VN.0099NTC INVENTORY ON INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE THE ART OF POTTERY-MAKING OF CHĂM PEOPLE (NINH THUẬN AND BÌNH THUẬN PROVINCES)

Inventory Report: VN.0099NTC INVENTORY ON INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE THE ART OF POTTERY-MAKING OF CHĂM PEOPLE (NINH THUẬN AND BÌNH THUẬN PROVINCES)

SYNTHESIS REPORT
INVENTORY ON INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE
THE ART OF POTTERY-MAKING OF CHĂM PEOPLE
(NINH THUẬN AND BÌNH THUẬN PROVINCES)
(The summary)
I. Purposes of the inventory
- Surveying and assessing the current status of practicing intangible cultural heritage The Art of pottery-making of the Chăm people in Bàu Trúc (Ninh Thuận) and Bình Đức pottery villages (Bình Thuận).
- Identifying and systematizing data on the pottery-making processes (know-how of pottery making), the folk knowledge about the nature and the cosmos (identifying and processing the clay, the method of outdoor pottery firing, the bark usage to create decorative colors on pottery, etc.), the history of establishing and developing the pottery craft villages, the legends of the Pottery Craft Ancestor, the pottery space, or the customs and rituals related to pottery craft, provided by the community. Since then, developing a plan to study, preserve and promote the values of the intangible cultural heritages of the Chăm people in general and the Art of pottery-making of the Chăm people in particular.
II. Inventory sites
The inventory sites mainly concentrate on Bàu Trúc and Bình Đức pottery villages, specifically:
- Bàu Trúc pottery village (Palei Hamu Craok) include 2 quarters: Bàu Trúc quarter and the quarter No.12, Phước Dân town, Ninh Phước district, Ninh Thuận province
- Bình Đức pottery village (Palei Gaok), Phan Hiệp commune, Bắc Bình district, Bình Thuận province
III. Approach of implementing inventory
The methods, used to collect information, are mainly inventory forms, in-depth interviews, group discussions, and statistics. They were done with the viewpoint of respecting community voices in introducing the cultural intangible heritage, which is practiced and transmitted by the community.
There are basically two main activities about doing inventory and taking community consensus on the pottery-making art in Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận provinces, including (1) Carrying out inventory (quantitative) in Bàu Trúc (Ninh Thuận) and Bình Đức (Bình Thuận) pottery villages, in-depth interviews and group discussions
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(qualitative) of potters, pottery artisans in these two pottery villages and 2) Collecting community consensus on preparing the nomination file of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage about the Art of Pottery-making of Chăm people to inscribe on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritages in need of urgent safeguarding.
IV. General information about the Chăm people and the pottery history of the Chăm people in Vietnam
1. General information about the Chăm people in Viet Nam
The Chăm people are one of the ethnic minorities, who have settled for a long time in the territory of Viet Nam, with a population of about 161,729 people, living in many places such as Ninh Thuận, Bình Thuận, An Giang, Tây Ninh and Hồ Chí Minh City. However, Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận provinces are the places, where most of the Chăm people live here and for the longest time. Throughout the history of ethnic development, the Chăm people have left many cultural imprints in various fields such as architecture, sculpture, literature, language, beliefs - religion, festivals and craft villages. In particular, the pottery has its own identity and have still existed in Bàu Trúc (Phước Dân town, Ninh Phước district, Ninh Thuận province) and Bình Đức pottery villages (Phan Hiệp commune, Bắc Bình district, Bình Thuận province). These are two ancient pottery villages in Southeast Asia with unique pottery products and unique firing techniques. The Chăm pottery is praised as a product with "warm human hands", which is highly unique with typical the Chăm cultural features and which cannot be mixed with the pottery from other places.
2. History of the pottery craft of the Chăm people in Viet Nam
Like many other Chăm villages, after a period of separation in the past, the villagers do not know where their village originated from. Currently, the Chăm people in Bàu Trúc village claim that they are the descendants of Po Klaong Can – a mandarin of King Po Klaong Garai (1151 - 1205). According to the book and the Chăm people, Po Klaong Can helped Bàu Trúc people to run away from the enemy, to escape from miserableness, to settle in "Hamu Craok" field, and to teach people pottery. Since then, the people have considered Po Klaong Can to be the patron saint of pottery craft and have set up a temple to worship him. Since then, Bàu Trúc pottery craft has preserved until today through inheritance from mothers.1.
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According to the Chăm document, named Damnay Po Klaong Garai, Mr. Đàng Tàu, 85 years old (passing away) and Mr. Trương Văn Ngọt, 82 years old in Bàu Trúc village, Ninh Thuận province [Văn Món (2001), Traditional pottery craft of the Chăm people in Bàu Trúc - Ninh Thuận, Culture and Information Publisher, Hanoi, p. 29 – 30].
