A Wooden Mug
More than fond memories of a place, some souvenirs show us the character of that place. They tell us history, culture and much more about the place. This wooden mug from Philippines is one such souvenir.
A beautiful handmade wooden Mug.
When we stopped at a house in a village while hiking the rice terraces, it was raining outside. Inside, woman of the house was cooking something in a big wooden vessel on a stone stove similar to what we have in our villages. We were offered a hot drink in wooden mugs like this. On enquiry, came to know that they use it everyday. Not only drinks, they have cooked rice with water in these mugs.
A mug is a sturdily built type of cup often used for drinking hot beverages, such as coffee, tea, hot chocolate or soup. But who uses a wooden mug when we have mugs made of ceramic, steel, glass etc.?
Certain regions of Philippines are forests, have plenty of wood. There are some villages as well. In these remote villages, the people are poor and they can not afford luxury of having expensive utensils and cutlery. Their utensils and other household items are made of wood. You’ll find many who depend on wood to earn livelihood. Not to mention, the region is famous for its artistic wood work also.
Wooden utensils have their own advantages. They keep things warm for longer period and easy to hold without burning your fingers. This wooden mug is used to have hot soup.
Side view.
We bought several pieces and gifted to our loved ones. I am using one as a pen stand.
P.S.- This is a monthly series exhibiting various souvenirs that I have picked up from my journeys across the globe. You can see more of them here. And this time it is from Philippines.
Next Souvenir:- I’ll talk about Bulul, the rice God of Philippines.
If you want to travel places with me, I suggest you to join me on my Facebook travel page and Twitter.
P.S.- This article belongs to www.lemonicks.com. Reproduction without explicit permission is prohibited. If you are viewing this on a website instead of your RSS feed reader, then that website is guilty of stealing my content. Kindly do me a favour. Please visit my site and help me taking action by letting me know against this theft. Thank you.
WOW THATS A VERY INTERESTING SOUVENIR YOU HAVE THERE. BEAUTIFUL.
If we cook in wooden vessel won’t it catch fire? I am curious to see it NOW. Chalo Philippines chale. 🙂
Wonderful souvenir. Very well crafted and is it polished also?
How do they cook in it?
Beautiful mug. Initially I thought it could be made of Bamboo (FB Status) but now I am convinced that they are of wood. I also wanted to learn the mystery of wooden utensils being used for cooking. Will (atleast the upper portions) they not catch fire.
never seen a wooden mug . thanks nisha for the wonderful post.
That’s a beautiful and well-crafted cup. Souvenirs indeed tell us about the place. Wonderful post.
Sandhya,
Thank you.
Indrani,
Chalo chalte hain! 😛
Shreya,
Yes it is polished but the ones which are used for cooking are not polished.
PNS,
Thank you.
Yes, they are made of wood, not bamboo. I saw the vessels had some coating on the outer. Probably that saved them from burning?
Samaresh,
You are welcome. 🙂
Kiran,
Thanks so much.
Lovely souvenirs 🙂
Deepak,
Yes, it is. Thank you.
Interesting souvenir.
Niranjan,
Thanks.
Simply Beautiful. Good job done. Keep it up.
Shipra,
Thanks.
I gave up on travelling when I had my second child. It’s just going to have to wait until they’re older! However my uncle is a very worldly man and he’s always kind enough to bring me back trinkets like these whenever he visits new countries. A wooden set of utensils was one of my favorites. It had been tooled with exotic flower designs and you could tell someone made it by hand with lots of love and patience.
Brroke,
I totally agree with you. The wooden utensils are much more interesting. When they didn’t have any other kind of vessels & wood was easily available, this was the solution.
Wait for my other utensil set souvenir made of wood. 😀
Nice acquisition there. Whenever I visit a new country I make it a point to find a unique and memorable item that will remind me of my stay there. Its not always easy but at times the simplest thing can work.
That souvenir is incredible! Seeing people’s reactions to visiting foreign places never ceases to make me happy 🙂
This thing looks cool! I really enjoy getting souvenirs as well from each place I’m traveling to!
Btw – followed you on Twitter as well. Like your site. I hope we can connect there.
Torsten @ Mightytravels
Memento Mori,
Welcome to the elite group. 🙂
Hunter,
The awe on their faces makes me happy as well.
MightyTravels,
Followed you back!
And thanks for dropping by. Come again.
wow nice souvenir . Wooden mugs are also used in north eastern states of india. Thank you for the share
Amish,
I also thought so but since my knowledge about north eastern states is very limited, I wasn’t sure.
Thanks for sharing this.
keep coming.