Among the traditional wooden utensils, the ritual spoon tos-karak has a special place.

A tos-karak is a kind of wooden ceremonial spoon with a long handle. It has nine small indentations for sprinkling.

The name of the ritual spoon tos-karak (literally, nine-eyes) came from the nine small pits on the face surface of its head. The spoon was used to sprinkle milk, tea, arjaan for the ritual “treats” to the mythical nine heavens, local spirits. There is also an assumption that each pit was intended for sacrifices: to the Sun, Earth, Water, Tree, Arrow, Fire, Eagle, Maral, Bear.

The functional meaning of tos-karak is described in the work by Mongush Borakhovich Kenin-Lopsan “Traditional Culture of Tuvans”:

Nowadays almost every Tuvan family uses this ritual spoon. Every morning the mistress of the aal or a house, pours morning milk tea into a bowl and sprinkles the nine-eyes spoon into the fire of the home hearth, and when leaving the yurt, sprinkles this tea on the earth, in the direction of the sacred mountains and the taiga. Thus, she asks spirits of the native land and sacred places for mercy, a benevolent attitude to all members of the aal.

There are ritual spoons of completely different shapes, sizes and designs. The National Museum of the Republic of Tuva has more than 42 tos-karak spoons on display.

The museum displays a ritual spoon in the Buddhist style. The scoop is round and divided by partitions into nine depressions, one round in the center and eight in the sectors. The central groove represents the axis of the wheel, and the partitions between the other eight grooves form eight spokes (a Buddhist symbol of the Eightfold Path).