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The temple (danaok) of Po Klaong Can was first built simply by Bàu Trúc villagers at a mound in the middle of the village field (tambok min). In 1967, this temple was moved to the old village (palei klak), 2 km far from Bàu Trúc village to the west. In 2014, the temple was degraded; villagers contributed money to rebuild it. The temple has an area of 80m2 (10m x 8m), which is structured by three trusses forming two rooms. The main door orients to the east. The inner room is the main worship room with the area of 24m2 (3m x 8m), in which the stone altar of Linga - Yoni with 0.5m in height is located. On the left side of the altar (from the outside) is the worship space of the Goddess, named "Nai Hali Halang Tabang Mâh" (Po Nai). She is made of a stone with 0.4m high.
In front of the entrance on the right of the temple is a stone statue of Bull God Nandin (the transportation of God Siva). In fact, the stone statues, worshiped in Po Klaong Can temple, originate from Lo Gach relic in Phước Hữu commune - Ninh Thuận), where the temple of the Chăm people was burned by Jawa and collapsed in the 9th century. In 1967, Bàu Trúc villagers brought these objects to Po Klaong Can temple for worship presently until present. According to the inventory result in October 2018, there are 89.4% of people assume that Po Klong Can is the craft ancestor. This craft ancestor is worshiped in the temple (danaok) and people organize the ceremony on the occasions such as katé ceremony (in July according to the Chăm calendar), the ceremony at the beginning of the year (Ngap yang kaok thun), and the ceremony of praying for peace (Yuer Yang) (in April according to the Chăm calendar). As mentioned above, the appearance time of the Chăm pottery in Bàu Trúc has not been clearly defined yet. The Chăm people only know that the pottery craft ancestor is Po Klaong Can (in the 13th century according to the Chăm calendar), who taught Bàu Trúc villagers pottery. However, according to studies, the Chăm pottery in Bàu Trúc still have many similar characteristics to Sa Huỳnh pottery,
which appeared from two thousand years to three thousand years ago, specifically the making techniques, products, and the ways of firing pottery outdoors. As a result, the Bàu Trúc pottery is really a long-standing traditional craft that has existed until present in Southeast Asia2.
V. Some results of inventory
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Vũ Công Qúy (1991), Sa Huỳnh Culture, the Publisher of National Culture, Hanoi, Trịnh Sinh (2018), From the Sa Hùynh pottery to the Chăm pottery, Writing in an international workshop, the pottery art of the Chăm people in Ninh Thuận.
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1. Name of this heritage and identification of the Art of Pottery-making of the Chăm people
1.1. Name of the element It is called Palei gok glah by the people in Bàu Trúc and Bình Đức pottery villages.
1.2. Identification of the Art of pottery-making of the Chăm people
1.2.1. Process of birth and existence
The Chăm pottery used to be famous such as the Sa Huỳnh pottery (3,000 years ago) and the Gò Sành - Bình Định pottery (in the 14th -15th century); however, instead of developing continuously, their development was interrupted and then turned into ruin. Until now, the Chăm pottery is only produced in Bàu Trúc village (Ninh Thuận province) and Bình Đức village (Bình Thuận province).
According to the inventory results in October 2018, Bàu Trúc pottery village has 731 households (among which about 28% of households make pottery); and Bình
Đức pottery village has 355 households (among which more than 10% of households are doing pottery). The total number of people practicing pottery is currently 455 (accounting for 8.2% of the population), among which Bàu Trúc village (Ninh Thuận province) occupy 300 people and Bình Đức village (Bình Thuận province) has 155 people. They often make household potteries (cookwares
and containers) and fine potteries (for decoration and souvenir). 1.2.2. Methods and space for the element practice The Chăm pottery villages, especially Bàu Trúc pottery village, still preserve the village space and the matriarchy in Viet Nam. The assignement of labor, pottery transmitting, and the pottery skills and know-how are undertaken by women. The Art of Pottery-making of Chăm people is an inherited property in matriarchy and a livelihood of women in families.
According to the inventory results in October 2018, 65.4% of the potters choose to teach the pottery at home, 25.3% choose to teach pottery at other places, 7.4% choose to teach pottery at the training courses organized by the government, and 1.9% teach pottery at villages.
