Tea Set Collection of Multani Pottery
Pakistan pottery covers several distinct traditions, and blue pottery is only one of them. The main centres are Multan, Hala, Nasserpur, Gujrat, Lahore, Sehwan and Sambrial, and what comes out of each is different in body, colour and purpose.
If you have searched for pottery of Pakistan and found only Multan’s blue pottery, this is the rest of the picture.
The clay comes first
The reason these particular towns became pottery centres is the ground under them. The clay around Hala, Sehwan, Multan, Gujrat and Sambrial has high elasticity, which is what lets a potter throw thin walls that survive drying and firing. Pottery in Pakistan did not spread evenly; it clustered where the clay allowed it.
Multan: glazed blue pottery
Multan makes the glazed, hand painted ware most people mean by Pakistani pottery: cobalt blue and turquoise over white, floral and geometric patterns, built on a quartz body rather than ordinary clay.
The craft is Kashi and the painting is Kashigari, a word you will also see spelled Kashikari. Kashigari work mixes Persian, Mughal and indigenous influence. It produces tableware and architectural tile in the same workshops. Our own range is in the shop, and the city’s claim to the craft is covered in our article on which city in Pakistan is famous for blue pottery.
Hala and Nasserpur: Sindhi kashikari
Sindh has its own glazed tradition, centred on Hala and Nasserpur. Sindhi pottery is known for vivid colour and dense hand painted motifs, and it runs to a wider palette than Multan’s disciplined blue and white.
The material difference matters: Sindhi blue pottery is made on a terracotta clay body, while Multan’s vessels use a quartz body. That is why two pieces that look related can feel completely different in the hand, and why Sindhi work sits closer to architectural tile than to Multani tableware.
Hala is doubly worth knowing, because the same town is a centre for Ajrak block printing. The craft map of Pakistan is smaller than it looks.
Gujrat: terracotta for everyday life
Gujrat in Punjab produces terracotta pottery made by ordinary people for ordinary people. It is folk pottery in the proper sense: the aesthetic sits inside the usefulness rather than on top of it.
This is the tradition with the longest continuous run, because it never depended on patronage. Nobody commissioned a fodder trough.
Unglazed earthenware, and why villages still use it
The most widespread pottery in Pakistan is the plainest. Unglazed earthenware survives because it is cheap and suited to the job, and the list of jobs is long: vessels for water wheels, pots for churning milk, fodder troughs for cattle, musical wares, rain drains for rooftops and tubs for kneading flour.
The matka is the piece everyone knows, and a matka is still the cheapest cooling device in rural Pakistan. Unglazed clay is porous, water seeps slowly through the wall and evaporates, and the evaporation cools what is left inside. No glazed pot does this, including ours. A glazed blue pottery sorahi is a serving vessel and a handsome object; the cooling belongs to the plain clay version.
Where the name Kashi comes from, and the two explanations
This is worth setting out plainly, because sources disagree and both explanations are widely published.
Kashan, Iran. One account says the technique was developed in Kashan, a Persian city long associated with glazed tile, and that the word Kashi derives directly from it. On this telling craftspeople travelled from Iran and settled in Sindh and Punjab, and Kashi gained real prominence in the fifteenth century, when facades began to be faced with terracotta and glazed tile.
Kashgar, western China. The other account traces the name to Kashgar, a stop on the trade corridors that carried glazed ceramic styles east and south.
Both are stated as fact in different places. They are not as far apart as they look, since both describe the same corridor of trade and both route the craft through Iran. We give both rather than pick, the same way we give both accounts of how the craft reached Multan.
Telling the traditions apart when you buy
- Glazed and blue and white, hard pale body: Multan. Quartz bodied, for serving and display.
- Glazed, vivid, densely painted, reddish body under the glaze: Sindhi, from Hala or Nasserpur. Terracotta bodied.
- Unglazed reddish brown, porous, plain: everyday earthenware, made across the country, Gujrat prominent among them.
None is a lesser version of another. They answer different questions: one keeps water cool, one goes on the table when guests come, one covers a shrine dome.
For the wider craft context see our guide to the handicrafts of Pakistan, and for the vessel names used across these traditions, our guide to Multani bartan.
Frequently asked questions
What types of pottery are made in Pakistan?
Glazed blue pottery from Multan, glazed Sindhi kashikari from Hala and Nasserpur, terracotta folk pottery from Gujrat, and unglazed earthenware made across the country.
Where is pottery made in Pakistan?
The main centres are Multan, Hala, Nasserpur, Gujrat, Lahore, Sehwan and Sambrial, largely because the clay in those areas has the elasticity potters need.
What is the difference between Multani and Sindhi blue pottery?
Multani vessels use a quartz body with a disciplined cobalt, turquoise and white palette. Sindhi blue pottery uses a terracotta clay body with a wider, more vivid range of colour.
Where does the word Kashi come from?
Two explanations are published. One derives it from Kashan in Iran, a city known for glazed tile. The other derives it from Kashgar in western China. Both route the craft through Iran.
Why do villages still use unglazed clay pots?
Because they are cheap and suited to the work: water wheel vessels, milk churning, fodder troughs, rooftop rain drains and flour kneading tubs. Unglazed clay also cools water by evaporation, which glazed pottery cannot do.
Is all Pakistani pottery blue?
No. Blue and white is Multan’s signature. Sindhi pottery uses a far wider palette, and most pottery made in Pakistan is plain unglazed earthenware.