The women potters of Changki

The clay pots made by Changki’s women potters once played a strategic role in local wars. Essential for cooking food in the region, no one wanted to risk harming the pot that fed them! When fires and other disasters burned a village to the ground, grain from Changki went in pots as food aid. Such was the durability and significance of Changki pots, women of the Ao tribe proudly tell me.

Centuries later, these pots continue to be made by hand, the traditional way. “We don't use wheels or any machines. It’s handcrafted from the start to end,” says Tiamongla Longchari. The clay is sourced from in and around Mokokchung’s fields, hills, forest and riverbanks as only a mix of clay from this altitude and region is suitable for making these pots.

This pottery tradition, says the 55-year- old Tiamongla, is “made in the same way as our grandmothers and great grandmothers were making.” Among the last remaining potters in the village in Nagaland, she makes them at home where she lives with her elderly mother. In the past, every household had women crafting pots for use in their own homes and for sale, but today in Nagaland’s Changki village, there are only 15 women left who still make pots in their home.

The women that PARI met while filming this story said that they enjoy coming together, practicing and transferring an ancient tradition central to women of their tribe in Nagaland. And the extra income they earn, comes in handy to pay for their children’s education and more.

Pre-orders pour in through the year and the pots are made during the winter season. Tiamongla says demand is usually higher than she can meet as Changki is one of the last remaining villages making these handmade pots, especially in Mokokchung district. Demand comes from individual users as well as bulk orders from state officials and organisations who gift them at official functions.

Veteran potter Tiamongla makes about 150-200 pots a year depending upon demand, her health and the time she can spare from her labour as a subsistence farmer. She adds that she can sell a pot for Rs. 600-900 depending on the size and design.

Since the soil is collected from the neighbourhood, and the tools are made with local clay and wood, the craftswomen who make pots at home, say the cost of producing the pots is the cost of their labour.

A single parent, Tiamongla says the money she earns from this allowed her to support the education of her daughter, who now has a job with the state police.

She says she is able to run her household with both the income generated from the pottery and through farming of mostly beans and mustard leaves in the winters, and other crops in the summer. Like others in Mokokchung.

Tiamongla too practices both jhum cultivation on some of her land and paddy on the rest – the harvest is mostly used by the family. Some years, if there is a small surplus, they may sell it along with the vegetables they forage from the forest. “When I need money to buy tea leaves, sugar, groceries then I sell some of my produce at the market shed near the road,” she adds.

Mokokchung district of Nagaland is the home of the Ao, a major Naga tribe. They speak three languages: Chungli, Mongsen and Changki. The district of almost two lakh people is spread over three main valleys – Tsurang, Changki and Milak and 114 villages.

In Nagaland, the Village Council is the primary governing body at the village level, not the panchayat. It works with the Village Development Board (VDB) to provide basic administration and development for the village. On demand from local women, the VDB prioritised pottery, as Changki pots are unique to their village.

It’s early 2025 and the pottery season (December to March) is in full swing. A number of women potters are working at the pottery studio of the VDB, lining up the many processes that go into the craft.

“It’s been six years since I started making these pots professionally at the women’s wing of the VDB,” says potter Anokwala Lusang. Apart from the pots commissioned by the VDB, women of the village are free to use the space for their personal production.

Women like Anokwala and Jentikala working at the studio sell about 40-50 pots, a third of what Tiangmola makes in a year – working here and at home. Many women told PARI that they prefer to do this as a group activity rather than on their own at home, as it lowers the burden on one individual. Anokwala also added: “it’s a lot of hard work, and the younger generation doesn't want to take the trouble.”

Each woman coming to work in these group sessions earns Rs. 500 a day and the money from the sales of these pots go to the VDB corpus fund. They are proud that the studio has been built with contributions from their earnings.

The women said that in their Naga society, community is central and being a part of a community board is seen as a responsibility and a chance for equal representation.

Last year they used this fund to build a four- room market place on the highway close to the village where vegetables and other village produce could be sold. Earlier, small repair and development work in the village was done with these funds. And it gave them a sense of contributing to the larger good of the village.

Tiamongla feels very strongly about the craft she inherited from her grandmother who she would help as a little girl. “I think that while education is important, if we can make something with our hands, we can earn from that as well, and sustain ourselves,” she says.