Tapayan

Tapáyan or tempayan (also known as balanga, belanga, or bangâ) are large wide-mouthed earthenware or stoneware jars found in various Austronesian cultures in island Southeast Asia.

The term tapayan also includes the imported martaban stoneware (Dutch: martavanen), originally from kilns in Southern China and Indochina.

[1] Tapayan is derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tapay-an which refers to large earthen jars originally used to ferment rice wine (tapai).

Specialized tapayan used for fermenting food products, with thicker walls and an airtight cover, are also distinguished as burnay in Ilocano.

[12][8][9] Tempayan jars (also known as tempajan, kendi, balanga, belanga, or blanga) in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei were also used primarily for water storage, fermentation, and cooking.

[1][15] Martaban were used primarily as storage jars for foodstuffs (like grain, wine, candied fruits, and spices) and valuable trade goods (like opium and oils) during ship voyages.

The jars (and their contents) were traded to the natives for luxury goods from Southeast Asia like resin, gum, bird's nest, trepang (sea cucumbers), and pearls.

There can be such a profusion of them that the Scottish navigator Thomas Forrester once described the audience room of a datu in Luzon as having the "appearance of a china shop", due to around thirty martaban being displayed prominently in shelves.

These were highly sought after by Japanese traders in the 16th century Nanban trade and remain as valuable antique heirlooms in modern Japan.

[7][20][21] They were prized for their simplicity and rough, often uneven design, epitomizing the traditional Japanese aesthetics of wabi-sabi ("perfection in imperfection").

The Japanese seek them and think highly of them, for they have discovered that the root [sic] of a certain plant called cha (tea), which the kings and lords of Japan drink hot, both as a refreshment and medicine, can best be kept and preserved in these jars.

Hence throughout Japan these jars are regarded highly as being the most precious jewels of their inner rooms and chambers, and the Japanese adorn them on the outside with fine, elegantly wrought gold and keep them in brocade cases.