Bulatlat

For as long as there are people interested in the local folk artists' crafts, the pottery industry will continue to sustain Vigan potters as well as the ordinary burnay laborer.

BY LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 34, September 30-October 6, 2007

Filipino-Chinese mestizo Fidel Go, 68, immediately sat beside the potter's wheel after he received us at the front desk of his workshop, which is adjacent to his own home, that afternoon during the 2007 Heritage Cities Solidarity Week in Vigan City (407 kms north of Manila).

He was explaining the processes while his assistant prepared the clay, kneading the cubed mass into a pliable dough-like material, and a customer walked-in seeking his advice on the size and kind of tile to order for his construction work.

In between his business deals and an interview by this reporter, the potter kept an eye on the assistant, noting that the clay had neither bubbles nor lumps.

“Any bubble or pebble unnoticed will become a hole later,” Go explained in flawless Iloco. He said the clay had to be kneaded to attain an even consistency.

I did not blink a second when he stopped talking. He seemed to be concentrating on the block of clay laid on the potter's wheel, pushed to the maximum speed by the assistant, who left after a minute or two. In a second, the shape of the clay changed, even the smoothness and the lines that formed from the potter's fingers, and the little “tools” he had between his fingers.

The artist in Go ruled the moment, transforming with precision the clay from a rice field elsewhere in the city into a perfect piece of art. And there was a moment or two of serenity. Only the sound of a potter's wheel at work was heard, in the silence of the artist at work.

The camera kept clicking as the block morphed into several shapes and smoothness with the potter's steady fingers, hands and arms creating a masterpiece before us. In less than three minutes, a traditional burnay is in front of us, shining and soft, standing stately on the potter's wheel where it was but a block of clay.

“It is done,” Go declares as Cye and I gave him an applause that cracked the silence that enveloped the audience.

“Amazing,” we clapped in appreciation of the birth of an obra-maestra (masterpiece) right before our eyes.

It would take seven or more days before the art piece could be called burnay, according to Go. The curing takes one day, two days to fill his 50-meter kiln with cured jars to be heated for one day. After the heating, a one or two-day cooling takes place. Unloading takes another two to three days.

The temperature and length of firing makes the burnay different from the ordinary clay pot – banga or damili products, explained an information officer from Vigan City's research and information center. “The extreme heat makes the burnay,” she said.

Burnay in the Filipino homes, then and now

Burnay is an earthen-ware usually found in the Filipino kitchen. Rice, vinegar, salt and water are the common stuff stored in these durable earthen jars. Today, however, not so many Filipinos use the earthenware with the proliferation of plastic containers and the more elegant-looking push-button rice and water dispensers. Surely, though, the burnay is still superior to all these modern containers.

For the nostalgic, the burnay has been elevated in status from the kitchen to the show-windows of the home, the receiving room, patio or the garden, where it serves as a rustic decor.

In Pangasinan, the burnay we call pasig is still a treasured possession. It constitutes a family heirloom in most homes, although it no longer traditionally holds the rice nor water, nor salt.

Except in bagoong (fermented fish) factories where hundreds upon hundreds of burnay hold tons upon tons of salted fish and its by-product patis (fish sauce), the burnay is often seen in the roadsides and gardens holding ornamental plants.

Fidel Go: national folk artist, Chinese potter's scion

To Fidel Go of Vigan City, the burnay carries with it a family history that traces its roots in the hinterlands of mainland China. Go's Ruby Pottery is one of two pottery factories producing burnay in barangay Pagburnayan in Vigan City. There are other such factories in Vigan though, as much as there are pottery factories producing the cooking pot, banga, or damili.

What makes Fidel Go stand out is the recognition he received as a national folk artist in 1998 from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCAA). Go was then one of 100 Filipino artists given the Centennial Award, a once-in-a-lifetime recognition for local artists.

Go comes from a family of artists and businessmen. His father, who married a Filipina from Vigan City, started the pottery business in 1922, which Go inherited in 1970 after his father's death. One of his brothers is into the china-ware business in China.

According to Go, only a sister and he stayed put in the Philippines. His other siblings, four other sisters and five brothers have returned to China for good.

“We had a family reunion in 2000, which was a dragon year,” he said. His brother came to invite him to the reunion but he said he could not leave his large brood of 11 children. His brother even offered a comfortable life in China which he refused, saying “Nagdakkel ti pamilyak a mabati” (I have a very big family to leave here).

Ruby's Pottery, a family heirloom

The potter's wheel came from his Chinese father, Go Kay Kiat, from Fujian (Fukien) town in Ching Kang Shan Province in China. He also inherited the 50-meter long kiln from the original Go Kay Kiat factory.

When he ventured into the trade in 1970, all Go had on hand was P735 with which he paid laborers. His father also left him enough firewood to light the furnace and clay to feed it with enough jars.

Go started helping his father in 1961. His father taught him to handle the clay and the potter's wheel that turned perfect ang, or jar in the Chinese Fukien language.

Today he is “transferring” the skill to his own son, Eduardo, now 46. Aside from Eduardo, seven other workers assist the national folk artist in the craft. They gather clay from a distant rice field, pile it in the factory, “slice the clay into blocks”; prepare it for the potter to handle. The curing, firing and loading and unloading of the oven is left to the workers, including loading finished products into a 40-foot carrier van.

Market outlets include malls and trade fairs. He proudly recalled getting orders from my hometown Lingayen, where bagoong and vinegar-making still thrive as traditional cottage industries. Our bucayo-makers also need the sturdy burnay to store molasses.

The national folk artist for pottery has also trained some of his workers the craft, but at 68, he still operates the potters' wheel most of the time. His son Eduardo has his own potter's wheel to attend to.

Go noted a down-trend in this traditional industry. He laments that malls now place less orders. If there are not enough tourists, there is not much walk-in sales. He said his usual market is made up of people who are into landscaping and interior decoration, but he still gets orders from contractors who often buy bricks, cobblestones and clay tiles. He also produces mattings for salt farms in the Ilocos coastal towns.

Nevertheless, according to Go, Vigan's traditional pottery industry has withstood the hard times. Like the Ruby, burnay and damili will still shine for Bigueños. For as long as there are people interested in the local folk artists' crafts, the pottery industry will continue to sustain Vigan potters as well as the ordinary burnay laborer. Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat