained by people here up to now.

Patriarch Poklong Chan helped Bau Truc people to escape from condition of misery and taught them to dig clay to make pottery. Up to present, although Cham Bau Truc pottery village-Ninh Thuan district had experienced a process of changes history, being affected by nature and people, in hearts of Cham people, they has primarily remained the traditional village. Nowadays, Bau Truc Village is planned into town: however, scenes of village and life of people here have not been changed not much.

Unlike the other traditional and old craft villages such as Bat Trang. Bau Truc village is very modern and spacious. Streets of village are paved by concrete, houses with red roofs, stores and households of making pottery are always busy with visitors from everywhere coming here.

Pottery of Bau Truc village is famous for materials to make it. Pottery products are made from clay collected from Hamu Craok fields and yellow sand from Quao River. This just makes main differences between products making from pottery of Bau Truc and these of other villages. Yellow sand at Quao River has many outstanding features that there is no sand compared to. This type of sand is not only smooth but also tiny. Clay collected from Hamu Craok field is soft. Clay is crashed finely, soaked with some of water, and incubated during the night. And then it will be mixed with sand. Rate of clay and sand with water depends on products they make.

People in Bau Truc village have remained the primary way of making pottery items from many different generations. If other villages’ people make pottery items by using turntable to make, Bau Truc’s people make by themselves. Craftsmen do not use turntable, they themselves use their hands to turn around product to create the shape for it and some simple tools such as bamboo sticks, shells, etc. to turn around product to create the shape for it. Moreover, they also use wet cloths to make the product surface smooth. Although manual labor is hard and productivity is low, shapes of pottery products are beautiful and unique. There are no identical ones. It is said that no two pottery products of Bau Truc, whether they are big or small, are identical, although the craftsmen try to make them look the same and they are baked at the same place in the same way.

Pottery products made with a large number are relieves featuring Cham women, Cham Kings, dancers and everyday items. These items are decorated with seashell, snails, simple flowers, or hand-made paintings reflecting the daily life of Bau Truc’s people. They look modern but they still bear an old soul. Especially, the workers making pottery products in Bau Truc village are mainly women, because women are neat-handed and patient.

There is also no need kiln. The workers just use straw and dry wood piled, and then put a fire to burn. Time for baking pottery lasts about 2 or 3 hours. The products that are baked has colors of natural red of clay or yellow-red, red- pink, black-gray, brown featuring Champa’s culture.

Pottery products of Bau Truc village are nowadays stylized from shape to decorating motifs. Pottery items made have displayed in houses, at hotels or senior restaurants. Bau Truc’s products have become famous ones and they are consumed in local and international markets. At the same time, they are also souvenirs for tourists coming here.

 Every year, travel companies usually introduce tourists to come Bau Truc pottery village with a view to visit and learn more about the traditional pottery village. Tourists really enjoy seeing craftsmen to make pottery product or even they make it by themselves. If you have time in this summer vacation, why do not you visit the village only once time. I am sure that you will really love it.

Phu Lang pottery village

Phu Lang is a must-see for tourists in the region, not least because of its natural surroundings. The village sits at the foot of the majestic Son Mountain on the banks of the Cau River, only 18km northeast of Bac Ninh Town along Highway 18.

Set apart from its spectacular scenery, Phu Lang Village is a beauty spot in its own right. The collection of houses glint with green-moss tiles, and the village roads are lined with a medley of ceramic goods propped against the shop fronts. In the village itself tourists can choose from ready-made clay creations and also have the opportunity to make something themselves. In the words of one foreign visitor, the village is a good place not only because you can meet and make friends with the locals and make original gifts for friends and relatives, but it’s also "a very good place to relax".

Phu Lang is the last survivor of an old pottery village triangle. Although Bat Trang still produces ceramics, the village has been sucked into the suburbs of Ha Noi as a commune of Gia Lam. The third village, Tho Ha, in Bac Giang Province, has also bent under the pressures of development and industrialisation.

But it wasn’t simply through choice that Phu Lang was able to stay true to tradition as location again played a role in providing residents with easy access to the fundamental raw materials of their trade; water, firewood and clay. Of course, Phu Langpottery is defined by the brown colour and specific texture of the raw clay found in the region. But the villagers have a few extra techniques up their sleeves to differentiate their produce from others in the area.

Pots are baked in kilns at initial temperatures of 600 degrees centigrade rising gradually to around 1,200oC. Once the clay has cooled, potters add their trademark coat of thick eelskin enamel that gives the brown clay an original yellow tint.

Constant production over the centuries has meant that some of the products the village produce are literally museam pieces. Foremost in this case are the vilage’s traditional incense burners used and favoured in the Le (1428-1788) and Mac (1527-1677) dynasties. Examples of these are on display at the Vietnamese Museum of History. It is significant that such a symbol of ancient tradition and culture should survive the aggressive competitiveness of the modern world. And when talking to the locals it seems the secret to success lies not only in artistic talent but also astute business skills.

Locals attribute the popularity of pottery from Phu Lang to sustained durability and of course – money. "We can’t be beaten on price", one local resident says enthusiastically, admitting that friendly rivalry with products from Bat Trang keeps prices low.

But its not all about the price tag. For alongside practical use locals eagerly put their success down to a special artistic edge, pointing to the traditional Phu Lang water jug as proof of their long-standing reputation.

There is also a heavy air of entrepeneurialsim with trade increasing between Phu Lang and other communities and markets in northern and coastal provinces, spreading recently to find favour in the south. Innovation is also key as the village caters for little tapped-into religious demand for pots and jars. In the dry season from the 9th lunar month to the end of the lunar year for example, there is a large market for terra-cotta coffins because they preserve well and are easy to bury.

Tho Ha village - making pottery wares

Tho Ha Village is in Bac Giang Province, 50km north of Hanoi. The village used to specialize in . In the 1980s, the villagers abandoned the old tradition and adopted new ones.

The village is not as famous as Duong Lam for the old beauty but it still maintains the core of an ancient village in northern Vietnam. Tho Ha is a small corner for busy townsfolk to seek the peaceful atmosphere of the old days.

From Hanoi, tourists will have to pass several industrial parks and new residential areas of Bac Ninh, which are noisy and dusty. When they enter the area of Bac Giang province, they can feel the taste of the country life, especially when they go on the only path to Tho Ha village. This taste comes from the field, from banian trees, the river wharf and also from old red bricks which paves the way.

Tho Ha is surrounded by a bend of the Cau village, making the village a peninsular. The village used to be a commercial center of a region. Pottery wares of Tho Ha were transported to markets throughout the northern region from the Cau river wharf.

As time changes, the pottery-making trade has become the past. The remaining trace of an ancient pottery village, one of the three most famous pottery-making centers in northern Vietnam, is only walls which are built by pieces of earthenware. These walls have become Tho Ha's specialty.

If Duong Lam is well-known for its ancient houses made by laterite, Tho Ha is remembered for its walls of earthenware. This village is also special for its "urban" characteristics.

In 11th-12th century, Tho Ha was an economic center for pottery, full of kilns, businessmen, and boats trading in ceramics. These days, young people only know of Tho Ha's former fame through the splendid walls, roofs and houses made using broken pottery. Nowadays, there are no kilns left in Tho Ha.