Dai Manlun Pottery Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Since the late 1950s, renowned archaeologists from home and abroad have conducted several special investigations into Dai pottery-making, deeming the Dai traditional pottery to be representative of China's primitive ceramic art and a key to unlocking the mystery of Neolithic-age pottery firing in China.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Yunnan has a pottery history of over four thousand years; places such as Jinghong Mandou Village, Menghan Manluanzhan Village, Menghai Manzha Village, and Menglong Village in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture all preserve relatively complete traditional Dai pottery-making craft. The Dai have loved using pottery since ancient times; pottery-making is called "Banmo" in the Dai language, commonly known as "earth pots." The "Records of the Hundred Yi" (Baiyi Zhuan), written by Qian Zuxun in the early Ming, states that the Dai "use only the vessels of pottery and smelting." Unlike other ethnic groups, Dai pottery-making is transmitted from generation to generation by women. The most outstanding feature of Dai pottery craft is slow-wheel hand-making; the vessel surfaces are all stamped with patterned wooden paddles, which accords with the impressed-pattern pottery unearthed at southern Neolithic sites. Dai pottery is also particular about its materials, mainly adding a sandy-gravel admixture to clay to improve formability. Its firing methods also have their own characteristics, including open-air firing and enclosed semi-firing, among others. Body-forming methods are diverse, including formless-wheel shaping, slow-wheel turned by the toe, and wheel turned by the hand. However, with the deepening of modernization, except for a small amount used as architectural roof-ridge ornaments and Buddhist ritual vessels, traditional Dai pottery is no longer easily seen on other occasions. Moreover, the economic returns of pottery-making are unsatisfactory, so fewer and fewer people learn and engage in the craft. In Xishuangbanna, only a few households in a handful of villages still make pottery; the primitive pottery craft is on the verge of extinction and urgently needs rescue and protection.
Pounding, sieving, mixing with sand
Three preparing stages before forming: the earth is pounded and sieved, blended with grit for workability, then moistened according to the weather so the pot holds on the slow wheel.
Setting up the slow wheel
The wooden or bamboo wheel is set on level ground and turned slowly by foot or hand; the speed is entirely human, and any jerk leaves an uneven spiral in the wall.
Throwing with the foot on the wheel
The most striking method: seated, one hand steadies the clay while the toes of the other foot turn the wheel, keeping both hands on the wall; some villages need no wheel at all.
Beating the paddle patterns
A textured wooden paddle is beaten over the surface, leaving marks that recall the impressed pottery of Neolithic sites in southern China; the tool is also the pattern matrix.
Open and semi-enclosed firing
Firing takes two forms: pots stacked on brushwood in the open, or set in a half-enclosed earth kiln; the different fire paths yield different hardness and uses.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Its main tools include turntables, wooden paddles, bamboo scrapers, and stone balls, among others. The main craft process includes pounding earth, sieving earth, mixing sand, adding water, mounting the turntable, shaping the body, beating the body, drying, preparing for firing, and firing, among other stages. The pottery produced can be classified by use into everyday utensils, building materials, and vessels for making Buddhist offerings (danfo), among other kinds.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
These ancient pottery techniques are still transmitted and used by the Dai to this day. Yu Meng (per the official archive of the associated inheritor): Female, Dai ethnicity, born April 1957, a native of Jinghong City, Yunnan Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the Dai ethnic group slow-wheel pottery craft, an Intangible Cultural Heritage project. Over more than thirty years of practice, her pottery skill has continuously matured; she mainly makes traditional Dai everyday utensils and Buddhist-temple articles, marked by strong local and ethnic character and deeply loved by the people of the villages. She actively takes on apprentices and teaches the craft, has been invited to give professional lectures at several universities in Yunnan, and has taught the five sessions of the Dai slow-wheel pottery training class held by Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture. In 1996 she went to Japan to participate in the World Ceramic Exposition; in 2005 she attended the Jingdezhen ceramic-art symposium; in 2009 she founded a transmission institute for the Dai slow-wheel pottery craft. Her works are collected by the China Art Research Institute, Japanese museums, and others.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yumeng 05-2721
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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