Chu Dau Pottery Village

Chu Dau made fine blue and white ceramics that were exported across Asia in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and then stopped entirely, the kilns abandoned during the wars of the seventeenth century and the technique lost. It was rediscovered by an odd route: a Vietnamese diplomat was shown a blue and white jar in the Topkapi collection in Istanbul, inscribed with the name of a woman potter of Nam Sach, which pointed excavators back to this village. Digging from the 1980s found the kiln sites, and production was restarted commercially in the 2000s using the recovered forms and glazes.

What you actually see

• A tradition lost in the 1600s - kilns abandoned and technique forgotten.
• A jar in Istanbul - inscribed with a Nam Sach potter's name.
• Kiln sites excavated from the 1980s - which confirmed the location.
• Production restarted in the 2000s - on the recovered forms.

When to go

Year round. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The modern operation is a company rather than a village of independent potters, and the visit is essentially a factory and showroom with a workshop session. The excavated kilns are not much presented. It is sales-oriented.

Nearby

Hai Duong is south-east; Bac Ninh and its pagodas are west.