Singapore · Ceramics / Pottery / Wood-Firing
Long Yao (龍窯, Dragon Kiln)
The making and wood-firing of pottery in a dragon kiln — a long, sloped, tunnel-form brick kiln built directly into a hillside — at Thow Kwang Pottery Jungle in western Singapore, the nation's only remaining operational dragon kiln and one of just two such kilns left on the island (the other, the neighboring Guan Huat Dragon Kiln, no longer fires). This record closes a complete craft-family gap in the archive's existing 10-record Singapore collection, which spans beadwork, lantern-making, paper effigy craft, palm-leaf weaving, floor art, rattan furniture, seal carving, goldsmithing, opera costume-making, and leatherwork, but documents no ceramics tradition. Constructed in 1940 by Chaozhou and Fujian immigrants — reportedly atop the site of an older Hokkien three-chamber kiln — and purchased in 1965 by Tan Kim Seh, whose family (now represented by third-generation members including Stella Tan) has continuously operated it since, the 36-meter kiln once supplied mass-use pottery — jars, cups, and latex-collecting cups for Jurong's then-abundant rubber plantations — to a village-scale local pottery industry that, at its 1960s peak, included more than ten dragon kilns concentrated in the area for its ideal white sedimentary clay. In 2020, Thow Kwang received Singapore's National Heritage Board 'Stewards of Singapore's Intangible Cultural Heritage Award' for its role in sustaining the tradition.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Not Listed; Singapore NHB Stewards of ICH Award (2020)
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