Clay pot to cook lacquer

(Baonghean.vn) - For a long time, Tru Son people (Do Luong) have been famous far and wide for their skill in making clay pots. What is special is that the clay pots bearing the imprint of the soul of the countryside and the nation are all created by the skillful hands of Tru village women. Currently, the Vietnam Museum of EthnologyMaleis preserving more than 500 terracotta artifacts originating from this peaceful village...

The story of a village girl….

The village girls with “full breasts on one side and flat on the other” - a humorous joke passed down through the ages has partly reflected the fact that the terracotta products here are mainly created by the skillful hands of Tru village women. Tru village girls are born knowing how to make clay pots, grow up and learn from adults and then become real craftsmen when they are eighteen or twenty years old. Decades of diligently kneading clay pots make their full breasts become “full on one side and flat on the other” which means doing so. Having been involved in the profession of making clay pots since the age of 6 or 7, now nearly 70, Ms. Nguyen Thi Phu, village 11 Tru Son, also does not remember “when this profession began”, nor has she seen any books preserved, only knowing in her childhood memories “from a young age, I saw my grandmother and mother making pots and then displaying them all over the house and yard. Growing up, I watched adults make them and practiced, gradually becoming accustomed to them...”.

Women in the pot village have been attached to the profession since childhood.

Making clay pots is quite hard work. From 5am, Mrs. Phu's husband and son got up and drove the ox-wheel cart to Yen Thanh to get the clay, and only returned when the sun was at its highest point. After being brought back, the clay had to be watered until it was soft, smoothed, and then molded. When Mrs. Phu and her daughter-in-law opened their eyes, they were already kneading the clay. "Making pots is not difficult, but it requires dexterity, creativity, and perseverance" - Mrs. Phu gently squeezed a handful of smoothed clay onto the turntable to show us. Her feet turned gently, her hands gently shaped each piece of clay, and in less than a few minutes, a pot for boiling medicine had taken shape.

The technique and secret of making pots have been passed down through many generations in Tru Son by word of mouth and by hand-holding. The unique thing is that the successors of the village are women, while the men are responsible for carrying the pots across the far and near regions to sell. Compared to their ancestors, the next generation not only maintains the durability and quality of the pots but also constantly creates more useful designs from pots to heating pots, medicine pots, sticky rice steamers, fish stew pots, incense bowls, etc., to meet the increasing demand of the market.

Tru Son pottery is probably the type of pottery that still retains the most basic features of ancient pottery. Not only because it is handmade, but also because each stage and step is simple, not fussy, colorful, light, thin, but quite hard. To get the right type of soil to make pottery, Tru Son people have to go down to Nghi Van (Nghi Loc) and up to Son Thanh (Yen Thanh), places that have the type of flexible clay suitable for making pottery. After the soil is collected, moistened, and kneaded thoroughly, it will be put on a turntable to create the initial rough shapes of the product. When the rough part is finished, the pots will be skillfully trimmed smooth and dried, then put into the kiln.

Before firing, heat for about 30-45 minutes, then turn upside down into a high pile, cover with straw and burn with pine needles and cajuput leaves. The firing time is from 2 pm to 6 pm, and a few hundred can be fired at a time. A quality product must be cooked just right, red in color, and make a clanging sound when tapped. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong, also from Hamlet 11, a pot maker with decades of experience, said: If skilled, a person can make a few dozen a day. For example, Ms. Hong's family has only 2 main workers, but each month they can fire 3 kilns, each kiln several hundred. Other families such as Ms. Nguyen Thi Que, Nguyen Thi Toan, and Pham Thi Ngu also have approximately the same number, but it also depends on the soil. If the soil is good (not too loose or too tough, with little sand), 100 pots can be fired about 80, but if the soil is bad, sometimes 100 pots can only produce 30-40...

Up to now, no documents have been found to record the origin of the clay pot craft in Tru Son, but the elders in the village often tell their children and grandchildren the story of a princess, daughter of King Tran, who taught this craft when people came to reclaim land and establish settlements here. That is why this craft has been taught to women in the village from generation to generation.

Preserving the soul of the homeland…

“Whoever comes to Tru U and sees/The craft of clay pots has been passed down for generations…” the old folk song partly reflects the long-standing tradition of the ancient pottery craft in Tru Son. Therefore, through many generations, people still diligently stick to the craft as a way of showing gratitude to their ancestors. In fact, this has also been the main source of income for people for many generations, children in the village are also educated from the money from selling clay pots. After each batch of firing, women bring wholesale or retail to Tru market, U market (Dai Son), Ro market (Thanh Chuong), My Son market (Do Luong)… men in the village load the pots to sell in far and near areas, first by carrying them on shoulder poles, then by using carts, each with several hundred to Huong Son (Ha Tinh), Dong Hoi (Quang Binh) and then up to the mountainous districts of the Western Nghe An region such as Tuong Duong, Con Cuong, Que Phong to sell. Traveling during the day and resting at night, "wherever we fall is home, wherever we find a bed", sometimes we go in groups, in groups, sometimes we go alone... Mr. Nguyen Van Giap - Head of Hamlet 11 Tru Son said: Compared to the past, the quantity of products consumed is less but the value is higher. For example, in the past, carrying a cart to sell for 7-8 days, sometimes we only made a profit of a few tens of thousands, now we can make millions...

There are also wholesale and home-based purchases. However, what many dedicated professionals in Tru Son are concerned about today is that, although clay pots are found in luxury restaurants selling clay pot rice, broken rice, braised fish..., along with the appearance of aluminum, cast iron, stainless steel pots..., clay pots are increasingly disappearing from families. Therefore, the pot-making profession in Tru Son is gradually fading away. Previously, 2/3 of the households in the village made clay pots, but now only 1/4 of the households remain... Mr. Nguyen Thuy Chinh - Vice Chairman of Tru Son Commune People's Committee said: The clay pot production profession is concentrated in hamlets 10, 11, 12, 13 of Tru Son commune and scattered in some neighboring areas of Dai Son commune. Many Tru Son people are still conscious of preserving the profession, they make clay pots not only to earn a living but also to promote the traditional products of their homeland. Besides taking care of education, many families also pay attention to passing on the profession to their children and grandchildren. Many young people in the village are also skilled and enthusiastic about the traditional profession of their ancestors. Typical examples are Nguyen Thi Ha and Nguyen Thi Huong from hamlet 11...

To find a way to preserve Tru Son pottery - the cradle of the traditional ancient pottery craft of Do Luong and the only place still making terracotta pots in Nghe An, in 2004, 5 people in Tru Son were invited to demonstrate how to make pottery at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. Also here, there was a seminar on restoring, maintaining and developing Tru Son pottery craft organized by the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in coordination with the Department of Culture and Sports of Nghe An, the People's Committee of Do Luong district and the Nghe An Museum.

The vocational guidance and training center of Do Luong district, in coordination with the district's Department of Industry and Trade, also has a project on restoring craft villages, including the ancient Tru Son pottery village. Thanks to that, Tru Son's clay pot craft has gradually been restored with 413 workers, accounting for 42% of the labor force in the commune. The villagers' wish is that in addition to the attention and support of authorities at all levels, there should be specific policies to introduce Tru Son pottery products to markets outside the province. The Tru Son commune government and the Do Luong district People's Committee are promoting the dossier to request the provincial People's Committee to recognize the craft village. Recently, the Vietnam Museum of EthnologyMalealso sent a document requesting the government to have solutions to preserve and develop this traditional profession.

Khanh Ly