The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. XLIV, Part 1-2, 1956 - Khamkoo

Siam and the Pottery 'l'rade of Asia 63
a conLury and oniy iu two swall lvcaliLieti ~truund :::lulrhothai and
Sawankalok on the l.Janks of the Yom River in north-central Siam.
Before the 14th centnry their efforts had been limH('d to p1·odncing
crude earthenwares and some stonewares for everyday household
use, and after their one compar~tively brief foray into the finer
ceramic field they again confined themselves nntil modern times to
making these same simple but practical utensils. Such wares have
played and continue to play an important pat't in the life of the
Thai, for in the ordinary Siamese hottsehold until the advent of
cheap, foreign-made alninintim and enamel pots and l)a11s, eart.hert
and stoneware vessels have occupied a more conspicuous place than
metal utensils. This is not necessarily a reflection on the metallurgical
skill of t.he 'l'hai, for over much of the same pel'iocl of their
history they have displayed a remarkable genius in the casting of
bronze Buddha images and cannon, and in the making of steel
weapons and other metal articles. We can only conclude, therefore,
that, aside from ti1e element o£ cobt, the Thai have l1ad Some sort of
aesthetic predilection for earthen and stoneware l1tensils for their
homes.
Yet H is strange that the Thai peoples apparently did not
bring with them any advanced ceramic techniques from China when
they left their ancestral kingdom of Nan Chao in Honthern Yunnan
Province. During the period of the Nan Chao Kingdom the Thai:
undoubtedly achieved a fairly advanced stage of civilization, and
they must have been in some contact with t.he exciling ceramic
developments which took place in China during the T'ang and Sung
periods. Yet all this seems to have been left behind when the 'l'hai
began their large-scale migrations southward f!'Om Nan Ohao toward
the end of the Sung dynasty. Their next probable contact with
inore advanced ceramic methods carne as a resnlt of their relationship
with the Khmer in the Menam v'alley of Siam• Some samples
of very early Thai pottery bear marked similarities to the. work of
the Khn1er, not only in form but also with respect to their rather
b'ritt1e type of glaze. 'l'he Khmer !.lllparently did not employ a true
vitreotrs glaze·, but ttsed what appears to have been some Iacquer-fike
substance of organic character. Japa:neS'e c·eramic S1)ecia1ists catl