Bau Truc Pottery Village is located about 10 km from Phan Rang City, on the National Highway 1A. This small village is home to more than 400 families, of which only a few remained making ceramics. For a while, many have though the generations-old craft would be coming to an end. However recently, the tradition has been resurrected and is drawing more attention not just across the country, but internationally.

People in Bau Truc Village create pottery items in a very special way. Instead of using a wheel to shape their pots, the craftsmen move around the clay piece to create its shape. All products made from the village are crafted from hands and very simple tools such as cloth pieces, bamboo sticks, scrap steel wires and shells. Every finished item is set out to dry under the sun to dry, then covered on the ground with straws and firewood to burn rather instead of the common technique of baking them in a kiln.

Another unique characteristic that sets Bau Truc Village pottery from the rest is that its raw material, which is a sticky clay, is obtained from the Quao River. The clay is collected from the river only once a year, which is why the locals try to gather as much as they can store and use for the rest of the year. The most popular products from Bau Truc are relieves featuring Cham women, Cham kings, dancers and everyday items.

One of the two oldest pottery villages in Southeast Asia, Bau Truc Pottery Village and its pottery-making traditions have been acknowledged as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and is awaiting recognition by UNESCO’s as an intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent protection. Because of the renewed awareness, the quality of the pottery in the village has largely improved recently and the amount of pottery they produce have increased. More households in Bau Truc are now becoming more engaged in pottery while young villagers are encouraged to study at art universities. Art students are often sent to pottery units in the village to learn the traditional styles of Cham people.

Visiting Bau Truc Pottery Village, tourists can have a first-hand insight of the village’s unique pottery making techniques and are also given the opportunity to create pottery item themselves.