Bau Truc Pottery Village

Bau Truc is a Cham village near Phan Rang and is generally described as one of the oldest continuously working pottery villages in South East Asia. The method is what makes it unusual: there is no wheel. The potter builds the vessel by hand on a fixed post and walks backwards around it, shaping as she circles, then finishes with a cloth and a shell and fires in an open pit of straw and wood rather than a kiln, which gives the reds, blacks and smoke marks. The work is done by women and taught mother to daughter. UNESCO inscribed the art of Cham pottery on its urgent safeguarding list in 2022.

Highlights

• Pots made without a wheel - the potter walking backwards around the clay.
• Open pit firing - straw and wood, giving reds, blacks and smoke marks.
• Worked by women - taught mother to daughter.
• On the UNESCO urgent list since 2022 - the craft is at risk.

When to go

Year round. Half a day.

Practical notes

Demonstrations are laid on for visitors and much of what is sold is made for that market. The village is plain and hot. Pots are fragile and heavy to carry. Numbers of working potters are falling.

Nearby

Po Klong Garai towers are near Phan Rang; Vinh Hy bay is north on the coast.