Labu Sayong Editorial Image

Long before modern inventions were heard off, heritage of innovation was already firmly in place in the Malay archipelagos, breathing beauty and cultural tradition into everyday objects. The labu Sayong (water calabash) is a Malay earthenware container. It takes its shape from the gourd or starfruit and is used as a water container. The clay used for Malay pottery is a terra-cotta clay found by streams, riverbanks, and paddy fields. A potter's wheel is not used in Malay pottery making. The labu is coated with river silt with a high iron content, and the surface of the pottery is burnished to a smooth polish with a pebble, a technique carried out by potters at the town of Sayong on the Perak River in West Malaysia.