| Description |
Chăm pottery products are made with the skilfulness, flexibility and softness of hands and bodies of Chăm women, showing the individual creativity based on the knowledge handed over by the community. This has the following characteristics. The pottery is entirely handmade by women. Instead of using a turntable, women have to move backwards to revolve around the product placed in a fixed place to create the shape for it. The pottery is not glazed but fired outdoors. Raw materials (clay, sand, water, firewood and straw) are exploited locally.
After being collected from Hamu Tanu Halan field along the banks of Quao river in Bàu Trúc village (Ninh Thuận province), the clay will be reproduced after a few year periods. The clay for making pottery of Bình Đức village (Bình Thuận province) is exploited in Xuân Quang village (3 kilometers from Bình Đức village to the Northwest). Tools for making pottery are simple because they are made use of local materials by artisans such as bamboo hoop scraper-polisher, bamboo hoop scraper to thin pottery products and clamshells and wetted coil cloth to make the product smooth.
Without using a kiln, the finished pottery products are dried and baked outdoors with firewood and straw at a temperature of about 800 Celsius within 7-8 hours. Chăm’s pottery products are mainly household utensils, worshiping products, and fine art works including Jars (jek), pots (gok), trays (cambak), vases (bilaok), rice jars (khan brah). These products are characterised as being unique and carrying individual imprints. |
| Social and cultural significance |
The art of making pottery is a bridge for Chăm women to exchange and interact with each other in productive labor and social activities as well as in vocational education for their children, contributing to further enhancing the role of Chăm women in the modern society.
Through pottery making, artisans practice and transfer skills, know-how and the arts of shaping associated with folk knowledge on the nature and universe (i.e. weather forecast; clay identification and processing; the art of outdoor pottery firing; the use of a tree’s bark to create colors for decoration and so on). This has connection with the art of folk performance, customs, practices, beliefs and festivals, including ceremonies related to the Chăm pottery craft ancestor (the god Po Klong Can). The research on the role of women through the art of pottery-making can also be found in remaining images on social assignment in the matriarchy system of ancient Chăm people. |
| Transmission method |
Knowledge and skills related to the heritage are taught to their descendants by the artisans through practising skills, how-know on recognizing and exploiting the clay as well as mixing and kneading it, ways of using pottery-making tools, ways of creating colors with the bark of a tree for pottery decoration and ways of shaping and firing at a suitable temperature.
Transmitting and practising the Chăm’s pottery-making art is derived from the needs of each individual and family on a voluntary basis. Each individual is free to learn the craft or practice. They have the right to form groups or clubs. The art of pottery-making is practised and transmitted in the living space of Chăm people. This includes job assignments, keeping and transmission of memories, skills, techniques and know-how, which are all in charge by women. Therefore, the heritage is transferred, inherited and transmitted as a means of earning a living of Chăm women. |
| Community |
The Art of pottery-making of Chăm people is kept and practiced by Chăm community in in Bàu Trúc village (Ninh Thuận province) and Bình Đức village (Binh Thuận province) as a means of earning their living. Some individuals and families good at the craft are still making pottery products for using, selling and transmitting to their descendants and villagers. For example, they are Ms. Đàng Thị Tám (aged 70), Ms. Đàng Thị Lực (aged 65) and Mr. Đàng Năng Tự (aged 42) in Bàu Trúc; Ms. Đơn Thị Hiệu (aged 83), and Mr. Lâm Hùng Sổi (aged 57) and his wife in Bình Đức. |
| Type of UNESCO List |
List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding |
| Incribed year in UNESCO List |
2022 |
