Dai Nationality Slow-wheel Pottery Manufacturing Skills 傣族慢轮制陶技艺

时间：2006年
Time: 2006
类别：传统手工技艺
Category: Traditional Handicraft Skills
地区：云南
Region: Yunnan Province
编号：Ⅷ-5
Ref. No.: VIII-5
申报地区或单位：云南省西双版纳傣族自治州
Nominating unit[s]: Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province
云南有长达四千余年的制陶史，西双版纳傣族自治州的景洪曼斗寨、勐罕曼峦站寨、勐海曼扎寨及勐龙寨等地均保留着较为完整的傣族传统制陶技艺。
Yunnan Province has a pottery manufacturing history of more than four thousand years. Fairly complete Dai nationality traditional pottery manufacturing skills have been reserved in many villages of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, such as Jinghongmandou, Menghanmanluan, Menghaimanzha and Menglong stockaded villages.
傣族自古喜爱用陶，制陶在傣语中称为"板磨"，俗称"土锅"。明初钱祖训所著《百夷传》称：傣族"惟陶冶之器是用"。与其他民族不同的是，傣族制陶是由妇女世代相承的。其主要工具有转轮、木拍、竹刮、石球等，主要技艺流程包括舂土、筛土、拌沙、渗水、安装转盘、制坯、打坯、干燥、准备烧陶、烧陶等环节，所生产的陶器按其用途可分为生活用具、建材、赕佛用具等种类。
Dai people have been fond of pottery since ancient time and pottery manufacturing is called "banmo" in Dai language or locally called "tuguo" (literally "earthen pot"). Bai Yi Zhuan (Biography of Dai Nationality) written by Qian Zuxun of early Ming Dynasty ever noted: "only pottery can serve as containers" in the life of Dai people (called "baiyi" in Ming and Qing dynasties). Different from the customs of other ethnic groups, Dai people hand down pottery manufacturing skills only to their female offspring. Major tools include rotating wheel, wooden bat, bamboo scraper and stone ball, etc. The process of pottery making consists of pestling clay, screening clay, mixing with sand and water, installing rotating disc, making base, shaping base, drying, preparing for firing pottery, and firing pottery. The produced pottery falls into the following categories by usage: daily utensils, building materials and sacrifice articles.
傣族制陶技艺最突出的特色为慢轮手工制作，器物表面均用有纹的木拍拍打出印纹，这与南方新石器遗址出土的印纹陶器相一致。傣族陶器在用料上亦有讲究，主要以泥土加砂石料来改善成型性能。其焙烧方式也有自己的特点，包括露天焙烧和封闭半焙烧等多种方法。成坯方法呈多样化特点，有无转轮制坯、脚趾拨动慢轮、手拨动转轮等方式。这些远古时期的制陶技术，至今仍为傣族传承使用。20世纪50年代末期以来，国内外著名的考古学家多次对傣族制陶进行专门调查，认为傣族传统制陶是我国原始陶艺的代表，是解开中国新石器时代烧陶之谜的钥匙。
The most distinctive feature of Dai nationality pottery manufacturing skills is the procedure of slow-wheel manual manufacturing during which decorative patterns on pottery surfaces are made using a wooden bat. The patterns are similar to those of stamped pottery unearthed from the Neolithic site in south China. Dai pottery is also selecive on materials. Mixing earth and stones together is the main means to improve its shaping performance. The pottery is also distinctive in its baking method, including outdoor baking and closed semi-baking, etc. The methods of making a blank is diversified: making without rotating wheels, stirring the slow-wheel with toes and stirring the rotating wheels with hands, etc. These ancient pottery manufacturing skills are still adopted by Dai people. Since the end of the 1950s, famous archaeologists at home and abroad have conducted many special surveys on Dai nationality's pottery manufacturing and hold the view that traditional pottery making of Dai nationality is the representative of primitive pottery art in China as well as the key to explain the enigma of pottery baking in China's Neolithic Age.
但是，随着现代化进程的深入，除了少量用于建筑物屋脊的装饰品和佛教礼器外，在其他场合已不大容易看得到传统的傣族陶器。另外陶器制作的经济效益不理想，所以学习和从事制陶技艺的人越来越少。在西双版纳，只有少数村寨的几户人家还会制作陶器，原始制陶术已处于即将消亡的状态，亟待拯救和保护。
However, with the deepening of modernization, traditional Dai pottery is gradually fading from our sight, except some decorative pottery on building ridges and Buddhist sacrifice articles. In addition, since pottery manufacturing is not lucrative, fewer and fewer people are willing to learn and get engaged in pottery manufacturing. In Xishuangbanna, only several households in a few villages know how to make pottery. Primitive pottery manufacturing skills have been driven to the edge of extinction and are in urgent need for rescue and protection.