EE00002499

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.