Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎512v] (149/238)

Siam's Intercourse with China.
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dynasty, from which they were very likely imitated in the style of glazing,
if not in the excellence of the workmanship. The paste is, in fact, com
paratively coarse-grained, and the manufactured article thick and heavy,
owing to the inferior quality of the prime material that was at hand; but
the enamel is not, so far as I can judge, very considerably behind in excel
lence that of Chinese porcelains, and it is evident that the ingredients
entering into its composition were imported from China. It is neverthe
less pretty well certain that, but for the lack on the spot of a figuline clay
as fine in quality as the famed kao lin to be met with in the neighbour
hood of the most renowned ceramic establishments in China, we would
have had real porcelain produced at the Swankhalok factories, just as good
in quality as that turned out from the best Chinese pottery works, whereas
the Swankhalok wares, of which specimens remain, cannot be said to rank
above the level of common crockery, although some of them may perhaps
be classed in the category of soft porcelain, on account of the whitish paste
of which they are composed, and the superior quality of the glaze. As
regards the shape of the articles, it should be noted that not only bowls,
cups, vases and spittoons were made, but also good-sized jars, terminals
of pillars and lamp-posts, figures of animals such as rdjasihas (lions), etc.,
wherewith the Buddhist temples in and about Swankhalok were adorned.
Among the heaps of debris lying about the Tu-lieng kilns I discovered a
torso of Garuda overlaid with green enamel; several mutilated representa
tions of the hatthilihga bird (a sort of fabulous vulture with a bill like an
elephant’s trunk) I picked up amongst the ruins of Wat Khdu Rang-r'eng
(the celebrated monastery of “Vulture-nest Hill”),* and many other inter
esting specimens of old Swankhalok ceramic art I gathered amidst the
remains of other Buddhist temples of the ancient city, all of which may
now be seen in the Royal Museum at Bangkbk. The chips of broken
crockery to be met with about the Tu-lieng kilns mostly belong to dishes
and bowls of a somewhat rough design, glazed with a pale bluish-green
crackled enamel recalling to a certain extent the delicate tint of the famed
Lung-ch‘iian celadons; but the coarseness of the material, as well as the
inferiority of the workmanship, concur in indicating that these must be the
productions of a later period, when the Swankhalok factories were far
down in the decline. Remains of other kilns are to be met with at other
places to the north of the city, this being a proof that the ceramic industry
was by no means localized to the Tu-lieng kilns only. The latter formed,
however, its most important centre, and the traditional name that remained
to the bend in the river’s bank close to the bottom of which the kilns are
situated, viz., Khung Tap^au (i.e., the “ ship of junk’s bend ”) well attests
that river-craft used to moor and load the wares here, in the halcyon days
* This monastery was, according to the “ Northern Chronicles,” built by KingRuang
himself, hence the hatthilinga figures probably belong to the period of that King’s reign.
It seems that it is this same hill which was reputed to have been at one time the resting-
place of a gigantic trunk-billed vulture or hatthilinga. According to a legend related in
the Camadevi-vainsa, a Pali chronicle of Lamp‘huh brought out to light by me (Sec
tion III.), the Risi Sajjanalaya residing at Swankhalok made use of that monstrous
creature in order to fetch from the ocean depths the huge chank-shell which served as
a pattern for tracing the outline of the walls of the new Hanbhuhjaya city (Lamp'huh).