Carved Walnut Tobacco Box

A carved walnut tobacco box is a small lidded container carved from walnut burl or root wood, used to carry snuff or nasvay, a moist chewing mixture of tobacco, ash and lime. Woodcarvers in villages near the walnut forests of the Fergana Rim and the Chatkal make them, decorating the lids with ram's-horn motifs (koshkar muyuz) and fitting them with brass hinges and clasps.^[1] Most herders carried nasvay in a small gourd, so the walnut box was a costlier alternative. Today such boxes are made mainly for sale to tourists.^[1]

References

1. ^ Department of Ethnography, Talas State University (2014). Woodcarving in the Walnut Forests. Talas: Talas State University Press, pp. 18–24.