Aba, Sichuan: Herdsmen become Tibetan potters

Student holds new Tibetan pottery [Photo: Yin Gang]

Recently, a Tibetan youth Zelang Sijia fettled a pottery prototype in a ceramics training center in Renpeng Village, Rangtang County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. Zelang Sijia and other 18 students all came from poor herdsmen families in Rangtang County. After the studying for six years, they have mastered the comprehensive skills of throwing, fettling, and firing of Tibetan pottery at the ceramic training center, and completed the education of moralism, Tibetan, Chinese, mathematics, e-commerce, Tibetan-Chinese calligraphy, and basic painting.

Students learn Tibetan pottery [Photo: Yin Gang]

In August 2019, Zelang Sijia and his friends who studied Tibetan pottery production together became the first young Tibetan pottery non-genetic inheritors in Rangtang County. Their independently produced Tibetan pottery crafts have won awards in China and are selling well internationally.

In recent years, Rangtang County has promoted cultural poverty alleviation and encouraged inheritors to actively set up training centers and invest 1 million yuan each year for the construction of non-genetic training centers. At present, Rangtang County has established 26 training centers, covering non-heritage cultural projects such as Tibetan pottery, Tibetan incense, Tibetan tea, Tibetan medicine, Thangka, stone carving, and pottery. At present, nearly 2,000 people in Rangtang County are engaged in productive protection of non-heritage culture, and many folk arts have been restored and rejuvenated.