Kajian Malaysia, Vol. 33, Supp. 2, 2015, 113–133 TRADITIONAL MALAY POTTERY OF KUALA KANGSAR: ITS HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT1 Azmi Arifin School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, MALAYSIA Email: [email protected] This essay discusses the pottery-production heritage of Kuala Kangsar, in particular the labu sayong (earthen ware or gourd pitchers from the Sayong area). This particular handicraft of the Perak Malays has a unique history of its own. From the historical aspect, the practice of pottery-production is believed to have started by the Malays thousands of years ago. Over the years the heritage has been kept alive and is still being practiced traditionally by Malays in Kuala Kangsar and produced for commercial purposes. Confronted with the emergence of new and modern pottery-production techniques, which is a challenge to the popularity of traditional pottery, the traditional technique of pressing and pinching has been sustained until the present day. Based on historical and archaeological sources and field study, this essay explains the origins, history and development of pottery-production in Kuala Kangsar. The essay also identifies the problems and challenges which traditional labu sayong practitioners have to face and steps taken by the government to ensure this traditional Malay handicraft is safeguarded and sustained so that it is not wiped out by changes over time. Keywords: pottery production, Kuala Kangsar, traditional technique, labu sayong, commercial purposes INTRODUCTION Studies on pottery are invaluable for the historians, archaeologists and anthropologists in understanding and reconstructing the history, culture, and ancient arts as well as to understand the historical stages of a nation's progress and its civilization (Chia, 1995). According to the general view among historians and archaeologists, the study of ceramics could yield a great deal of valuable knowledge associated with the chronology or dating of the technological and social systems of early societies (Asyaari, 1998). Its importance is evident from the history of civilisation which always begins with the invention of basic utensils from rock, stone, bones, skeletons and even clay. According to Ahmad Fauzi (2009: 1), "…the production of ceramics is one of the oldest activities in the history of human life." Shamsu (2005: 77) explains that pottery is "…one of © Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2015 Azmi Arifin the earliest handicrafts which were created by human civilization." In Malaysia, the invention of pottery was an indication of the beginning of civilisation; it is irrefutable evidence of the origins of the primal communities referred to as the Malays. To understand and explain the rise of human civilisation in a particular location, archaeologists usually begin with the study of ancient ceramic utensils. In fact the world's greatest civilisations possess their own tradition of pottery- making. The early Malays had evidently achieved a certain level of cultural attainment through the invention of ceramic utensils. Studies have been conducted to identify how and when the Malays began making pottery although the availability of records is problematic. According to several studies by archaeologists, pottery making in Malaysia started thousands of years ago during the Neolithic age.2 Scholars had identified this pottery as primitive pottery. According to Norton (1956: 83): Primitive pottery making is almost universal in association with early man over the whole surface of the earth, and because communication was practically non-existent, we are led to the conclusion that it evolved independently in many regions. The history of primitive Malay pottery-making was first studied in the early 20th century. Through excavation works fragments of pottery were discovered at archaeological sites like Gua Cha in Kelantan, Bukit Tengku Lembu in Perlis, Ulu Tembeling in Pahang, Bukit Tambun in Perak and Gua Niah in Sarawak (Siti Zainon, 1986; Shamsu, 2005: 78).3 These discoveries were made by foreign scholars including Evans (1918),4 Callenfels and Evans (1982), Sieveking (1955), and Peacock (1959). Some of their findings were made in Perak. Later local researchers like Zuraina (1989), Adi and Zulkifli (1990), Nik Hassan Shuhaimi (1990a; 1990b), Mohd. Kamaruzaman et al. (1991) and Chia (1995) began to take the lead in archaeological research. In 1998, Asyaari Muhamad conducted a doctoral study on the history of pottery-production in Perak and the scientific process that was involved in its production (Asyaari, 1998). Recent studies had reaffirmed the conclusion that the traditional pottery discovered thus far was products of the local community without any external influences in its production (Siti Zainon, 1986; Chia, 1995; Asyaari, 1998; Shamsu, 2005). IMPORTANCE OF POTTERY IN MALAY CIVILISATION Many studies have discussed the origins of pottery-production in Perak. Among the earliest and most interesting is the writing of Leonard Wray who became the first curator of the Perak Museum in 1903 (see Wray, 1903). Based on two 114 Traditional Malay Pottery significant facts, Wray explains the origins and development of pottery- production in Perak particularly in the Kuala Kangsar area. The first, that pottery as an invention of the Malays, shows pottery had begun to attain a high level of cultural attainment since earliest times. According to Wray, pottery in Perak had existed since thousands of years ago; it was not produced by the aboriginal Malays (the Sakai or Semang) but by the culturally- more sophisticated Malays living along the Perak River. Wray explains theories about the Malays as migrants from outside the Archipelago are probably inaccurate. Elements in the invention of pottery, which is primary evidence of the existence of early settlements, show qualities which were local in terms of the material used, design and decoration. Secondly, the uniqueness and originality of the handicraft is intrinsically Malay devoid of any external influences at least prior to the 20th century. Wray insists although the arts of the Malays in the early period had been influenced by external cultures of a higher civilisation, the history of pottery making in Malaysia has not been significantly influenced by foreign elements. In fact the process of production has been preserved in its original form until today (Chia, 1995). Wray (1903: 24) explains that: The interest attaching to Malayan pottery, as made in the state of Perak, arise from the great antiquity of the art, and from the certainty of its having come down to present time without influence from the more highly civilized nations, who have, from time to time, imparted arts and ideas to the Malayan inhabitants of the Peninsula. Clear evidence that local pottery is not externally influenced is found in the technology. The Chinese, who had achieved a high level of progress in pottery-production, had introduced the technique of the potter's wheel since earliest times.5 Although Chinese influence had existed in the Malay states since the 11th and 12th centuries, the technique of making pottery in Perak and its designs up to the 20th century do not show any clear sign that it was influenced by foreign techniques. At that stage the traditional Malay pottery-making was rather primitive. It was done by hand and not the potter's wheel. Wray (1903: 24) explains that: The antiquity of the potter's wheel is so great, that in most countries there is no record of its invention. It has been in use in India and China from a very remote period, yet the Malays are quite ignorant of it. It is this fact which forms the strongest proof of the great antiquity of the method of working clay in Perak, for it is inconceivable that a potter, having once learned the use of the wheel, would ever discard it and return to the slow and 115 Azmi Arifin tedious process of forming vessels by the hand alone, or that the art could have been introduced by a foreign potter of a nation which was acquainted with the wheel, without the wheel itself being introduced at the same time. Chinese influence in pottery making might have come at a later stage but pottery production of the early period was entirely a local phenomenon. From the aspect of originality of form or design, it was done without any foreign elements. This was true of the Perak pottery design and decorative embellishment which remained indigenous from the early period to the present. Some of the elements incorporated from nature include trees and flowers which were only found in the Malay states, such as bunga tanjung, bunga padi, bunga keduduk, bunga pecah empat, susur kelapa, bunga lawang, bunga cengkih, bunga cakar ayam, pucuk rebung, siku keluang, in addition to the S, X and V shapes as shown in Figure 1 (Wray, 1903; Ibrahim and Sahaimi, 2005). Figure 1: Patterns on labu sayong pottery. Source: Wray (1903). 116 Traditional Malay Pottery Winstedt (1925) explains that the invention of pottery by the Malays was very basic with quite simple ornamentation. In his words: Ornamentation was relatively unambitious; cord-marking is the most usual form or ornament. Simple incised patterns are found. The ware is generally dark in colour with sand and charcoal tempering and often a polished surface produced by burnishing with the application of soot. Such discoveries could explain that the pottery "industry" had existed in the Malay States from early times. It had developed with diverse forms and decorations based on indigenous influences. The use of indigenous elements supports the argument that traditional Malay pottery particularly labu sayong is a local invention. The invention reflects the cultural heritage of a primordial society which is invaluable to the history of Malay civilization. Based on the continuity or endurance of these local elements Wray (1903: 24) emphasises that: Malayan pottery may, therefore, be looked upon as a survival, amongst a fairly civilized people, of a phase in the ceramic art far anterior to that to be found in other countries in a similar state of advancement, and, such, appears to be deserving of some study and attention.