Making pots in Yang Tao village : fashioning on wet clay of a roasting pan (suông war ba) and a steaming pot (kơl hôl piêng)

Fashioning pot in Mnong is called ‘muôn dlah’.Yo Khoanh is making a suông war ba, a pan to roast coffee and rice. Mai Kim is making a kơl hôl piêng, a pot to steam rice and sticky rice. They both start with a cylindre of clay that they open all around, 3-4cm away from the edge. They scrape out clay from the lump to spread around the edge to both hollow and elevate the initial lump of clay. Then they draw the walls from inside and outside. While drawing outside, they also form the shape of the pot. They smooth out the walls with water and a bamboo stick called ‘ne pôi dlah’, where ‘ne’ is the stick, ‘pôi’ the action of drawing the walls from the outside and ‘dlah’ the generic term for pottery. Finally, they form the rim using water and a piece of cloth called ‘at dlah’. During the whole process, the pot stays fixed on its support and the potters walk around the support. This action of turning around is called ‘uôt’ in Mnong.