They use clay with a light yellow color, moderately smooth. They have their own traditional soil treatment techniques. The potter is a woman. They shape ceramic products without a turntable, using only simple tools according to traditional manual methods. The tool to shape the product is just a table and a small piece of rough cloth. By slightly bending down, the legs move around the table, the worker uses his hands to shape the body of the product. Finished brushing, they let it dry naturally. The product shaping and shading tool is very simple. The burning materials are straw and firewood. They are open-fired and have high technology in taking advantage of the wind direction as well as preserving heat. Products include two groups: cooking utensils and containers. Today, they create a variety of products to sell to tourists, such as statues, flower pots, so on.

Glazed tile and ceramic household stuffs or wallboards of several colours and motifs made by firing the pulped clay soil are called “çini”. Çini-making means the craftsmanship shaped around traditional Turkish art of çini since 12th century with its own specific production and adornment techniques like “minai”, “luster”, “polishing”, “underglaze”. Çini craftspeople generally have used “underglaze technique” since 16th century in their production pursuant to the prescriptions they prepare with their traditional production knowledge about nature. In this technique clay is pulped. Having shaped, the clay is lined and dried. Next, it is fired in çini ovens smooth surface called “biscuit” appears. Patterns prepared by drilling on the paper with openwork technique are transformed to the surface with coal dust and the outer contours are drawn by hand with black paint and brush. Later, patterns are dyed with dyes prepared according to the prescription. The surface of çini is covered with glaze and after it is fired at 900-940°C the çini-making is completed. Among çini adornments generally geometric shapes, plants and animal figures symbolizing cosmic thoughts and beliefs are used in different colours. Using red, cobalt blue, turquoise and green on white or navy blue background is the characteristic feature of traditional çinis. The basic element that characterizes the art of çini is traditional craftsmanship manifested in the applications and the knowledge transmitted from generations to generations about the supply of the raw material, preparation of dyes, production and usage of the tools, firing process, adornment techniques and aesthetics.

Turkey 2016

Blacksmith business is one of the oldest folk crafts in Uzbekistan. For many centuries, the country has been one of the largest centers of craft production, including the art of metalworking. In Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent, Kokand, Margilan and other places there are unique workshops where knowledge is transferred from generation to generation, from master to student. Thus, ancient traditions are preserved, and the family of hereditary masters continues. At the blacksmith’s shop, the oven, qura, supa, ura, chupkunda; and instruments sandons, bosqon, hammers, bulls, eaves, mills, and others are used. Hammersmiths make various things such as hoes, mowers, tesha and other household items, doors, gratings etc.

