Tagba Pottery Making Technique

　　Tagba pottery making workshop is located in the east of Maizhokunggar County. Langzhoilingar Monastery sits at the back of Tagbu village, backing onto the Zhoima Mountain, with the Langqenguozha Mountain the east and the Mawa Mountain in the west. At an elevation of 3,700 meters, it is an ideal place for pottery making, for the weather is moderate and the earth is unique.

　　As to the region's pottery-making history, legend goes that a long time ago, a person called Gyaibo Yexei Doje was born in Parab Sangzhoi Langba, Maizhokunggar County. His mother Goba Gyimo died when he was young, so he had to learn pottery making elsewhere to make a living. After returning home, he spread the skill in Tagba. In 1989, the Science and Technology Committee of Tibet Autonomous Region organized experts to make a special survey and verified that Tagba's pottery making originated from Central China in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and its skills have been carefully handed down until today.

　　The earliest pottery utensils were made with the makers' knees as a model. Later, with more experience in production, people invented clay models and introduced the potter's wheel. Such advanced technology helped raise pottery production and improve quality. Today, Tagba's pottery not only sells well in Tibet, but has also entered the international market.

　　The following is Tagba's pottery making process.

　　First of all, it must go through the process of clay selection, base making, glazing and baking. The region of Tagba is rich in adhesive baking materials such as red and white clay and graphite. The nearby place teems with glazing materials such as fell stone, which is very loose through years of weathering. The red clay is the main material for the various pottery bases.

　　Clay Selection. The raw clay must be washed to make it a pure, sticky and fine powder. For cooking potteries, a certain amount of sand must be added to prevent cracks when being heated.
　　
　　Base making. Tagba's potteries are mainly made with clay mud, and shaped by models. The amount of mud is decided according to the size of vessels. The mud is closely stuck on the outside of the model, and then put on the wheel. The mouth is shaped while the wheel turns. Water is added to polish the surface. Small vessels are directly shaped by hand, while complicated ones need to be connected in sequence and cut by knives or bamboo tools after being shaped.
　　
　　Tools. The main tool is a round pottery wheel disc divided into two parts. The upper part is called "Dingma" and the lower one is called the "wheel disc". Total height is 20cm, 48cm in diameter and 8cm thick. The Internal wheel is called "Dingpa" which is 15cm in diameter, 2cm high, and has a iron axle in the middle. While turning, the wheel is controlled by the thumb, and the turning speed is very fast. The pottery making tools also include a long and narrow wooden board with a smooth surface. The upper part is cylindrical, and the lower part flat but slightly wide. It is specially used to pat the external wall of vessels. There are also a mud "Bangdian" used to even the internal and external surfaces; a cow horn used as a model of vessel mouth and for carving lines; a deer-skin sheet for smoothing vessel base with water; woolen brush and scraper.

　　Glaze. Raw materials include fell stone, azurite stone, white sone, etc. produced in Nyemo County, Shannan's Sangyu, Nyingchi, Zhigong and Zhangda. The glaze is made by soaking mud and making it thick, and then mixing it with borax. The shaped vessel is painted with glaze after being dried.
　　
　　Baking. The vessel is placed onto the baking platform and covered with a lid. The glazes painted on the vessel must not stick to each other, and great efforts have to be made to prevent the entry of impurities. After covering the lid, layers of dry grass and cow dung are put around pottery, which turns into a round roof. It takes 7-8 hours to bake the pottery, along with an hour for cooling after the fire has been extinguished.

　　In the old society, the life of pottery makers was very difficult. There was a saying in Tibet. "May the pottery remain intact and all be sold. May the pottery be broken after being sold, otherwise pottery workers will die of starvation". It lays bare the truth with one penetrating remark that slaves and serfs, accounting for 95 percent of the Tibetan population, could not afford the daily necessity pottery vessels in the old society. Moreover, the purchasing market, represented by the five percent of the population formed by nobles and monks, was very limited. Adding the countless taxes and corvees, the pottery makers could not guarantee their basic living and they had insufficient to eat and wear.

　　Today, pottery workers have become masters. A vast market and preferential industrial policies enable them to live a happy life.