What symbolizes beauty in other parts of the world may be something unimaginable by you. In this entry, I'm going to let you discover what beauty is for the tribes in some parts of Africa.
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| In Africa, lip plates are adornment for women Photo by www.ezakwantu.com |
The original purpose of lip plates, or known as lip plugs or lip discs are to make women unattractive, and they act like a protection to them from Arab slavers. But, as time elapses, this has become a beauty practice in the region. David Livingstone, a British explorer in Africa asked a tribe chief about the reason of women wearing lip plates, and here's his answer: for beauty! They are the only beautiful things women have. Men have beards, women have none. What kind of person she be without Pelele (lip plate)? She would not be a woman at all.
There are actually many types of materials used to make the lip plates such as wood, ivory, clay, bone, shiny metal, shell and sometimes crystal. They could be found in round or trapezoid shapes in various sizes. Well, ermm... I think the sizes differ because not everyone's lips would be similar in size, even after they have elongated.
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| A woman with a round lip plate Photo by www.ezakwantu.com |
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| Both upper and lower lips are inserted with lip discs Photo by www.ezakwantu.com |
Here I include a video for you guys to see how a woman with lip plate drinks water:
Girls from Mursi tribe, one of the African tribes, pierce their bottom lips which are stretched so that a clay lip plate can be inserted. They also remove their bottom teeth for esthetic enhancement. Sometimes, after birth, mothers will pierce a child's lip with a thorn (The child must be screaming, right? huhu). The holes are enlarged with stalks of grass until they are about 2 centimeters in diameter and large enough to insert a plug. Increasingly larger discs are inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. Lip tissue will elongate and conform to the shape of the implanted objects.
Girls from Mursi tribe, one of the African tribes, pierce their bottom lips which are stretched so that a clay lip plate can be inserted. They also remove their bottom teeth for esthetic enhancement. Sometimes, after birth, mothers will pierce a child's lip with a thorn (The child must be screaming, right? huhu). The holes are enlarged with stalks of grass until they are about 2 centimeters in diameter and large enough to insert a plug. Increasingly larger discs are inserted into a pierced hole in either the upper or lower lip, or both, thereby stretching it. Lip tissue will elongate and conform to the shape of the implanted objects.
I've always been afraid of being pierced (that's why I've never got my earrings), so, the idea of piercing or elongating your lips is eerily scary. And...for sure, it must be painful. Ouchh!
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| A Mursi tribe with decorated lip disc Credit to Google |
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