Bau Truc Pottery Village

Bàu Trúc is a pottery village with a plain name, and behind that name lies a pottery technique still practiced today. This is the village of the Cham. The Cham are a people of south-central Vietnam whose ancestors lived in the ancient kingdom of Champa. In November 2022, UNESCO placed the pottery making of the Cham on its list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding.

The village is not a World Heritage site in the way Hoi An and Hue are, as physical places. What UNESCO listed is the craft itself, and the listing says it needs urgent safeguarding. It marks a craft that is still alive but at risk, and one the world wants to help keep going.

The Cham name of the village is Paley Hamu Trok, which means the low-lying village. One local source says that in the reign of Emperor Minh Mạng it was called Vĩnh Thuận. After a great flood in 1964, the villagers moved to higher ground, where many bamboo trees grew beside a pond. From then on the place was called Bàu Trúc. The name follows the shape of the land and the memory of the villagers themselves.

Until 2025, the village belonged to Phước Dân town in Ninh Thuận province. In July 2025, Ninh Thuận merged with Khánh Hòa province. The old Phước Dân area was then placed in Ninh Phước commune. Today that commune lies in Khánh Hòa.

But the heart of this place is not an address. It is the hands.

The most striking feature of Bàu Trúc pottery is that the potter does not sit at a wheel. In many pottery villages around the world, the wheel is the central tool. Here it is the opposite. The lump of clay stays still and the potter walks around it. Walking, the potter rubs, strokes and shapes the clay with both hands, building the piece layer by layer.

A Khánh Hòa newspaper describes the potter walking backward around the lump of clay while stroking it into shape. The rhythm of those steps makes it look as if the potter is dancing with the earth.

The clay is said to come from the banks of the Quao River, mixed with sand depending on the piece. After shaping and decorating, the pottery is dried and then fired in the open air, with firewood or rice straw. There is no closed kiln here, and no heat controlled by electricity. The fire is direct and outdoors, under the sun of Ninh Thuận. That firing gives Bàu Trúc pottery its earthy color, uneven and marked by flame, different from one batch to the next.

Uneven color is not a flaw. It is the proof of handwork. Two jars may look almost alike but are never identical, because no wheel fixes the speed and no thermometer controls the kiln.

The products are varied. Household wares include large jars, cooking pots and kettles. Objects for spiritual use include statues and reliefs. There are also decorative patterns tied to the beliefs and scenery of Cham tradition. Today there are also bags, purses and decorations for visitors, all made of fired clay.

The skill lives in the potter's hands. It is in the speed of the steps around the clay, the pressure of each finger, and the way the wall is stroked up and the base is lifted. It is learned from mothers and grandmothers over many generations, and it cannot be learned in a few weeks.

When a jar takes shape, is set out to dry in the sun, and is then placed on a heap of straw that catches fire, something remarkable happens. The earth of the Quao River, the hands of the Cham, and the flame under the Ninh Thuận sun together make an object that never has an identical second. Every jar carries the fingerprint of the one who made it.