Banyumulek is a small village about 10 km south of Mataram, and the best-known of Lombok's three traditional pottery villages. Almost every household in the village is involved in the craft, and the lanes are lined with open-fronted workshops where women shape clay pots on hand-turned wheels and men fire them in open kilns. The pottery here is unglazed, fired to a deep terracotta, and decorated with woven rattan in geometric patterns — a style that has become a recognisable Lombok export.
The village makes an easy stop on a half-day craft circuit out of Mataram, usually combined with the weaving village of Sukarara and the basket-weavers of Beleka. There is no entry fee and no formal tour — visitors simply wander through the village, watching potters at work and stopping into the cooperative showrooms to buy. Prices are a fraction of what the same pieces fetch in Bali, and the workshops will ship larger pieces home.
Banyumulek itself is a quiet, dusty village with no real sights beyond the pottery, so it is not a place to base yourself. Come for two or three hours, watch the work, buy something if it catches your eye, and move on.