Things Thai. Tanistha Dansilp
between the late 13th and 15th centuries, at the height of the Sukhothai period. The most famous site was an area of kilns a few miles north of Si Satchanalai, the twin city of Sukhothai. Excavation in the early 1980s revealed just how extensive the production was: this was virtually an industrial complex, with two centers close to each other, at Ban Pa Yang and at Ban Koh Noi. At the latter alone, there were over 150 kilns in a little over 0.39 square miles (1 square kilometer).
The ceramic production from here is now generally known as Sangkhalok ware. One explanation for the name is that ‘Sangkhalok’ is a corruption of ‘Sawankhalok’, which was another name for the area and is today the name of a small town between Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai (and which, incidentally, has a fine museum devoted to these wares). Another theory has it that the name derives from the Chinese Song Golok, meaning ceramic kilns of the Sung period. At the time, the Chinese ceramic export industry dominated Asia, and while the Sangkhalok production did not reach the same level of quality, its prices were lower. This stimulated healthy exports to other Asian countries, as far afield as Japan and Korea. Whatever the etymology, the name stuck, not only for ceramics from the complex near Si Satchanalai but also the kilns in and around the city of Sukhothai, including a group of 50 close to Wat Phra Pai Luang.
An ancient legend has it that one early Sukhothai ruler, possibly King Ramkamhaeng, visited Beijing to pay tribute to the Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, and brought back some 500 potters. There is, however, no evidence of this, and stylistically if there is a suggestion of Chinese influence in the designs, it is much more likely to have come from Vietnam, which not only exported pottery to central Thailand in the 14th century, but also some craftsmen.
14th–15th century lidded pots and underglaze black painted vase from Si Satchanalai.
After 1371, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty placed restrictions on ceramic export and on private overseas trade, and this sudden unavailability provided the boost that the Thai industry needed. Si Satchanalai, and a little later Sukhothai, began exporting in earnest against competition from Vietnam. Recent diving discoveries of shipwrecks in the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea show that this trade continued until the war with Burma in the middle of the 16th century. One route was south through Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla and Malacca, another went east along the Cambodian and Vietnamese coasts.
The two kinds of kiln, cross-draft and updraft, were capable of producing a considerable range of ceramics, both earthenware and stoneware, but it is the clear glazed grey or white stoneware under-painted with designs in black that are the most closely associated with Sangkhalok. Of the two centers, the production of Si Satchanalai was superior, both in quality and quantity. The original reason for the siting of the Si Satchanalai kilns was the fineness of the local clay; Sukhothai’s, in contrast, was coarse and gritty, and its craftsmen were less skillful. On the best Si Satchanalai pieces, such as those shown above, the designs are dense and well-organized, while the export pieces from Sukhothai have a more limited repertoire, often with a chrysanthemum, a circular ‘chakra’ or fish in the center (see right). Tastes change, however, and the very simplicity and rapidly executed lines of the Sukhothai fish are now perceived to have considerable charm; it features prominently in modern production in this underglazed style.
painted stone plate with fish motif from Sukhothai; courtesy of the Sawanvaranayok Museum.
Celadon Ware
khrueang seladon
Celadon is named after a character in Honoré d’Urfé’s 1610 play, L’Astrée, a shepherd who wore a light green cloak with grey-green ribbons. Nowadays the name is used to describe a particular type of (mainly green) stoneware. The hue most popularly associated with the name is a pale willow green, but in fact it ranges from dark jade to white, with greys, yellows and greens in between. The precise color depends on the clay, the glaze, and the temperature and conditions in the kiln, which is high-fired to around 2282 degrees fahrenheit (1,250 degrees centigrade) in a reduction atmosphere. As one authority notes: “There has been a recent move to call celadons ‘greenwares’. This is to be deplored as many celadons are not green and many green wares are not celadons.” It is also worth noting that some modern chemical glazes that use copper or lead are not celadon.
In China, where it originated, it is still called green ware, and the subtly glazed classics of the technique are those produced during the Sung (Song) Dynasty (ad 930 to 1280). Some believe them to be the finest high-fired pottery ever made, on both technical and aesthetic grounds, and they have always been difficult to reproduce. Nevertheless, it was one speciality of the Sangkhalok kilns (see pages 18–19). Their best output is colored a beautiful sea-blue-green, and the glaze is usually rather shiny and glassy and much crazed. Since celadon glaze is difficult to control as it melts at a critical point, it was often not applied all the way down to the base, to avoid problems of it sticking to the support.
Contemporary celadon serving bowls with blue-green glazes. From the middle of the 20th century, thailand's celadon production has been revived and is now a major export.
A small ring-handled jar and a small urn for ashes, both Sukhothai-period celadon, at the Sawanvaranayok national Museum, Sawankhalok.
Jar with ring handles, Sangkhalok ware with cracked celadon glaze, also at the Sawanvaranayok national Museum, Sawankhalok.
Celadon was re-introduced into Thailand from Burma at the beginning of the 20th century, and has since then, in fits and starts, enjoyed considerable export success. The center of production is the northern city of Chiang Mai, to where Shans moved across the border on a number of occasions as part of re-settlement programmes. The Shan potters, who appear to have come from Mongkung in the Shan States, settled near the Chang Puak Gate in 1900, and began producing basic ceramic wares like pots and basins, with a rather dull grey-green celadon glaze.
Later, in 1940, when Chinese celadon became difficult to find, the Long-ngan Boonyoo Panit factory opened a little to the north of here, using the skills of the Shan potters to make household crockery. Although it lasted only a few years, it was followed by other operations, and eventually by the Thai Celadon Company. Since 1960 other factories have opened, producing varying qualities of output. It was common, even in Sung China, for there to be a slight crazing in the glaze, and even though an increase of just a few percent in the silica content would have avoided this, the network of widely spaced lines contribute aesthetically to the depth of the glaze. The jar with ring handles on right is a Sangkhalok ware with cracked celadon glaze. The range of wares that the several factories now offer has expanded to include blue-and-white, and also white, brown and bright blue monochromes, but the core of modern Chiang Mai production remains the traditional delicate green celadon.
A green Bencharong lidded bowl in the Jim thompson house museum.
Bencharong Ware
khrueang bencharong
The most exuberant of ceramics found in Thailand, highly valued among the nobility and wealthier commoners in the 19th and for some of the 20th century, was made in China. The motifs, for the most part, were distinctively Thai, with a cast of the religious and the mythological that included lions and divinities. The provenance, however, was not, and in these colorful, technically polished pieces we see nothing of the energetic and individualist ware from Sukhothai