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Glazed ware and terracotta have been in use in Myanmar for more than a thousand years, and the techniques for production and their utility remain unchanged to this day. A type of glazed ware known as sint can still be found in most Myanmar households (particularly in the countryside) despite the durability of more modern materials such as steel and plastic.Among the common sights in Myanmar are huge jars - big enough for a child to sit inside - with short necks and bulbous tops that taper to narrow bottoms. They are called ‘yar win oh’ in Burmese, a name that means “holding a hundred viss.” (A viss is a local unit of weight equal to 3.6 pounds.) About four feet in height with mouths measuring about 18 inches across, they are normally covered with a thick brown-black glaze that stops short of the bottom of the jar on the exterior, and lines the entire interior. They are also known in English as Martaban jars because they were originally produced in the southern coastal town of Mote Ta Ma (Martaban). During the 14th century the crews of sailing vessels en route from the Middle East to the Far East stopped at the port and bought the jars for storing water and food.Farmers in central Myanmar have long used them to hold precious rainwater or water carried by oxcart from rivers or streams. Many people in rural areas bathe by dipping water out of the jars and pouring it onto themselves. Martaban jars are also used to store a wide range of foods, including edible oil, molasses, pickled fish, fermented bamboo shoots, crushed sesame seeds and rice. Their tapered bottoms are often buried in the ground, which regulates the temperature inside and ensures that the contents remain unspoiled.Smaller basins or bowls made of glazed ware are inexpensive, if easily broken, and they are extensively used in the kitchen, bath and garden, and as feeding bowls for animals on the farm. On rubber plantations, small glazed cups are attached to the trees just under fresh cuts in the bark, so that the milky sap can drip into them to be collected some hours later. Glazed-ware vases that are more finely crafted than kitchenware hold flowers in household shrines or in public shrines at pagodas. Most country houses have a clay pot and cups for green tea, a lacquered box for betel and a clay ashtray holding cheroots and a matchbox, all set out on a mat to offer to visitors. Such items use glazes of light brown, reddish brown, green, earth yellow and, nowadays, blue. Terracotta pots are sometimes decorated with hand-painted flower designs. They are often used to hold drinking water, which remains chilled due to the porosity of the clay: Small amounts of moisture seep to the outer surface of the pot, which evaporates in the breeze, which in turn keeps the contents cold. Terracotta water pots are therefore always made with clay that has a high ratio of fine sand. In some hill regions, double-layered glazed pots are specially produced for distilling rice wine. A funnel at the top allows the steam from a separate pot of cooking rice mash and sugar to be forced inside the double walls by means of a long tube. The distilled wine flows out of a funnel near the bottom.With more tourists travelling to Myanmar in recent years, the use of glazed ware and terracotta pots has expanded from the utilitarian to the decorative. They can now be seen adorning hotel lobbies, and some have even been turned into lamps. Bulbous Martaban jars have been placed in many landscaped gardens, some holding huge sunshade umbrellas made of paper and bamboo, while slightly smaller Mon jars with matte glazing and tiny mouths are sometimes placed on the ground like mammoth eggs. Lights hidden among them can create a spectacular effect in any garden at night. This emerging decorative market has prompted some potters to experiment with new shapes and colours, while being careful not to stray from traditional designs. Religious figurines made of glazed ware now appear on pagoda platforms, donated by pottery makers who are becoming more prosperous than ever, as even the huge Martaban jars are being exported.Despite this increased attention from the outside world, craftspeople in the traditional pottery-making centres of Twante near Yangon, Kyauk Myaung near Mandalay, and smaller sites such as those in the Shan State continue to use traditional methods of production. The people of Twante have been making pots for nearly nine centuries, and those of Kyauk Myaung, for two and a half centuries. There are smaller potteries in many villages throughout the country, with various ethnic groups producing their own styles of terracotta or glazed ware. The traditional method begins by combining thick clay with river silt until a mixture of suitable consistency is created. This is allowed to dry, after which it is pounded into a fine powder, which is sifted several times to remove impurities and foreign matter. The refined powder is then steeped in water in large trenches for several days until the water has evaporated. The resulting material is stomped on with bare feet for several hours until it is smooth and pliable. Lumps of it are placed on the potter’s wheel, which is turned manually by the potter or by a helper. Some very small potteries do not even have a wheel. Instead the clay is worked by potters who place it in their laps and shape it by hitting it with a wooden paddle, which is also used to stamp designs.The process of making Martaban jars begins by patting a round clay base onto the wheel and working a long rope of clay around its edges. The potter uses his knuckles to fix the coiling rope as the sides rise higher, at the same time scraping the inner side with a tool to make it smooth. The wheel, set in a shallow hole dug in the ground, is turned slowly for this work. After the bottom half of the jar is completed, it is allowed to dry out a bit to withstand the weight of the upper part.To add the upper half, the top edges of the nearly dry bottom part are moistened and another rope of clay is coiled to raise the pot’s walls. The wheel is spun faster during this process. After finishing the lip and adding four lugs near the mouth, the pot is allowed to dry in the shade. Then it is painted with the glaze and allowed to dry again. The glaze is a mixture of a binding liquid (such as milky water that is poured out during the process of cooking rice), pounded river silt, and finely powdered dross from melted silver ore of the Namtu Mines in Shan State. Then the pot is placed in a brick kiln and baked in the course of about five days of constant firing. The process of making terracotta pots is shorter because powdered clay is dampened and kneaded without first being soaked in water. The wheel, turned by hand or foot, spins at a great speed.The kilns are constructed of bricks, and wood fire is used for baking. After the dried pots are carefully stacked in the kiln and the firewood is arranged around it, the front entrance is sealed shut with bricks and mud. For terracotta, some potters merely place firewood on the sun-dried pots stacked on bare ground, and set the whole pile alight. This short period of firing at low heat is enough to make ordinary water pots.After a few days of firing (the length is determined by the size of the wares), the kiln is allowed to cool down before the pots are taken out and piled in neat rows on the ground. Much of the pottery is shipped to other parts of the country on the Ayeyarwaddy River. The smaller pots are packed on boats, while the bigger ones are lashed together and formed into pottery ‘rafts’ that are floated down the river to be sold at trade centres or pagoda festivals.Air |