2. Characteristics and values of the Art of pottery-making of Chăm people
2.1. Characteristics of the pottery-making art
The pottery of Chăm people is produced by the ingenuity and flexibility of the Chăm women’s hands, which is of the personal creativity on the basis of the knowledge circulated in the community, specially:
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- Women do it by hands and move backwards around the product, which is fixed, to create the pottery shape instead of a potters’ wheel. The pottery is unenameled but fired outdoors.
- Raw materials (clay, sand, and water) are exploited in the location. Especially, the clay in Bàu Trúc village is regenerated periodically after several years of exploitation in Hamu Tanu Halan field, at the bank of Quao river.
- Pottery-making tools are simple, created by artisans from local materials such as bamboo hoop scraper-polisher, bamboo hoop scraper, shells, tree sticks, coil cloth, etc.
- Traditional pottery products of the Chăm people are mainly house-wares, worshipping items, and fine-arts items such as: Jars (jek), pots (gok), trays (cambak), jars (bilaok), containing-rice jars (khan brah), etc. These products are monostyle and express personal identity.
2.2. Artistic values in community cultural life
- Regarding social functions, the Chăm pottery villages, especially Bàu Trúc village, still preserve village space, and family and social organization according to matriarchy in Viet Nam. The labor assignment, pottery transmission, pottery skills and pottery know-how are undertaken by women. The art of pottery-making of Chăm people is an inherited property in matriarchy and the livelihood of women in families. The art of pottery-making of Chăm people creates condition for the Chăm women to have social exchanges in production, social activities and vocational trainings for their children. Since then, the role of the Chăm women is enhanced in modern society.
- Regarding cultural functions, the Art of traditional pottery-making of Chăm people is an intangible cultural heritage, which is transmitted; which expresses the folk knowledge about nature, universe (such as how to identify and process the clay, how to predict the weather, the way of firing pottery outdoors, or how to use tree bark to create decorative colors); and which expresses the art of folk performances, customs, beliefs and festivals; especially the ceremonies related to the Chăm Pottery Craft Ancestor (Po Klong Can). The pottery art is also a source of creative inspiration for other arts such as decoration, photography, painting, sculpture, performances, or music. The above issues have important functions not only in conserving and promoting traditional crafts but also in transmitting the Chăm cultural heritage for young generations. The Art of traditional pottery-making of Chăm people has an important role in maintaining the economy, ensuring the economic life of villagers, promoting social
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development, preserving the traditional style of the matriarch in the Chăm society in particular and in Southeast Asia in general.
3. Pottery transmission
Women play the main role of practicing and transmitting the traditional pottery of the Chăm people. The experienced artisans include Mrs. Đàng Thị Phan (67 years old), Mrs. Đàng Thị Lực (62 years old) in Bàu Trúc village, Mrs. Đơn Thị Hiệu (80 years old), Mrs. Đặng Thị Hồng (47 years old) in Bình Đức village, etc. They are the people, who are practising and transmitting pottery to their children by storytelling and daily practice. The main lesson that artisans transmit to their descendants is skills and knowhow on identifying and exploiting the clay, mixing and kneading, using potterymaking tools, creating colors with the bark of a tree for pottery decoration, shaping and firing. Especially, lessons are about hard working, craft village safeguarding and inspiration for artistic creation.
According to an inventory results in October 2018, the majority of potters and pottery artisans choose the form of mothers transmit pottery-making to their descendants in the family: 59% (249 questionnares), children themselves learn to how to make pottery at home / in the community: 16.1% (68 questionnares), taking children to other artisans to learn pottery making: 3.6% (15 questionnares), take children to the class of ttransmitting pottery-making in community organized by the Stage: 2.8% (12 questionnares), and by other forms of transmitting: 18.5% (78 questionnares) out of 422 selections of 344 survey questionnaires. For women from 25 to under 55 years of age, most of them are in charge of the main stages in the pottery making process such as: shaping: 15% (343 votes), adjusting the pottery shaping: 14. 7% (336 votes), the stage of making materials (soil soaking, soil kneading): 13.4% (307 votes), pottery decoration: 13.4% (308
votes), the pottery drying: 13.7% (315 votes), pottery firing: 13.4% (308 votes), and pottery selling: 13.9% (318 votes). For material exploitation stages (soil, sand, firewood, straw), women are not played a main role (from 25 to under 55 years of age), accounting for 2.4% (56 votes) out of 2,292 votes of 354 questionnares.
Besides, for women from 16 to under 25 years of age, most of them participated in helping mothers in pottery making: 52.1% (271 votes), followed by both studying at school and helping their mothers to make pottery: 28.7% (149 votes), and only a small part is working as a hired laborer (helping the family's economy), going to school (general education, vocational training) so there is no help in making pottery with the rate of from 8.5 to 10% of the total of 520 votes in 354 inventory questionnaires.
