A meeting was held to revive the art of making traditional clay pottery.
DARAK: Darak Tourism and Social Welfare Foundation (DTSWF) held a village-level consultative meeting at Sala Potom village in West Siang district on 6 June to discuss the revival of traditional earthen pottery making from Kamru, a clay source approximately 1.5 km from Sala village in Darak circle.
Addressing the meeting, DTSWF managing director Jummo Potom outlined the objectives of the initiative and the significance of revival of traditional pottery making.
The foundation said the objectives for the revival initiative were to generate rural employment and promote self-reliance, preserve the heritage of pottery making for future generations, train rural couples through professional experts with government support, establish a small-scale village pottery industry at Sala Potom, form a Kamru Cooperative Society under a Kamru Monitoring Committee, minimize jhum cultivation by engaging villagers in pottery, promote pottery-based tourism, improve infrastructure, encourage community participation, and enable research and documentation on pottery.
The villagers lauded the proposal and assured their full support to the foundation for executing the pilot project.
Potom said the idea of revival of traditional earthen pottery making to empower rural economy aligns with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and Gandhian principle of community development.
The proposed clay source has a minimum area of 49,462.18 m2 located at an elevation of 1013.09 mtr.
Locally, clay pottery products are called Takam Pisi by Galos of Sala Potom village. The clay sources near the village have been a centre of traditional earthen pottery making since time immemorial and people from the entire upper belt of present West Siang district used to derive clay source from this site.
However, with the advent of modernity, the people of Sala Potom village gradually abandoned the practices of earthen pottery around 36 years ago and the household utensils were replaced by modern products made of plastic, aluminum and brass-copper. Remnants of earthen potteries are still found in households.
The Sala Potom village comprises 12 households, connected by PMGSY road to Darak, 48 km from Aalo, the district headquarters of West Siang.
The meeting was attended by the GBs, PRI members, SHGs, women and youth.
