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.