Ninh Thuan preserves, promotes Cham ceramic cultural heritage

  • Unlike other traditional ceramic villages, Cham's pottery makers don't use turning tables to create their products but only use their skilled hands. Cham women move themselves backward around blocks of clay to shape objects. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành
    Unlike other traditional ceramic villages, Cham's pottery makers don't use turning tables to create their products but only use their skilled hands. Cham women move themselves backward around blocks of clay to shape objects. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành
  • Cham tower made with Cham pottery techniques in Phuoc Dan township, Ninh Thuan province. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành
    Cham tower made with Cham pottery techniques in Phuoc Dan township, Ninh Thuan province. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành
  • A Cham pottery product. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành
    A Cham pottery product. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành
  • A range of products made with Cham pottery techniques in Phuoc Dan township, Ninh Thuan province. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành
    A range of products made with Cham pottery techniques in Phuoc Dan township, Ninh Thuan province. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành
  • A tourist purchases a Cham pottery in Phuoc Dan township, Ninh Thuan province. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành
    A tourist purchases a Cham pottery in Phuoc Dan township, Ninh Thuan province. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành
The Bau Truc pottery village in Ninh Thuan province is one of the oldest ceramic villages in Southeast Asia. About 85 percent of the village’s 400 households make pottery. Cham pottery products are mainly household utensils, worship objects, and handicrafts such as jars (jek), pots (gok), food trays (cambak), and vases (bilaok). One of the most outstanding features of traditional Cham pottery is the technique of shaping their wares by hand rather than by a wheel and their use of simple tools or shells to decorate products. The art of pottery making of Cham ethnic people was inscribed in the list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding by UNESCO in November 2022. Ninh Thuan province is working on a project to preserve and promote the value of traditional Cham pottery craft, by focusing on developing community tourism based on intangible cultural heritage, improving local people’s lives and integrating the traditional craft into everyday’s life. VNA Photo: Nguyễn Thành

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