Pounding the clay in Yang Tao village

The clay is pounded, right before making the pot, on the surface where the pot will be made, traditionally a mortar used to pound rice, called pal, that are turned upside down. Mai Kim and Yo Khoanh here use logs that are destined to be mortar but do not have a cavity yet. They take the quantity of clay that they need to make the desired pot and place it on the pal, then take the pestle, called ne, and pound the clay until it is homogeneous and soft. This step of the process is called po uk, literally “pound clay”. On that day, we were just coming back from gathering clay at the source.