In Mongolia, when two people greet one another during a ceremony, festival or other special occasion, they will offer their snuff bottles in the upturned palm of the right hand, with the lid partially opened. Snuff is a scented, smokeless tobacco made from ground up tobacco leaves. The person receiving the snuff bottle will take out a pinch of snuff by using the small spoon which is attached to the lid. They then place the pinch of tobacco on the back of their hand before “snuffing” it up their nose. Even if you don’t want to sniff any snuff that day, it’s respectful to hold the bottle close to your nose, to smell the fragrance before passing it back. Snuff bottles are always given and received with the right hand.
Snorting perfumed tobacco up our nose when meeting someone was something that Nick and I weren’t used to doing. It burned the insides of our nasal cavity and we both coughed and sneezed after sniffing it. I’m sure the Mongolians thought we were total amateurs, but we still participated in that aspect of the Mongolian culture…a couple of times. Once we learned that we didn’t actually have to inhale the tobacco and it was completely fine to just smell the top of the bottle, we opted for that every time