Dangzhenpichu

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Seventh-generation bearer of pottery firing. Born into a family of potters, in 1977 he began learning pottery making from his father Gemadingzhu. Within the regional tradition and school record of Pottery Firing Craftsmanship in Diqingzangzuzizhi, Yunnan: At first, Tibetans exchanged pottery pots and the like for grain and other goods; now Axi black pottery has entered the market and become a handcraft with distinctive local characteristics. It is said that the Nangqian Tibetan black pottery craft was introduced to the local area when Princess Wencheng of the Tang dynasty entered Tibet for a marriage alliance and passed through the Yushu region; from this perspective, it is the crystallization of the fusion of Tibetan and Han cultures.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Tibetan ethnicity, born in May 1967, a native of Shangri-La, Yunnan Province. National representative bearer of pottery firing craftsmanship (Tibetan black pottery firing techniques), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. Over more than forty years in the craft, in 2005 he founded the Shangri-La Longba Tangdui Black Earthenware Co., Ltd., which has used a company-plus-households model to help the whole village prosper. He established an earthenware research office and a Tibetan black pottery making techniques transmission institute, and has long run pottery training classes, teaching villagers free of charge. He is committed to rescuing and protecting the traditional craft and to developing new products, creating traditional articles for daily use, Tibetan religious articles and carved decorative craft objects with a distinctive ethnic character. His works are finely made and richly characteristic, combining utility with ornament, and enjoy a high reputation in ceramic art circles. Within the documented technical tradition of Pottery Firing Craftsmanship in Diqingzangzuzizhi, Yunnan: The Tibetan black pottery firing craft has a long history and distinctive features. It is mainly distributed in Tibetan-inhabited areas such as Tangdui Village, Nixi Township, Shangri-La County, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province; Axi Village, Chitu Township, Daocheng County, Sichuan Province; and Nangqian County in the Yushu region of Qinghai Province. The black pottery firing technique of Tangdui Village uses highly adhesive, highly plastic white and red clay, combined with stone powder ground from weathered sandstone, mixed to form the raw material for shaping the body. Its making tools consist mainly of wooden paddles, wooden scrapers, wooden pads, and wooden mallets, extremely primitive and simple. By contrast, the firing process is quite sophisticated. Firing black pottery must go through twelve process steps in sequence: clay selection, clay tempering, body shaping, porcelain inlay, polishing, decoration, shade-drying, firing, carbon infiltration, and crack prevention. Shaping the pottery body uses the coil-building method, which requires a high level of skill. First, take well-kneaded and mixed clay, beat it into strips with a wooden paddle and place it on a base, then, according to the shape of the desired vessel, pinch out the outline by hand, then polish the inner and outer walls and the rim, then inlay white porcelain shards and dot on animal and geometric patterns, and finally fire at high temperature for about one hour to produce the finished piece. The Tibetan black pottery handicraft products of Tangdui Village can be roughly divided into two major categories: daily household items and religious implements. They come in a complete range with wide uses; all kinds of tableware, cooking utensils, tea sets, wine vessels, drinking vessels, as well as incense burners and butter lamps used by the Tibetan people, are fully supplied. This kind of pottery integrates utility, aesthetics, and craftsmanship, fully demonstrating the creativity and expressive power of Tibetan folk pottery art. Axi Village, Chitu Township, Daocheng County, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, fires Tibetan black pottery. Axi black pottery uses local earth mixed with two other kinds of earth as raw material, then is shaped through manual techniques such as pinching, hammering, tapping, and beating, and then decorated with patterns using porcelain fragments. After these steps are completed, pine firewood is stacked and lit for firing, and the yellowish-brown clay turns black in the process. The fired pottery pots, jars, basins, kettles, and bottles are all indispensable household utensils for the Tibetan people. Nangqian County, Qinghai Province, is the birthplace of Yushu civilization, with a long history and brilliant culture. Nangqian Tibetan black pottery is a traditional handicraft of the Nangqian area, mainly produced in Shanrong Village, Nangqian County. Nangqian Tibetan black pottery is made by primitive manual methods, with careful material selection, using locally pure and fine red loam and clay as raw materials. Through manual crushing, screening, throwing the body, airing, trimming, burnishing, and painting, the body is formed, sealed in a large pottery jar, and then fired using the unique method of sealing the jar and smoking it to infiltrate carbon. During firing, the temperature and humidity are strictly controlled so that carbon particles infiltrate the pottery body during the smoking process, finally becoming black pottery that is 'black as carbon and hard as porcelain.' Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Coiling the body": Ropes of clay are coiled on a base and shaped by hand; wall thickness and roundness depend entirely on the potter's fingers. "Carbonising and guarding against cracks": After firing, carbon is worked into the body to make it black and hard, and the pieces are checked against cracks. "The dragon-head fire basin": A dragon head must be modelled and fired in one piece, which is why the fire basin is the hardest commission in the village. "Butter churn and tea jar": The churn must survive beating while the jar keeps its heat; each shape is dictated by use.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2018, Dangzhenpichu was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Pottery Firing Craftsmanship, with Diqingzangzuzizhi, Yunnan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Pottery Firing Craftsmanship in Diqingzangzuzizhi, Yunnan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Diqingzangzuzizhi, Yunnan as its declared area, and Xianggelila Shi Culture Yichan Management Institute as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Dangzhenpichu · National Representative Bearer Archive