Bau Truc village commemorates the founder of Cham pottery.

On October 18th, the Bau Truc neighborhood (Ninh Phuoc) joyfully celebrated the anniversary of the Cham pottery craft at the Po Klong Can temple. This commemoration, held during the Ka Te festival, honors the contributions of the founder who taught the people pottery making, ensuring a prosperous life for his family.

The Bau Truc neighborhood currently has 669 households with 3,325 Cham people, about 60% of whom are involved in pottery making. Thanks to the income from pottery making combined with farming, the lives of the people in Bau Truc are increasingly prosperous, and the neighborhood looks more modern and attractive. According to local legend, Mr. Po Klong Can and his wife, Mrs. Nai Lank Muh, taught women pottery making from ancient times, and this tradition has been preserved and developed sustainably to this day. The raw material for pottery is clay taken from the Bau Truc fields, brought to a small dam, and left to ferment overnight in a well-drained pit with just the right amount of water. Cham women mold pottery entirely by hand, without using a potter's wheel like in other places. They walk around the pottery base to create terracotta products with unique, vibrant colors. The artisans of Bau Truc pottery village can produce hundreds of types of pottery products to meet market demand, from artistic pottery such as Apsara goddess statues, Cham towers, interior decorative reliefs, and feng shui water vases to essential pottery items for daily life in Southern Vietnam such as earthenware teapots, molds for making banh can and banh xeo (Vietnamese savory pancakes), water jars, clay pots, and charcoal stoves. Bau Truc pottery village attracts a large number of domestic and international tourists who come to visit and shop for souvenirs.

The ritual dance procession, featuring the attire of the patron saint of pottery.

From early morning, villagers, dressed in beautiful attire, eagerly bring offerings of cakes, fruits, betel nuts, and other items to the ancestral temple of Po Klong Can on the hillock known as Xom Cu, about 2 kilometers northwest of present-day Bau Truc. The government provided support and the local people contributed over 1 billion VND to build a new, spacious temple to better serve the needs of worshipping the ancestral founder of Cham pottery. The ritual of worshipping the ancestral founder of pottery is performed by the Ka Thanh, the spirit medium, and the temple caretaker, in the presence of Brahman dignitaries. The spirit medium and the temple caretaker are responsible for bathing and dressing the statues. The Ka Thanh plays the Kanhi instrument and sings praises of the merits of the ancestral founder of pottery and prays for peace, good fortune, and prosperity for the village. The villagers offer their offerings, praying for the sustainable development of the pottery craft and family happiness.

Mr. Nguy Ngoc Do, Head of the Customs Committee of Bau Truc village, happily stated that this year the villagers organized a warm and joyful commemoration of the founding of the pottery craft, remembering the great contributions of their ancestors in teaching the villagers how to make pottery. In particular, the Cham pottery art, inscribed by UNESCO on the "List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding," is attracting more and more tourists to visit and purchase Bau Truc pottery products. The Customs Committee encourages the villagers to unite and compete in creating many beautiful, durable, and high-quality products to meet market demands. This will contribute to the prosperous development of the pottery village and actively help build a rich and beautiful homeland.

Son Ngoc

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