The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

black & white photographs taken by Ursula Graham Bower between 1937 and 1946

caption: Tangkhul Naga pottery-making at Nungbi Khunou village
medium: photographs
person: Shangshum/ of Nungbi KhunouVangai/ of Nungbi Khunou
location: Nungbi Khunou
production:
form: 35mm negatives
person: Graham Bower/ Ursula
date: 14.2.1939
note: information based on catalogue compiled by photographer unless in square brackets
acquirer:
person: Pitt Rivers Museum Archive, Oxford
refnum: BT NO 948: 1-24
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Caption:A mixture of one part clay and two parts fine stop-dust is mixed with water in a trough and pounded to the right consistency
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Caption:Potter is breaking stones to dust to mix with clay
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Caption:The mixture is then patted out on a board
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Caption:The strip is trimmed with a bamboo knife
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Caption:The mixture is patted out on a board (by a second potter)
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Caption:The strip is trimmed with a bamboo knife
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Caption:The clay strip is rolled up round a bamboo
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Caption:Strip and bamboo are stood upright on a prepared clay base
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Caption:The clay strip is shaken free of the bamboo and joined to the base
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Caption:The pot is roughly shaped with the end of a wooden beater
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Caption:The pot is shaped by hand and the outside scraped smooth. Tangkhul potters work by backing round and round their work table. Compare the Manipuri method, by which the pot is shaped on a board on the knee
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Caption:Final smoothing and shaping are completed
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Caption:Spectators
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Caption:Rim and handles are made separately and attached
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Caption:Attaching rim and handles
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Caption:The potters with their pots ready for firing
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Caption:Vangai, one of the potters
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Caption:Shangshum, the other potter
seealso: Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur, p.47-8Betts, article in Man