The Kate Festival of the Cham people is the most important festival of the Cham community in Ninh Thuan, taking place in the 7th month of the Cham calendar every year (around October of the Gregorian calendar). This festival is to commemorate gods such as Po Klaung Garai, Po Rame... and ancestors. The Kate Festival of the Cham people in Ninh Thuan province usually takes place in a large space at the temples and towers: Pô Klong Garai Tower (Do Vinh ward, Phan Rang - Thap Cham city), Pô Rômê Tower (Hau Sanh village, Phuoc Huu commune, Ninh Phuoc district) and Po Inư Nưgar Temple (Huu Duc village, Phuoc Huu commune, Ninh Phuoc district), in order from the temple, tower to the villages and finally to the family, creating a rich and diverse Cham festival flow. The Kate Festival consists of two parts: the ceremony and the festival. The ceremony includes rituals such as: The ritual of receiving clothes from the youngest Raglai brother down from the mountain at 7am; Opening the tower door to invite the gods to attend and enjoy the offerings; The ceremony of bathing the statue of the god; The ceremony of dressing the statue of the god Anguei Khan Aw Kapo; The most important Adaoh Tâm ceremony, starting from 9am - 11am; Kate festival at the temple, tower: The beginning of the Kate festival in Ninh Thuan is the worship ceremony at the temple tower directed by the high priest. The celebrant will play the Kanhi and sing a hymn, offering the gods. After that, the high priest will preside over the statue bathing ceremony performed by some Brahmin priests. The offerings in the Kate festival in Ninh Thuan at the temple tower include: 3 chickens, 1 big goat, 3 loaves of rice cakes, 1 tray of rice with sesame salt, 5 trays of rice with goat meat and soup with fresh fruit. In addition, the offerings also include eggs, wine, sticky rice, betel and areca nuts... After completing the above rituals, people will return to the village and continue other rituals. When the sacred dance in the tower has just ended, the festival outside the tower begins. The Kate festival is similar to the Lunar New Year of the Kinh people. The festival is vibrant with dances, Cham folk songs, Gi Nang drums, Saranai trumpets, brocade weaving performances, pottery making, water carrying competitions, drum beating... Kate festival in villages and families: The worship rituals and the festival part of the Kate festival in Ninh Thuan are held in parallel. Before the festival, villagers will clean the temple together, decorate the village house, and prepare food, drinks, and the yard. According to beliefs, each village will worship a god, but all are village gods. The celebrant - a prestigious person, trusted by the villagers, will represent the people to offer offerings to the gods to pray for good things, luck, and peace. After the Kate Festival in the village, the Cham people will return to their homes to perform the ceremony. The celebrant is the oldest person in the clan. This is the person who will represent the whole family to offer offerings to the ancestors. At this time, all family members are present, dressed neatly and sincerely pray for the ancestors to wish for peace. The Kate Festival expresses the desire for fertility, praying for growth, good crops towards a peaceful and prosperous life. With its great historical and cultural value, the Kate Festival of the Cham people in Ninh Thuan province was recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2017.

a) Traditional handicraft techniques The old art of manufacturing the traditional Iranian floating vessel, called Lenj, has remained relatively unchanged. Lenjes are, mostly, made for their large cargo capacity. The Lenj-Bum was, once, the best ship for the Iranian sailors and navigators. Even now, it is still competing with rivals. But the gradual decrease in the number of the long voyages is limiting the popularity of the vessel. Lenj-Bum is capable of tolerating the storms. Originally, Lenjes were used in commercial travels to distant destinations, including India and Africa. Lenjes are composed of various parts, each made of special types of wood, depending on their function. Contemporarily, Lenjes are used, solely, for short journeys, fishing and pearl hunting. Older Lenjes were capable of travelling for, even, one year. The Persian sailors used to launch their commercial ships from the three ports of Loft, Kong and Lian, in Bushehr. The marine routes were, however, more varified, and would include travels to Basra in Iraq, or to the southern coasts of the Persian Gulf. Their main trades included dates, wood of Chandal, pottery, coconut and fruits. b) Knowledge and practices concerning the nature and the universe Before the introduction into the tradition of modern positioning systems, Iranian navigators could locate the ship according to the positions of the sun, the moon and the stars. An individual, called Moallem (“teacher; guide”), was responsible for the positioning jobs on the Lenj. Looking at the sun and the stars with his means, including the Persian astrolabe and sextant, at 6 AM and 6 PM, he could locate the Lenj on the sea. Navigation at night was the captain’s duty. He would order a Sokkāni (“helmsman”) to lead the ship into the direction of a specified star till the moment of sunrise. Compasses brougth more convenience for the navigators. They could define the routes more delicately, by utilizing a combination of astronomy and the newly introduced compass technology. The sailors started to record the stars’ specifications on the compasses. Using this combined method, they would define the route at night. The number of stars used as reference points was 17; they would be repeated in both northern abd southen directions round the compasses. The navigational knowledge and legacy is still passed on from fathers to sons. The Iranian navigators also had special formulae to measure the latitudes and longitudes, as well as the water depth. Sailors needed the wind in favour in their travels to the south; they would arrange for their voyages according to the seasonal winds that would blow every 6 months from north to south. They also attended to the particular winds of Persian Gulf to find a forecast for weather. Each wind had a native regional name. Knowing the wind route was not enough to trace the time of a pending storm; they also attended to the color of waters, the wave heights, or the nature of the blowing wind. c and d) Performing arts, Social practices and festivity events The majority of the Iranian inhabitants of the region earn their livelihood from the sea; consequently, the Persian Gulf continues to receive their respect. A number of traditional ceremonies and customs about Lenjes and the sea show their rooted symbiosis with nature. Nowruz-e-Sāyyad (Fisherman’s New Year) is one example. The celebration occurs late in the month of Tir (June 22nd), as a surviving traditional ceremony from the distant years. No fishing, no trades, and no sea journeys are allowed on this day. In the morning, the children colour animal foreheads, with red clay; and by sunset, all villagers gather on the seashore to play music or perform the proceedings of Shushî, an old traditional performing art, showing the sailors’ respect for the nature. Some people wear special clothes and masks, and try to represent sea-gulls. When the native music band plays Rezif (the sailors’ traditional music), suddenly, a number of men with fearful appearances come out of the sea, and pretend to attack the people. They are Shushi’s, the old demons who were asleep, and now the new years’ eve has awakend them. Interestingly, the people enter dialogues with these demons, and encourage them to join in the feast. Bādebān-Keshi (“setting the sail”) is another surviving ceremony. Long ago, when the ships were about to leave for long voyages, by the time the sailors were setting the sails, the music would accompany from the shore. The sailor’s families would bid farewell. Specific music and rhythms constitute inseparable parts of sailing on the Persian Gulf. In the past, the sailors sang special songs while they were working. In Hormozgan province, three such musical traditions are, still, attended by the locals: Livā, Rezif and Azvā. The singers describe a marine travel in their songs. Traditional bagpipes, named Neyanbān, accompany. The ritualistic performances are reminiscent of the jobs on the Lenjes. The movements resemble hoisting the ropes, rowing, holding in the fishing nets, and also separating and classifying the fish. e) Oral traditions and expressions, including languages as a vehicle of the intangible cultural heritage There are traditional sailing terminologies, stories and poems (Sharve) related to the nominated element in modern Iranian languages and dialects of the region. These linguistic varieties are representable as: 1.Lārestanî :(Aradi,Evazi,Bastaki,Banāruye-yi,Bikhe-yi,Khonji,Fedāghi,Fishvari,Gerāshi and Lāri) 2.Bashākerdî/Bashkardî :(Bandar-Abbāsi,Rudāni,Minābi and Hormozi) 3.Kumzārî :(Lāraki, …)

Iran 2011

The Thổ Hà Village Festival came into being in 1685 but later endured a long period of suspension. It was revived in 1992, taking place yearly from the 20th to 22nd of the first lunar month. The four hamlets in the village take turn to play main role in the ritual procession throughout the village, which is located on a tip of land surrounded by Cầu River, bordering Bắc Ninh and Bắc Giang provinces. The festival is organized in commemoration of Mr. Đào Trí Tiến, the village’s patriarch of pottery making. The procession starts from 10:00am, beginning from Hamlet 1 and ending at noon at the Communal House. The procession is formed by many delegations dressed ornate costumes, resembling mythical and symbolic figures such as Tam Đa (three abudances) and Tiên Đồng – Ngọc Nữ fairies, or performing troupes such sên tiền dancers, Flag Master, Sword Master, Gong Master, so on. Although distance for the procession is quite short, it took two hours for the procession of the Saint’s palanquin to reach the communal house due to many activities taking place in the same narrow village road. The last ritual taking place at the communal in honoring the saint is the most solemn and sacred ceremony in the festival.

Making figures of fantastic dragon, animal toys and whistles with clay. A’jubasozi is a part of pottery. In the past people had some beliefs related to this figures.

Pottery, process of making pot, dish, jug, vessel, vase and other containers with special prepared clay.

