Nixi Black Pottery Village

Nixi means the place where the sun rises in Tibetan, it is a Tibetan village in Shangri-la county, and it is also the only way of the old tea horse road. Nixi has a long history of pottery making, and the pottery making craft has been passed on for more than 2,000 years. Nixi Black Pottery is famous in northwest of Yunnan and the whole Tibetan area, it has unique style in Chinese black pottery art. The black pottery is beautiful in appearance and widely used in the northwest of Yunnan and Tibetan areas in our country. The food cooked in black pottery has the a special smell of earth, which cannot achieved by modern cookers. 

Tangdui village at Nixi is the birthplace of Tibetan black pottery. It is 2,960 meters above sea level and about 33 kilometers away from Shangri-la County. There are about 140 Tibetan families in the village, 22 families among them make black pottery. The craftsmen here have been inheriting the traditional Tibetan black pottery making skills, and most of the time they make pottery is during slack time. The black pottery craft of Tangdui village is not only a traditional handcraft with a long history, but also has high academic value. According to the research, the ancestors of Diqing had mastered the black pottery making skill in the Spring and Autumn Period. Nixi Black Pottery Village is not far from Dukezong Old Town, it is worth to see if you have enough time for this Shangri-la tour. 

Nixi Black Pottery Village Facts

-Chinese name: 尼西乡黑陶村 (尼西乡汤堆村)

-Location: In the Northwest area of Shangri-la

-The origin time: Spring and Autumn period

-Nationality: Tibetan 

Nixi Black Pottery Making Skill

Nixi Black Pottery is made of a kind of red clay in Tangdui village. If the purple pottery of Jianshui is gentle and elegant, the black pottery of Nixi is just like the man of Tibetan, bold and unrestrained. The making process of Nixi Black Pottery is complicated. From the beginning to the end, each piece of pottery must be made by hand with more than 50 pieces of wood tools, and go through more than ten processed in turn. Because it is a handmade product, there are no two identical Nixi Black potteries, which creates the unique artistic value of Nixi Black Pottery. 

For the production of black pottery, soil selection is the most important step to ensure the quality. In February and March every year, the craftsmen in Tangdui village will go to collect soil from the mountain 2 kilometers away from the village. They mix the unique red clay and white clay here, smash them and store them in bags for the whole year. The most important feature of black pottery making is to use unique burning technology to make it black. Different from burning in kiln, the burning method of the black pottery is more traditional and complex. It requires to light a bonfire in the open space when the weather is good, put the dried mud into the fire until it turns to red, then take it out and cover them with sawdust and charcoal immediately. The black pottery made in this way has better quality and is not easy to broken. When everything is done, clean the interior of the pottery with the liquid that mixed with Tibetan sour milk and highland barely powder, then a piece of black pottery is finished. The black pottery is shiny and can withstand high temperature, it is an indispensable household utensil in the life of Tibetan people.  

For thousands of years, there has been almost no change in the production process of Nixi black pottery. Potters never use modern technology and tools, a set of homemade wood tools is all their production tools. They don’t use electric wheel even when they make round shape utensils. When you walk into the village, you will find that the style of pottery making is different in each family, the main reason is that the wood tools for making pottery are made by the villager themselves, and the styles of each family are different. 

There is a very famous black pottery craftsman named Sunnuo Qilin, who has been making black pottery for 43 years since he was 11 years old.There are 136 families live in Tangdui village, and nearly 100 of them make black pottery, they all learn the skill from Sunnuo Qilin. Now, many young people in Tangdui village are engaged in making black pottery, they study the art of black pottery and create a happy life with hard work. If you are interested, we can arrange you to learn the black pottery making at a local workshop. 

How to Get to Nixi Black Pottery Village

There is no public transportation to Nixi Black Pottery Village. Travelers who want to visit Nixi Black Pottery Village can rent a car at Shangri-la bus station. It will take around 1 hour from Dukezong Old Town to Nixi Black Pottery Village. Or you could require Easy Tour China arrange a private Shangri-la trip to Nixi Black Pottery Village which will be more comfortable and convenient.