Ten years ago Louis Katz, assistant professor of ceramics at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, went to Dankwean, Thailand, to learn and share his knowledge about ceramics with the artists there. That initial 10-month visit to Thailand was funded through a Fulbright research grant. This past June, using his own resources, Katz returned to Dankwean. “I wanted to go back on my own funding so that my visit would be more flexible,” he explained.
Before his first visit to Thailand, Katz taught himself to speak
Thai using U.S. government language tapes made in the 1950s for the
U.S. Foreign Service. “During one of my first attempts at
telephone conversation, I was told that I sounded like a drunk Thai.
I took it as a compliment,” Katz said
During that initial visit Dankwean was in the process of changing from production of utilitarian wares for local use to decorative wares for export. Potters had to learn new skills, in particular they had to learn the ability to conceive of and refine new forms. Businesses had to learn to sell in the export market.
“My friends at Umdang Ceramics in Dankwean now have a fax machine, modem, digital camera, and computer,” he said. “Their staff, who had never used a computer before three years ago, now use high-end graphics programs to custom design ceramic pieces for customers in South America. Designs are e-mailed and ordered on the Web. Ten years ago the company had just gotten started in export marketing and would ship out a 20-foot truckload of pots about once a month. Before the current Asian economic downturn, the business was shipping out a 40-foot container once a week.” Katz has seen pots from Dankwean displayed in nearly every Pier One Imports in the United States he has been in. He visits this store to keep abreast of what his friends are up to.
During his last visit Katz was able to see the annual Rocket Festival in Phanom Phrai. Featured in this festival are 10-foot tall rockets judged by the beauty of their smoke trails going up and coming down, and 4-foot rockets judged by their height of flight. “They go up high enough to disappear in the clouds,” Katz said. He added that the rockets are very basic: cylindrical tubes packed with gunpowder and a bamboo tail.
Although he was intrigued by the rockets, Katz’ visit was motivated by his desire to see the floats, sculptures and costumes that are paraded around the day before the launches. One float not likely to be seen in the United States and not likely to be seen in Thailand except in this context featured two revelers dressed in 15-foot costumes of people engaged in sex. These marched behind traditional Thai music groups and before the Thai dancers. “The parade was very festive,” Katz said, “with music and dancing in the streets. Some people drink beer, but the preferred drink is whiskey and soda with ice.”
At
the Buddhist Temple Wat Ba north of the provincial capital of Korat,
more eccentric Thai sculpture was displayed. Referred to by some
Thais as Wat Disney, Wat Ba exhibits cement sculptures depicting
scenes from a Buddhist conception of the underworld, along with
scenes from the realm of man. The Sawaan or heaven is under
construction. The scenes from the underworld contain images of what
might happen to you if you use heroin, drink too much liquor, are not
respectful of your elders, or abuse your positions of power.
Insertion of small change into devices attached to the sculptures
brings forth screams and movement of the sculptures. The Realm of Man
shows examples of good and bad behavior. The Sawaan is composed of
terraced hillsides with flowering trees.
One pottery village that Katz returned to is the island of Koh Kred, just upstream from Bangkok. Koh Kred has been producing flowerpots, stoneware mortars, water jars and other utilitarian objects for at least 250 years. Like other pot-making villages, the sales of functional items has been declining. In Koh Kred this decline has been a bit slower, probably because of the village’s proximity to a large metropolitan area with many available customers, Katz said. As late as last spring an article in a popular ceramics magazine described the village as in decline. When Katz visited in June the island was on the rebound.
The Thai government, in an attempt to continue the growth of the tourist economy of Thailand, started a campaign called “Amazing Thailand.” The program stresses genuine unique attractions of Thailand. This program did not make great strides outside of the country but had an effect on the people of Thailand who are now, according to Katz, “dropping into Koh Kred like the monsoon.”
With three journeys to Thailand behind him, Katz’ ties to the people and country continue to grow. His understanding of the language has gone well beyond the 1950s-vintage language tapes. He reads and writes a little Thai and has published “Traditional Thai Pottery Guide and Dictionary” complete with both English and Thai script and phonetic transliterations. His “Traditional Thai Pottery Video” is available for view in the Bell Library Media Center.
