A young lady is gracefully moving her artistic hands and fingers through the clay on the spinning wheel to make a pot.
But such kind of traditional scene could
very well disappeared in near future because of the volatile business
environment that eats into such traditional arts and crafts. The number
of people doing such work is on the decline and may disappeared forever
if nothing is done to keep the tradition alive.
The young lady inherits this work from her 50-year old mother since she was in seventh grade.
Her mother, Daw Hnyar, is a small
pottery business owners in Twantay Township, one of the famous townships
for ceramic pottery in Myanmar, located sixteen miles away from
Yangon.
Daw Hnyar has been in this business for
her entire life. Her knowledge was handed down from generation to
generation through her family line. She spoke passionately about her
work and about her desire to expand the family business. But with her
production comes the acquisition of a more advance equipments, which
could translate into high cost. At this particular moment, while the
desire is there, Daw Hnyar is unable to afford it.
She is running with two kilns that can
produce at least 700 large size water pots or over 3,000 vases. It takes
at least one week to make a good pot which can stand the test of time.
“Because of inaccessibility of modern
technology and lacking of financial supports, unfortunately a few
pottery businesses are left to continue their traditional pottery work,”
said Daw Hnyar.
Twantay was once a boom town in pottery
business with around seventy pottery businesses. Today, there are only
sixteen traditional pottery businesses. Majority of them are the small
ones.
Many small pottery business owners are
facing the same problem to keep running smoothly even though the pottery
market is still in demand.
Lacking enough finance is not the only
problem for them. Difficulty to explore the new market is the another
challenge that is facing the industry.
They do not have enough funds to make
ceramic wares in advance and have to wait for order so they could get
payment in advance to process it. Because of it, they do not earn good
enough or make any profit out of their products since they have to sell
the finished products instantly for reimbursement.
Moreover, some traditional bourgeois who
control the market taking advantage over those small pottery owners of
financial aspect. They sometimes order pots to small pottery owners by
charging payment in advance. Some of those middle class persons also
possess their owned kilns and workers to make different sort of pots.
Middle class owners run the business
with better solvency and technology like using grinding machine whereas
small owners have to manually crush clay and mud without good
efficiency.
One of the middle class business runners
is Daw Hla Yee. She possesses the pottery operating site with large
kilns and grinding machine. She is a wholesale and retail ceramic wares
dealer. Her shop does the painting parts for finished products and
marketing.
It is obvious that either middle or small owners love their traditional pottery heritage.
Daw Hla Yee said “the pottery is our
customary profession for generations and we have been exporting ceramic
wares to across the country and taking orders as well. We’ve been known
for many years. It is good to have financial assistance to expand the
business.”
Myanmar pottery market is still
vitalized across the whole country no matter how much the displacement
of purified PH7 gallon bottles in big cities are.
Daw Hnyar said “people are still using
Myanmar traditional earthen water pots, planters, vases and pots across
the country. Because it can be lasted forever until one breaks it
purposely and using them is our tradition.”
Myanmar people have been using ceramic
wares as their traditional consumer goods in various ways such as
cooking, planting, dinning and so on since ancient time.
Pottery industry in Twantay has been
encountered with recession in recent few years due to the cyclone Nargis
hit in 2008. Chairman of Myanmar Ceramics Society, Dr. Myo Thant Tin,
arranged loan program for small and middle class pottery business owners
who were impinged by the cyclone. The arrangement is being made through
the First Private Bank (Myanmar).
Today, Twantay pottery industry has
rehabilitated to some extent thanks to such fund raising. However, small
pottery business owners are still struggling to survive in the
industry, expecting further assistance of financial or technology.
source: Eleven Myanmar
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