Google crowing about Lampang’s iconic rooster bowl today

The cockerel-adorned bowls – which are popular across Asia – were registered as a Geographical Indication (GI) product of the northern province on this day in 2013.

Google Thailand is marking the occasion with a Google Doodle featuring an animated rooster running across the surface of the bowl.

Previous Thai events celebrated with a unique Google Doodle include Songkran, National Teachers’ Day, Loy Krathong, and Thai Language Day.

The Thai Intellectual Property Department has so far registered 152 Geographical Indication patents for products nationwide. They include 18 rice varieties, 30 local dishes, 73 fruits or vegetables, 11 types of cloth, 18 handicrafts and industrial products, and two liquors.

The first recorded producer of Lampang rooster bowls was Simyu sae Chin, who discovered white kaolin clay at Ban Pang Kha village in Lampang’s Chae Hom district.

He noticed that the clay was the same type used in China to make bowls.

As a result, Simyu set up the first ceramics factory in Lampang, making bowls with the same techniques as used in China.

He decorated the products with rooster and flower patterns and sold the ceramic bowls in Lampang and other provinces.

With their traditional design of a rooster with black tail and legs walking on green fields, the Lampang bowls quickly spread to all corners of the country.

But as the years passed, people began using other types of bowls, prompting ceramic factories to shut down in the northern province.

The few remaining factories formed an association of Lampang ceramic makers to ensure that the famed rooster bowls strut on into the future.