Thailand
offers an exceptionally wide selection of pottery and ceramics.
Thai plant pots, especially of large sizes, are exported
to many countries ; even pots in ancient Roman or Greek design
sold in southern Europe are actually made in Thailand.
However, pottery
is a Thai craft not primarily export oriented. In many villages
of the Northeast, water is still today stored near homes in giant
earthenware jars. Furthermore, the manufacture of pottery
is only partially industrialized. In many cases, it's rather a
supplementary home industry of rice farmers. There are
only few really large pottery manufacturers. Much bigger quantities
are produced by small factories where villagers work between the
rice planting and harvesting seasons when there is little work
in the fields.
Ordinary tourist
shops often carry some porcelain but seldom terra-cotta items,
probably because they are too bulky to store and too heavy and
too breakable to be taken along as tourist luggage. A good selection
of terra-cotta pots can be seen at the Chatuchak Weekend Market.