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The transmitting and practising of the art of traditional pottery-making of Chăm people comes from each individual's needs and is completely voluntary. Each individual is free to learn the craft or practice; have the right to form groups and clubs. The Art of traditional pottery-making of Chăm people is skill and artistic creation, so it does not cause conflicts with customs, practices and culture inside and outside the community. Those who practice pottery always have a sense of safeguarding the local scraft and cultural characteristics and always aim at the common and harmonious when participating in fairs, exhibitions as well as the performance exchanges ...
4. The role of the community in safeguarding and promoting the values of the element of the Art of pottery making of Chăm people. The arts of traditional pottery-making of Chăm people has been maintained thanks to typical families, family lines with a long tradition of pottery craft. They are, for example, those of Ms. Đàng Thị Gia, Đàng Thị Phan, Đàng Thị Tám (Bàu Trúc village, Ninh Thuận province)… Ms. Đơn Thị Hiệu, Đơn Thị Chưa and Mr. Lâm Hùng Sổi (Bình Đức village, Bình Thuận province)… Despite many difficulties, they have kept their craft and have transmitted their children. The factors playing the important role in safeguarding the pottery craft are pottery artisans, businessmen and intellectuals in the villages. They made their
efforts to collect, research and create new models imbue with Chăm characteristics as well as expand the market. Particularly, they are Mr. Trượng Văn Ngọt, Đàng Năng Thọ, Mr. Đàng Xem, Mr. Đàng Năng Tự, Mr. Vạn Quan Phú Đoan and Ms. Đàng Thị Mỹ Tiên… In 2001, Trương Văn Món (Sakaya) from Bàu Trúc village published the book namely “Traditional pottery craft of Chăm people in Bàu Trúc, Ninh Thuận province” to introduce the Chăm pottery. In 2009, Bàu Trúc villagers contributed VND 350 million (US $ 16,000) to repair the temple worshipping Po Klong Can. Every year, they voluntarily contribute money and labour support to conduct the worship of the pottery craft ancestor. This is an opportunity for the villagers to organize the pottery-making competition to enhance the craftsmanship and to perform folk dances related to pottery craft to introduce and promote the art of pottery making. Local media regularly introduce and promote the Chăm pottery craft. Between 2005 and 2017, Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận provinces issued 24 legal documents and the programs of supporting the craft village and opening 14 classes for transmitting the craft (407 learners). The Art of pottery-making of Chăm people
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in Bàu Trúc and Bình Đức villages has been inscribed on the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. According to the inventory result in October 2018, the reality of the pottery craft is almost being practiced in moderation and suffering of being lost, accounting for 63.4% and is developing and expanding moderately, accounting for 33.6%. In
which 41.8% of the pottery craft in two pottery craft villages Bàu Trúc (Ninh Thuận province) and Bình Đức (Bình Thuận province) is in danger of being lost; about 58,2% is being practiced but in moderation. Therefore, in order to maintain and develop the pottery craft from the public opinion, almost potters, artisans and people in two pottery villages of Bau Truc (Ninh Thuận province) and Bình Đức (Bình Thuận province) gave solutions for maintaining and developing the pottery craft such as the community must have a sense of safeguarding the traditional craft (11.3%), open a pottery transmitting class in the village (10.9%), and then it is necessary for the State to plan material areas, support loans to make pottery, find pottery consumption markets, remuneration policies for artisans, policies to attract tourists to pottery villages ...
In summary, although the community and government have made great efforts, Chăm pottery have not really had a position in the market, the ability to practice the element has many obstacles due to the limitation of funds, management capacity as well as market awareness, strategy to build brand value ... have not met the practical requirements, making these efforts not enough to escape from the risk of fading and disappearing. The art of pottery-making of Chăm people has been inscribed on the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Viet Nam with its names and according to the following decisions of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
- The arts of pottery-making of Chăm people in Bàu Trúc village, Phước Dân town, Ninh Phước district, Ninh Thuận province, according to the Decision No.
5079/QĐ-BVHTTDL, dated on December 27, 2012.
- Pottery craft of Chăm people in Bình Đức village, Phan Hiệp commune, Bac Binh district, Binh Thuan province, according to Decision No. 5079 / QD-BVHTTDL, dated on December 27, 2012
Ninh Thuận, January 31, 2019.
Reporter
MA. Đạo Thanh Quyến
(Team leader of the inventory team)

Safeguarding Measures: VN.0099NTC INVENTORY ON INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE THE ART OF POTTERY-MAKING OF CHĂM PEOPLE (NINH THUẬN AND BÌNH THUẬN PROVINCES)

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