Slow-wheel Pottery Making Skills of Dai Ethnic Minority

Brief Introduction

Dai Ethnic Minority  have been fond of pottery since ancient time . Up to now, traditional pottery manufacturing skills have been reserved in many villages of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.The slow-wheel pottery manufacturing skills entered the list of national intangible cultural heritages in 2006. Dai people  is widely used in daily production, life and Buddhist activities.

Materials And Production Process

Pottery making tools generally consist of wooden pottery pats, pebbles, bamboo slices, boards, wooden hammers and small dustpans with different sizes and patterns. The materials are clay which is abundant everywhere. Generally, it passes through several processes, such as taking soil, drying soil, sieving soil, Gaza and mud, installing turntable, making billet, cooling and drying, firing, etc. Mud and gravel are used in the material, open-air roasting and closed semi-roasting are used, and embryo-forming methods are diversified.  The embryo is made by runner, toe-pulling slow wheel, hand-pulling runner, etc. These technological processes fully prove that Dai ceramics preserved the ancient pottery-making technology.

Features of Pottery Making

Pottery making is also called "plate mill" in Dai language , commonly known as "earthen pot". The main varieties are pots, pots, steamers, pots and so on, among which earthen pots are the most famous. The earthen pot cooked by traditional pottery method is easy to cook and delicious, while the water is refreshing and refreshing. The decoction can maintain the best medicinal properties, and is popular with local people. The craftsmanship is characterized by slow wheel hand craftsmanship, and the surface of the objects is printed with engraved wooden pats, which is very similar to the Neolithic pottery unearthed in the south.

Impart And Inherit

Dai  People's pottery is made by women. In order not to spread its skills, some places still follow the custom of making pottery, which is not passed on to their children, but only to their daughters-in-law. Up to now, archaeologists and ethnologists at home and abroad have investigated this technology. It is generally believed that traditional Dai ceramics have become a breakthrough in understanding Chinese Neolithic ceramics technology and represent the oldest ceramics in China.

Chinese Version: http://www.ynich.cn/view-ml-11110-1252.html
Translated by Winnie Zhang /张赢

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