Pinagburnayan
National Artist, Fidel Antiporda Go
Looking into my handy street map and a list of places to go, we trodded along the streets of Vigan to see more of the place. Well upper north of Vigan we stumbled upon Pinagburnayan. And what perfect timing as National Folk Artist, Fidel Antiporda Go, was about to give a demonstration on making a Burnay Jar. Interesting seeing the process, from taking a clay, molding it first, a dash of sand before putting it on a potter’s wheel where it is manually operated by a foot. Shaping it depends on your hands and fingers. After these clay jars are shaped, they are put on fire in a kiln. Though there are many jars being oven-ized, not all are well made. If there are like 100 jars in a dragon shaped kiln only about 10 would be well made.
A sea of jars
Ilocos is the home of these burnay jars which preseded spanish times. The Chinese introduced these jars in the pre-colonial times as an all weather storage for their products during which they shipped around other countries. For Ilocanos, they use these jars to ferment fish sauce, vinigar and “Basi”, their local wine. They bury these jars underground to seal out air for perfect fermentation.
Unique, designer ash tray from clays
During the late 80’s, Burnay Jar making was a dying industry due to the introduction of other storage devices like tupperwares. Fidel Go, relized these and made an innovative and creative move. How will he be able to sell all these jars if they all look the same? How will he be able to compete in these modern times? He then thought of making different designs for his jars, making it more of an art form than a regular storage. He was the person known to revive the Burnay Industry, and thus was awarded, National Artist in 1990 for his craft.
Art of jar making
Tags: Arts, Ilocos Sur, Pottery, Vigan
Posted on
Saturday, January 7th, 2006 at 11:15 am 
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January 7th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
madilim yong kuha ko kay Mang. Fedil nong demonstration na yon……
January 7th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
ei bro! it’s a different story when i visited. medyo madaming tao lalo na towards new year’s eve. but no regrets. anyway, thanks for dropping by lagal[og]. nice to know other people na nagtitrip-lonely-planet style. more trips, more pics this 2006! God bless! - og
January 9th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
sarap talaga bumisita dito sa blog mo, complete ang information
galing naman at naka tyempo ka ng national artist!
nice set of pics, nadagdagan na naman kaalaman ko…
January 9th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
ang sarap bigkasin..”burnay… pinagburnayan” hehe
ok nga rito maraming natutunan..
January 9th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
Lino, Marco: Thanks guys! Salamat naman at me nakukuha kayong aral dito. Me exam kayo sa susuond na araw..hehehe
Oggie: Ditto!
January 21st, 2007 at 5:45 pm
punta ka sa site namin: http://www.orangecastle.com/vigancity/main.php
kumpleto rin dun. congrats sa site. who’s the web designer?
August 7th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Hi..im a student of St. Paul College of Ilocos Sur. Can i copy po the picture of Fidel Go whose making a burnay?Actually i did copy na po the image, i used it po kasi for my entry in shell digital art contest. Ok lng po ba?..i did not totally used the image po, parang trinace ko lang po cya and nagadd ako ng iba..