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cover
No.040/VIII - Apr/May/99


cover story
Freedom Fighters
The unique struggle of Balinese women

Lombok echo
Earth and Fire
Ceramics from Masbagik Timur

Bamboo Babe
Quake-proof houses in Flores

Lombok Update

regular
Gallery
Photographer Pierre Poretti

Postcard
crickets

Home Grown
Bureaucrats of the Break

Food
Vegetarian restaurants

Adventure
Fishing trips

Health and Beauty
Balinese landscape design

Books
Jean Couteau;s new anthology

Fiction
The Stone

Jungle Drums

Bali Sing KenKen


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Bali Echo Visitors Guide

Earth & Fire

Most of the potters in Masbagik Timur have been trained either by the Lombok Handicraft Project or by one of the several development projects managed by the Department of Industry. It is thanks to these training programs that people of Masbagik Timur, most of whom have only primary school education, no w boast a collective experience that includes the intricacies of the art of potting, and the creativity to experiment, improve and refine their designs in accordance with market demands.

Masbagik Timur pottery is unique for its finishing a characteristic which potters from other village have as yet been unable to imitate. Furthermore, the firing and glazing process in Masbagik Timur, being free of hazardous chemicals such us the diesel that is used in Banyumulek and Penujak, is completely occupationally sound.
Although the craft of potting in this village is a complex and delicate one, the tools of trade are simple and include no more than clay, water, coconut husks and coconut oil.

The fruits of development are clearly visible in Masbagik Timur; satellite dishes, the adorn the roofs of almost every Bapak Haji Masdar, points out: 'The abundance of satellite dishes is probably the most visible evidence of prosperity here. But more than that, just about everybody in this village has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, and some people have even done so several times. Of all the villages in the villages in the province of West Nusa Tenggara, Masbagik Timur has the highest average income per capita. An this is all because of the ceramics Industry. Officials records put income from Sales of Masbagik Timur pots at Rp 5 billion ( approximately five hundred thousand US dollars, ed). Imagine that!".

Whether Masbagik Timur's ceramic Industry can continue to boom in the context of the current economic crisis, however remains in question. On the one hand, as a result of the crisis, order from Australia, Japan, Germany, England and America have increased by up to 50%, and Masbagik Timur potters are working extra hard to fulfill this demand. But on the other hand increased demand from overseas for Indonesian handicrafts has resulted in a shortage of containers. At the time of writing, the potters of Masbagik Timur had been waiting six months, and were still yet to secure a container to export their completed orders.

 

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