The great ceramic tradition of Bangladesh unfolds in the context of geology. From the world’s tallest mountains, mighty rivers roll to the sea. Their silt has built the world’s widest delta. The earth of the delta is heaped into mounds that hold the villages above the flood. It is planted to rice so that people might eat. It is shaped and baked into vessels so that water can be carried, food can be cooked, and people can get though another long day.

There are six hundred and eighty villages dedicated to pottery-making in Bangladesh, nearly half a million people who use clay to make art because clay is what there is. They dig and mix two kinds of clay — one white and sandy, one black and sticky — treading and kneading them together to make a smooth new substance for creation.

The potters are predominantly Hindus. They bear the same surname — Pal — indicating their membership in the craft-craft-caste of the workers in clay. Most of the Pals make utilitarian ware. Women use paras, men turn the great chak. With their different techniques, women and men make identical kalshis and they collaborate in making patils — smooth useful vessels that are slipped for brightness, fired to ruddy buff or silvery black, and then sent to market. During commercial exchange, Hindu products go to Muslim consumers, unifying society in the honorable ethic of utility.

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Posted by fRoM.tHe.ZeRo on 2013-01-06 09:18:24

Tagged: , The Pottery Lady , Potter worker in Bangladesh , Pottery Woman , Traditional potter worker , hindu , pottery-making in Bangladesh , atikullah , craft-craft-caste of the workers in clay , working woman of Bangladesh , Enterprise of Bangladesh , Impassive Bangladesh , Traditional Bangladesh , Soul of Bangladesh