Thai fruit carving on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Thai fruit carving ( th, การแกะสลักผลไม้, ) is a traditional
Thai Carving
Thai cuisine Thai art
Thai fruit carving ( th, การแกะสลักผลไม้, ) is a traditional Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
art that requires neatness, precision, meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...
, and personal ability. Fruit carving persisted in Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
as a respected art for centuries. It was originally used only to decorate the tables of the royal family
A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...
. Fruit carving is a popular custom practiced during Songkran
Songkran is a term derived from the Sanskrit word, ' (or, more specifically, ') and used to refer to the traditional New Year celebrated in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, parts of northeast India, parts of Vietnam an ...
.
History
Carving fruits and vegetables was a skill taught to women in the Thai royal palace. One (now known to be apocryphal) legend holds that sometime before the Sukhothai era (Thai era from 1808-1824), a concubine named either Nang Nopphamat (Thai Peerage; th, นางนพมาศ) or Thao Srichulalak (another name of Thai peerage; th, ท้าวศรีจุฬาลักษณ์) wrote a book entitled ''Tamrap Thao Srichulaluk'' ( th, ตำรับท้าวศรีจุฬาลักษณ์). The book discusses traditional Thai ceremonies, including the floating lantern festival called ''Phraratchaphithi Chongpriang Nai Wanphen Duean Sipsong'' ( th, พระราชพิธีจองเปรียงในวันเพ็ญเดือนสิบสอง). Its protagonist wants to decorate a lantern more beautifully than other concubines, so she uses many kinds of flowers to decorate her lantern. Then she carved fruits into bird and swan shapes and placed them on the flower petals.Tools
Carvers use only one knife to carve fruit. Knives come in many varieties.Types of fruit
Many types of fruits are used for carving. The two basic types are thick fruit and thin.See also
*Fruit carving
Fruit carving is the art of carving fruit, a very common technique in Europe and Asian countries, and particularly popular in Thailand, China and Japan. There are many fruits that can be used in this process; the most popular one that artists u ...
*Mukimono
is the traditional Japanese art of decorative garnishing. Examples of this include carving traditional images (flowers, cranes, turtles and dragons) into skins of fruit and vegetables, as well as carving vegetables (such as daikon, carrot, eggp ...
*Vegetable carving
Vegetable carving is the art of carving vegetables to form beautiful objects, such as flowers or birds.
The origins of vegetable carving
The origins of vegetable carving are disputed: some believe it to have begun in Japan in ancient times, othe ...
References
{{ReflistExternal links
Thai Carving
Thai cuisine Thai art