Malaysian Potter from Kelantan in Malaysia

On a
    journey
       of
   discovery...

Malaysian Kelantan's master potter presenting
her traditional Malay hand building and
coil crafting technique.

A Kelantan potter demonstrating her skills in the art of traditional pottery with a table top hand-wheel.

Potter from Kelantan

Location
of
"Kota Bahru"
capital of Kelantan

Special local Kelantan low fired clay (1,200 C) are use to craft the clay
pot and the fired clay pot will be semi-porous--usually sold in open local
markets and used by many Malaysians for cooking glutinous rice--a local delicacy.

Kelantan potter demonstrates how she
craft the foot (base) of the low fire clay pot.

Cindy Koh and her field trip pottery student getting
some hands-on experience interacting with the local Kelantan Potter as she demonstrate her traditional Malay hand building technique.

The Kelantan low fire clay (1,200 C) fired clay pot will be semi-porous and are sold in open local markets used by Malaysians for cooking glutinous rice

The charms of Kelantan are found in the vitality of its culture and shining beauty of traditional wayang kulit (shadow play) puppeteer and tok dalang (story telling) accompanied by melodies from various musical instruments.

Wayang Kulit - Shadow play

Kelantan's 14,931 square kilometers of coastline on the East Peninsular Malaysia
offers a number of idyllic beaches and a glimpse of traditional Malay culture like; sports of giant kite-flying, top-spinning, silat, bird-singing competitions and the making of exquisite handicrafts, batik and pottery.

Kelantan's vast stretches of tropical rain forest cover the state and its part of the Taman Negara National Park.

It has an area of rustic settings of picturesque villages amidst padi-fields that give insights into a way of life that has endured the passing of time.

Kelantan's history dates to between 8000-3000 B.C. Chinese historical documents chronicle the existence of a government which had links with China, when Kelantan was referred to as 'Ho-lo-tan'.

Glutinous rice

Despite its misleading name, the word glutinous means glue-like or sticky rice does not contain gluten or "amylose" but contains a high amounts of "amylopectin"--responsible for it being sticky.

Malaysians have adopted glutinous rice as part of their diet like; "Tapai"--where yeast are added to the glutinous rice with clean boiled water and left to ferment in a cool dark area of their home for 10 days--that produces a soft watery fermented glutinous rice with a rich aroma fragrance.

Delicious
mouth watering translucent
glutinous rice.

Steamed cooked glutinous rice consumed with durian or ripe mangoes added with a few spoon full of fresh coconut pulp juice.

Turmeric glutinous rice, local call it "yellow ginger roots", steamed with a hands full of pepper and consumed with with a sprinkling of sugar or with curry sauces.

Black glutinous rice are use to prepare a popular local black porridge dish for desert or tea break. They are boiled with water for 3 hours and consumed with added sugar plus a table spoon of fresh coconut pulp juice.

Glutinous rice being steamed in a Kelantan low fired semi-porous clay pot on top of a local traditional clay stove that uses charcoal.

Notice the open vent at the bottom of the clay stove--it has a sliding
clay door to control the fire.

Steamed cooked glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves--the size of a clinch
fist--filled with meat, mushroom, chestnuts,
Soya-beans and salted duck egg yoke.

Another popular local glutinous rice delicacy.

Ketupat Pulut (glutinous rice), uses strip of young coconut leaf weaved into 3 inches square and filled with glutinous rice, steamed cooked and consumed with curry sauce.

Cooked by roasting it over hot charcoal--wrapped in banana leaves with spiced pounded dried shrimp.