Pottery is not just a significant and traditional craft in Vietnam, but also an important means of livelihood. The Thanh Ha Pottery Village in Hoi An is a famous example in this type of an establishment that aims at furthering tradition as well as employment. The Thanh Ha Pottery Village in Hoi An is located in the Quang Nam Province in the Thanh Ha ward; Hoi An lies 3 Km to the east of it. The pottery village has a long historical legacy attached to it.
The tradition dated back to the time when the Nguyen Dynasty of Hue
invited craftsmen f-rom the Thanh Ha Pottery Village to fashion some
decorative as well as useful articles for the palace. This one event
gained them sufficient renown to last them a lifetime. Henceforth, the
village began a Mandrain system of grading craftsmen according to their
talent. The most talented held the ninth position. The pottery at the
Thanh Ha Pottery Village in Hoi An are all manually crafted and are
exported world over. The techniques that they use are unique f-rom those
prevalent in other provinces. The Thanh Ha Pottery Village in Hoi An
crafts decorative articles along with useful items like cups, jars,
bowls and pots. The flower pots made here are particularly sought after.
The Thanh Ha Pottery Village in Hoi An used clay mixing techniques,
burning and baking time and heat modulations to bring out different
colors like pink, pinkish-yellow, red, light brown and ink-black in the
wares. The craftsmen also modulate all these aspects to achieve immense
durability in their products. Aside of the regular articles, the Thanh
Ha Pottery Village in Hoi An is also renowned for its bricks and tiles
of various shapes and sizes. In fact its bricks and tiles are sourced
out to the entire local as well as many foreign regions. It is the most
trusted name for contractors engaged in tasks of renovation.
You'd want to pay the 30,000 dong admission to this tourist activity for playing with clay. You can paint a piece of pottery for 50,000 dong, or
make your own pottery for 30,000 dong. This may be a good activity to
kill an hour with the kids. When we visited, there was a large school
group of youngsters that seemed to delight in mucking around with the
clay.
It's better to head straight to the narrow lanes behind the village
tourist park to find the families busy churning out pots, sculptures,
roof tiles and cute handcrafted whistles shaped like animals. The
potters are welcoming and friendly, and they are happy to offer a seat
to watch as they work.
At the workshop with the sign "Chu Ho Le Van Xe", we watched as one
woman stood and kneaded a huge lump of clay, all while kicking the
wheel-head with her foot as another woman worked throwing the pot.
(Note: "throwing" is the lingo for forming pottery on the wheel-head.
And if you don't know what a wheel-head is, it's a good reason to come
here to find out.) It was mesmerising to watch the two steadily churn
out perfectly formed pots, and they even offered to let us try. The new creations are dried in the sun and then fired in a wood-fire kiln. They only light the kiln once a month so consider yourself lucky if you're there on a firing day.
There's a booth at the entrance to the village, supposedly charging 20,000 dong admission fee but when we went the booth was empty. It's best to visit earlier in the morning or late afternoon, when it's cooler and the potters are working hard.
How to get there
Thanh Ha pottery village is located three kilometres west of town. The most direct way is to head west on Tran Hung Dao Street. When it ends, veer right onto Hung Vuong Street. The road forks after three kilometres. Take the right fork for Da Nang and My Son; the left fork along the water goes to the pottery village. The more pleasant and scenic route is to go west on Nguyen Du Street, a narrow road for bicycles and motorbikes that runs along the river. It joins Hung Vuong Street at the end.
