Lidded box

Betel nut was chewed by women and men of all classes. It was wrapped, together with other ingredients, in a betel leaf (Piper betle) and placed between the teeth and cheek to be sucked or chewed. Small conatiners like this one were often used for holding the ingredients for betel nut quids, such as the betel nut itself (the seed of the areca palm, Areca catechu), mineral lime, (a calcium compound), tobacco, and spices. The betel nut (and tobacco) acted as a mild stimulant, and the other ingredients added flavor.

The container, becuase of its expensive materials and craftwork, could only have been owned by the well-to-do.

In Thailand, betel chewing was prohibited in the 1930s as part of a moderinization drive.