Antique Coconut Scrapers: Kratai Khood Maprow

 

Coconut scrapers & graters are ingenious devices carved in the shape of various animals. The worker sat while removing the husks with the end of the serrated metal tongue, typically using that coconut pulp for making curries. The need for coconut milk, an essential component of countless dishes may have led to the development of these unique tools. The user straddled the seat and, leaning forward slightly, deftly rotated a half coconut around the grating tongue to extract the interior flesh, from which the milk was subsequently pressed.  Over the years the khood maprow became much more elaborate with the body carved into a variety of shapes. The most typical, called a kratai khood maprow, graing rabbit, was that of a rabbit, perhaps because of the prominent teeth, but other animals were used as well often representing the twelve animals of the Chinese calendar. They are rarely made today making these antique coconut scrapers desirable for collectors.

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The Highest Art is Living an Ordinary Life in an Extraordinary Manner. - a Tibetan Saying