Phù Lãng pottery making was taught to the villagers by the founder of the craft, Mr. Lưu Phong Tú, around the Trần dynasty, 14th century, and has developed to this day. The primary products are pottery with brown glaze and related colors. Product types include religious ceramics, household appliances, and decorative items with the outstanding feature of using the embossing method in the form of bubble engraving, also known as double engraving, with natural, durable, and unique glaze color; The shape of the ceramic is rustic but strong and very bold in shaping sculpture. The production process is specialized with worker teams: furnace team, broaching team, pattern team, enamel team, and cleaning team. The stages include selecting soil and treating clay; shaping on a rotating table (household ceramics and fine art ceramics) and shaping by printing on wooden molds or terracotta molds (worship ceramics); tick, scrape products; glazing (the material used to make glazing is the ash of forest trees, ash as white as lime; currently we use ash from ironwood, bamboo, wood, lime, crushed pebbles, white alluvial mud); fired with wood to create scratches on the ceramic surface (temperature 1000 degrees Celsius, for 3 days and 3 nights continuously). Products made of Phù Lãng ceramics are lustrous, have an echo when tapped, and come in a variety of eel skin tones, including light yellow, dark yellow, brown, and yellow-brown. There are 3 main product lines: altar ceramics (incense burners, altar stands, tops), household ceramics (vases, jars, pipes) and fine art ceramics (paintings, flower pots, vases, animal-shaped kettles). The soul of Phù Lãng ceramic products is created from the rusticity of this eel skin glaze.

Sayong clay is a material for craft making of the traditional pottery in Malaysia. The pottery work crafted as a water vessel adapting the form of pumpkin/bottle gourd is called Labu Sayong. Further inspired by the nature, the decoration on Labu Sayong body used the flora and fauna as main motif. Such motifs that can be found as ornamentation on the labu sayong are designs based on local flowers (bunga tanjung, bunga pecah empat), spices (clove, star anise) and leaves (bamboo shoots). It is even believed that the drinking water stored in the labu sayong has certain health properties to cure common ailments like cough and fever. The beautiful workmanship present in each labu sayong can be attributed to the fine skill of the craftsmen as well as the high quality of clay used in the process. These days, the traditional pottery is crafted as a decoration and souvenir.

About 3000 years ago, a group of highly mobile ocean-going foragers arrived in Fiji from the west, bringing with them a distinctive pottery tradition that archaeologists now call Lapita. Although pottery styles and decoration have changed over time, the art of pottery-making has persisted in the Fiji islands to the present day. The village of Nakoro in Noikoro district, central Vitilevu is located at least 20 miles from the nearest village in Tholo West. In the Fijian village of Nakoro, traditional pottery-making was used in barter in former times. It is still bartered to- day, but to a very limited extent. An elongated form of kuro (cooking pot) has been exchanged for mats with some people of Tholo West. Noikoro is famous for its elongated cooking pot. Clay deposits vary from district to district. In Nadroga, terracotta clay is at foot level or found on river banks. The cleaning of clay differs from one district to another. In Noikoro, male assistance is needed, as clay has to be carried on horseback. The clay deposit is in Vusu, an old village site about one and a half miles away from the present village.

LAPITA In 1917, Maurice Piroutet a French geologist discovered pottery shards along the coast of Fouē in the province of Konē in New Caledonia. The design was similar to the tapa motifs in the Lau group today. The pottery fragments were named after the beach from it was found. The name then was extended to all places in the Pacific in which the shards were found. HOW OLD ARE THE RELICS. There is geological and archaeological evidence of a certain group of people who navigated the Pacific Ocean with distinctive pottery design known as Lapita. Science and carbon dating can determine the age of a relic and the year in which the owner inhabited an island. WHO WERE THE LAPITA PEOPLE? Researchers found that prior to the habitation of the Pacific, a group of people called the Austronesians existed. They are identified through their language family. During those days, the language was not so diverse as today. 3,500 years ago they navigated the Pacific Ocean with their double-hulled canoes called the Drua. Evidence stipulated that these people originated from South China. They brought with them a distinctive pottery design, domesticated animals such as pigs, chicken, dogs and geminated trees such as breadfruit. They are the inhabitants of today’s Madagascar, South East Asia, Bismarck Archipelago near Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, Rapanui and New Zealand.