The Traditional Ceramics of Southeast Asia

Over the last three hundred years traditional folk pottery in Southeast Asia has changed very little. Simple and practical earthenware pottery has been produced by small family groups using the traditional hand techniques passed down over several generations. This book offers a broad survey of the ceramic craftspeople of Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar (Burma). The work, life, and history of individuals and their communities is portrayed in a rich and fascinating tale that combines color photographs of potters at work and text that describes a potter’s life in small, rural villages.

Not only a beautifully illustrated and useful reference book for potters, the book also provides documentation of the traditional craftsmanship and a way of life that appears about to disappear with the current generation of potters. In a region eager to embrace change and readily absorb Western influence, the use of traditional pots is rapidly declining and creating these wonderful ceramic pots are considered of little value by potters’ children who have little interest in learning the craft as they become Westernized. The book is a final opportunity to read about cultural insights into the life and work of rural craftsman and is essential reading not only for working potters, but for anyone with an interest in the anthropology and sociology of Southeast Asia.