Phu Lang Pottery Village in Bac Ninh Vietnam

Phu Lang Pottery Village is located in Phu Lang Commune, Que Vo District, Bac Ninh Province, around 60km from the north of Hanoi.

Unlike the ceramic products made from the white clay of Bat Trang (Hanoi), the Phu Lang pottery is made from the light-pink clay taken from the areas of Thong Vat, Cung Khiem. The Phu Lang potteries are covered by the special glazes which are named interestingly such as stone crab, eel’s skin, etc. The ingredients to make the glaze are also unique, including ash trees, slaked lime, crushed pebbles, and alluvial white mud. After the initial processing, these four ingredients are mixed in a certain proportion and then left dry and broken into pieces to add to water.

The next steps are about filtering and processing into the liquid and yellow substance. When the ceramic product is still wet, ceramists will use a brush to coat a thin glaze layer on the cover of the product and leave it dry. Besides creating the unique glaze, Phu Lang Pottery also has the distinct characteristics thanks to the techniques of firewood heating. They use the varied heat generation to create extraordinary traits of the ceramic surface that no other heating technique can do the same. After the steps of glazing and painting with colors, the ceramic products are put into the kiln of 1.000 Celsius degree for the continuous heating of 3 days 3 nights.

The local potteries have three predominant types: (1) products for worshipping (censers); (2) products for household goods (pots, vases, pipe tubes, etc.); and (3) aesthetic fine-art ceramics (jars, pots with the animal patterns like elephants, horses, etc.)

Travel to Phu Lang Village in Bac Ninh to discover how the ceramists produce the masterpieces in traditional ways!

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