Vietnamese Brown Pattern Ceramics As for the pottery, despite the fact that it is strongly affected by Chinese Pottery (Xiong, Yuan, Ming, Qing), Vietnamese Pottery has become a distinct flow with many styles and artistic patterns. Brown Pattern Ceramics has a long standing history, from 11th century to 15th century. It’s popularity only deceased gradually when Flowering Blue Ceramics became popular all over the world. Motifs such as flowers, especially lotus, human and animals, etc. are popular, unique and creative. Sometimes they look like a reflection of Đông Sơn Arts with a style which art researchers called “X-ray style” - the style which also appears in Australian Aboriginal arts; sometimes they look like having many motifs influenced by Champa arts (with shapes represent Apsara, a celestial dancer or Tribhanga, a tri-bent dancing pose), but the most popular ones are lotus images of all kinds, which are recognized as a Buddhist symbol. Many historians (such as Trần Quốc Vượng) assert that the era when Vietnamese Brown Pattern Ceramics existed and developed is mainly Ly-Tran Dynasty (11th – 14th century), and expands to the early Le Dynasty (15th century) which is a Buddhist Monarchy era, or a era when Buddhism – Taoism – Confucianism co-exist in Vietnam. Rhino horn pattern, for example, is a typical symbol of Buddhism.
Source: National Museum of Vietnamese History, 2005, Gom Hoa Nau Viet Nam (Vietnamese Brown Pattern Ceramics)