Badma Amulakova, Wooden Cups

Abstract

Badma says that in the past the Kalmyks did not have many utensils. Neither did they have rich wardrobes. Since the number of clothes that a person could wear during his/her life was believed to be fixed, wearing ‘too many’ clothes was tantamount to shortening one’s life. There are several types of wooden cups in the Kalmyk household. When wooden cups were used on a daily basis, the elderly were keen on wider cups, for such cups are comfortable to hold. The type of wood used in cups were oak, hazelnut and maple trees (the maple was transported from Dzungaria). It was considered a bad sign to keep a broken cup at home. If the rim of a wooden cup crackled and a small bit fell off it, the cup was fixed by attaching a metal or silver ring around the rim. Each family kept no more than a couple of wooden cups that the members of the family used in turn. One cup was used by the elders who after eating their food passed on their leftovers to their grandchildren. The other cup was used between the husband and his wife.