At one time, more than 200 huge pottery kilns lined the banks of the Mae Nam Yom in the area around Si Satchanalai. In China – the biggest importer of Thai pottery during the Sukhothai and Ayuthaya periods – the pieces produced here came to be called 'Sangkalok', a mispronunciation of Sawankhalok.
Several barely recognisable kiln sites can be found along the road that runs north of Si Satchanalai, and a local ceramic artist even continues to fire his pieces in an underground wood-burning oven.