History of Fruit and Vegetable Carving in Thailand

History of Fruit and Vegetable Carving in Thailand

The lady Nang Nophamas

Who asks in Thailand after the origin of the fruit and vegetable carving invariably hears the name Nang Nophamas (also Nopamas), who not only with the beginnings of fruit carving in ancient Siam, but also with the invention of the krathong for the Loy Krathong is brought firmly together. The Lady Nang Nophamas lived in the Sukhothai Dynasty about 700 years ago and should have been a maid of honor at the royal court. There are two versions of timing differences as to when the creative young lady Nang Nophamas the fruit carving was known at court.

In the first version it is, the King Rama Khamhaeng (died 1317) was on a cruise with servants. During the voyage, he saw the young lady Nophamas made an elaborate lantern made of banana leaves in the shape of a lotus flower, this fragrance sticks and adorned with a lit candle, and then at night during a full moon was to water. The king is supposed to have at the ornate and hand-finished lantern his lady Nophamas so pleased that he should have taken them to his wife, and the full moon night of the 12th Lunar month to the Buddhist holiday declared. Thus, they could probably even have been a queen. This full moon night of the 12th Lunar month is to our present calendar in November. According to this narrative should thus be custom created to allow elaborate on Loy Krathong krathongs with perfume or incense and candles to water.

In the second version, it says that in 1364 a lady at the royal court, called Nang Nophamas, for the royal Loy Krathong festival made a beautiful ornate Krathong, which they decorated with beautiful decorative carved fruit and vegetable pieces that looked like flowers. When King Phra Ruang this magnificent work of art looked like fruit and vegetables, he decreed that the arts should be taught now in the court of the royal ladies.

Without closer to fixate on the exact date should be pointed out, which was commonly referred to the Sukhothai period and for a certain period of time as the Phra Ruang dynasty, hence the mystery of the two versions should be solved. The maid of honor, or even Queen lived in the Sukhothai period. Thus belongs Kae Sat Luk also among the oldest forms of art in Thailand.

A royal art form

For a long time, the art of fruit and vegetable carving has been maintained only at the court, and whether princely or royal meals, elaborate decoration such meals with carved fruit and vegetables has been handed down from generation to generation and refined. The first official competition for the fruit and vegetable carving Thailand by King Rama (1782-1809) was proclaimed. It was the task of the participants to carve pumpkins for the monks from a container with floral patterns, which were then filled with sticky rice and fruit, and were then passed to the monks.

King Rama II (reigned 1809-1824), told in a poem of a queen whose rival won the favor of the king for himself and was therefore banished from the palace. However it returned back disguised as a kitchen maid and made her son's attention to herself as she small incidents from her former common life in the vegetables for the soup and the fruit pieces carved for dessert. The son took notice and remembered his mother. When he then his mother was in the kitchen again and she told him the circumstances, he asked the king for mercy and obtained that they could return to the court as the Queen again.

Kae Sat Luk is popular

In 1934 the former minister of education, Phraya Sarasatpraphan, causing the country's rates of fruit and vegetable carving to be offered in specialized utility. After this time, the Kae Sat Luk also more common in homes. Especially Her Majesty Queen Sirikit, has this art form very encouraged so that is now spread the fruit and vegetable carving and widely popular.

Who nowadays with Kae Sat Luke employs, and true masters and especially masters of their craft watching at work makes it back just by watching the experience, the hands for carving fruits and vegetables a lot of patience, good eyesight, concentration, skillful , spatial thinking and imagination is needed in order to be able to carve with the razor-sharp knives artistic forms. A good and skillful fruit and vegetable carvers sometimes takes several years to master the subject are. It is also said that needed a true master or mistress only three blades, to handle any fruit or vegetable can. A master of the fruit carving turns in 10 minutes a guava in a lotus or a watermelon in half an hour in a container with dozens of floral patterns.

The tools, which is the basic equipment for fruit and vegetable carving, consists of a number of different small carving in different sizes, which must all have a thin, hard or in profile and partly undulating blade razor sharp. Depending on the fruit or vegetable you need finer or heavier knife. In total there are 10-12 different special carving knife and 3-4 different Stoner.

And a few pictures of razor-sharp knife.

Min. Order Quantity

10 Carving Knives 

FOB Price

USD 30.00 / per item 

Port

Bangkok 

Payment Terms

Western Union 


Supply Ability 

500 Knives/ Week 


Packaging Details 

in plastic sleeve 


Delivery Time 

14-30 days depending on shipping. Sent EMS
Please, contact wholesalethailand(at) yahoo.ca

Working on the dish requires so much care that special, small knife with a thin blade are particularly necessary for this. These knives are in the application immersed in ice water again. This creates the effect that some thin shells  not on the cooled, thin blade can stick as fast, which could adversely affect the fruit carving.

Indeed serve as a resource of different fruit and vegetables. A distinction is therefore at Kae Sat Luk two simple categories of fruits and vegetables: hard and soft.

Soft fruits such as Banana (Kluai), papaya (Malakor) or Breiapfel (lamut), but also soft vegetables such as tomatoes, are more difficult to handle, are faster and mushy quickly loose their juice. Therefore one must under these circumstances such fruit or vegetable carving places faster and cool before they spoil quickly and become soft. For these soft varieties carves you most flower shapes, sheets or simple decorative shapes.

Most popular are rather harder fruits and vegetables such as Watermelon, pineapple, pumpkin, carrot or radish to name a few. Some fruits are peeled whole, pitted and cut into pieces, while others are elaborately carved into various forms, so to fanciful flowers, stars, leaves and basket forms.

From a watermelon then a red-green-white artwork that looks like a flower-filled vase or basket, carrots petals, small flowers, corn cobs, or small animal shapes and carved from a guava is a beautiful lotus flower. Pumpkins are. Decorated  for fruit salad or other Thai delicacies Of radishes, cucumbers, papaya or pineapple carving dexterous hands marine animals of all kinds, types of flowers or figures. Often several different fruits and vegetables are combined into one large decorative artwork. It houses, small cars and boats, flower arrangements, animal shapes, fantasy, mythological figures, and even cutlery from fruits and vegetables are carved in such detail and precision that one twice stunned and look admiringly, in order to recognize it as fruits and vegetables. The incredible wide variety of ways to carve fruit and vegetable.  Almost all known fruits and vegetables are used for carving.

Even for the thin skin or shell of fruits and vegetables can find use. So that particular serving bowls decorated by the skin artfully curled in various forms.

Today there are in most hotel kitchens and upscale restaurants specialized staff, the true champions and champion figures carved from fruit and vegetables.

Still, this art form is the domain of women, but more and more men be admitted to this particular art and culture, which is particularly encouraged by Her Majesty Queen Sirikit. But in many Thai households simple garnishing individual vegetable plots for food is common.

Even with the many fruit fairs and exhibitions or other fruit festivals where one usually sees more a demonstration of the fruit and vegetable carving.