The stone craft is a well-recognized tool in pottery for Nung. Nung collections are from several forms of Manipuri, one of those tribes in Manipur, India. Currently on the display in Indian Museum, Kolkata, this tool is useful for studying indigenous techniques of earthenware production. The Nung is a smooth stone, the size of a hand, held under the left hand of the potter. It provides counter support under the pot being shaped. When the outer surface of the pot is beaten with a wooden mallet from above, the stone absorbs the shock and helps maintain shape, balance and thickness, while it is increasing and smoothing the surface of the vessel.
Keen precision and coordination are required in this process and so it is to be very skill-intensive. Such tools form an important part of the hand-coiling technique, a method that predates the wheel and is still common in many rural parts of Manipur. This stone tool is an extremely simple but vital part of a craft that is utilitarian and aesthetic, an important aspect of the cultural traditions and sustainable practices of Manipuri potters.