Thai Ceramics & Pottery

Welcome to Praphran.com, here you will find information about Thai Ceramics, Pottery made of Earthenware, Terracotta from Thailand.

Thai ceramics are considered the very finest in the world and have been fired in Thailand since ancient times. There have been old ceramic finds covering much of northern and eastern Thailand to this very day.

There are four main types of ceramic products (not exclusive to Thailand), these are; Structural Ceramic, including bricks, pipes, floor and roof tiles. Refractories, such as kiln linings, gas fire radiants, steel and glass making crucibles. Whitewares, including tableware, wall tiles, pottery products, and sanitary ware. Technical, is also known as Engineering, Advanced, Special, and in Japan, Fine Ceramics. Such items include tiles used in the Space Shuttle program, gas burner nozzles, ballistic protection, nuclear fuel uranium oxide pellets, bio-medical implants, jet engine turbine blades, and missile nose cones. Frequently the raw materials do not include clays.

History Of Thai Ceramics

The traceable history of Thai Ceramics actually begins with the Khmer Empire of the last millennium. The very first evidence of ceramic creations date to the 9th century, but archeological evidence suggests Khmer ceramics hit their peak around the same time as the height of the Khmer Empire in the 11th and the 12th centuries.

The Thai people were thought to have moved south from China moving down from South China into Vietnam, Laos and then finally to the Chaopaya River Basin. That is where they then followed the long period of Khmer rule. The Thai people did finally brake free from the Khmer rule in the 13th century. The Great Thai King Ramkamhaeng of Sukothai was the founder of the modern state and was the King that then brought potters from China to set up the famous Sukothai kiln.

Without dought the great years of the ceramics industry of Thailand were between the 14th and 16th century. It was a great period of prosperity both for Ayuthya and LanNa in the north of Thailand. During the later Tak period, historians have found more remaining ceramics from Sukothai , Lan Na and the Golden Age of Ayuthya periods. It was in 1569, during a large Burmese attack that many constructions were destroyed and sadly resulted in the end of the great Sukothai ceramic industry. Then new kilns were built at Singburi around the year 1600, but produced only coarse utilitarian goods. During this time Chinese ceramics were imported into the country to fulfill the need for pottery and porcelain.

There were many types of earthenware and stoneware that were made in Singburi during the Ayuthya capital period. Singburi ceramics were jars with looped handles, covered with a lack-lustre brown glaze. It was 1767, there was another attack from Burma and many kilns were destroyed, greatly decreasing production of Thai ceramics from that area.

Today Thailand is once again producing some of Asia’s finest ceramics, mainly in centers in the northern part of the Kingdom. Pottery, statues, and ceramic works of many different kinds have been revived as Thai art of ceramic creation has been rediscovered. Technical breakthroughs in the firing process of ceramics have spawned a rebirth of Thai ceramics. The different types, colors, and designs of modern Thai ceramics are more varied than ever before, and have become an increasingly popular art import for the West as the skilled Thai artisans have learned to fuse the modern designs with the ancient art of traditional Thai ceramics to produce fine peices and artistic creations.