In 1930, a Lippan (Morsey) woman named Gustika smoked a pipe (left) with a terrifying expression!
From the photo, can you tell which is the woman's lips and which is the plate?
The Mursi are mainly found in Ethiopia, Africa, and the lingua franca is Moorish. The local woman elongated and hollowed out her lower lip, filled the support with a plate made of mud, and propped her lips up very large, gradually forming a spectacle of a large plate mouth.
Therefore, they are also called lip plates.
The women here are beautiful with lip deformities, and women without lip plates have difficulty finding the ideal husband. The larger the plate, the more status the woman has, representing her faithful observance.
Therefore, the women of this tribe desperately stretched their lower lips wide, so big that they were terrifying.
Usually, when a girl reaches her 10s, she will penetrate her lower lip and put a plate into her lips, called a lip plate. The diameter of the lip disc varies from up to 25 cm.
Putting the lip disc is a very painful and cruel process, with a knife to cut between the lower lip and the gums, so that the lower lip is separated from the root of the tooth. Then, put a small plate to prop open the cut opening so that it does not grow back.
As you age, gradually change the large plates, and the lips will stretch out larger and larger. It is said that in the 1930s, the largest lips were able to turn over the head and completely cover the face.
This painful process accompanies the growth of the girl until she is married.
The larger the plate, the more beautiful it is, and the higher the girl's value. Girls with big lips get married to get more rich gifts, and the one with the largest lip plate can get 50 cows from their parents and become rich overnight.
The lip plate is usually placed in the lips, and it must be held up with a hand to walk. When eating, drinking, and smoking, it is generally necessary to remove the plate.
Why would they use such a cruel means to deform their lips?
It is said that when the Arabs invaded Ethiopia, The Moorish women made themselves ugly and deliberately disfigured in order to avoid being humiliated or robbed as slaves. Over time, it has gradually become a local custom. They not only put plates on their lips, but also elongated their ears and put them into the plates as well, and made it beautiful.
Until the end of the last century, Moldy women were mostly naked, and in addition to the spectacle of large plates and mouths, they also smeared patterns on their bodies and faces, and decorated themselves with branches, coarse skins, shells, horns, etc.
In 1970, British anthropologists came to a tribe of The Moors, and this phenomenon gradually became known to the world. Now, the unique culture here attracts more and more tourists, who have become a tourist hotspot, and wonder hunters from all over the world come to admire their strange lips.
They are very good at business, and tourists who want to photograph their large plates must pay a certain fee, otherwise they will not want to take pictures. But even so, tourists still do not hesitate to take a large amount of cash, just trying to take a picture of their large lips.
It is said that the Moldy lip plate is a status symbol, and only women of prominent stature are eligible to wear it. Women of humble origin are not eligible to wear lip plates.
The world is so big, it's really amazing!
