Tibetan Food and Drink

Every nationality and district has its unique diet features, especially Tibetan. Their foods include tsampa, butter, butter tea, sweet butter tea, sweet tea, beef, barley wine, pea, horsebean and so on. Especially the tsampa, butter tea, barley wine can show Tibetan diet features. About thousand years ago, maybe earlier, these foods are Tibetan's main food.

Tibetan Food and Drink – Highland Barley

Highland barley is main material of tsampa. After fried, highland barley will be made into flour and eat with butter tea. People also mix barley with pea and make tsampa. We can get the conclusion from related data that highland barley is rich in nutrition. The tsampa which is made from highland barley is not only traditional food in Tibet, but also as Tibetan food appeared in the main restaurants of Lhasa; it is important food to welcome foreigners. In religious festivals, people will drop tsampa to express blessings; when they hold great Weishang, they will drop some water and tsampa into it. It is rarely seen in other nations about the tsampa culture.

Tibetan Food and Drink – Meat

Tibetan main foods are beef, mutton and dairy products. In pasturing area, every people will eat more than 60 kilogram meats in a month, and large amount of butter tea, sometimes, they will eat little trickled pastry which is made by flour. In winter, they mainly eat meat; while in summer, they eat large amount of sour milk, fresh milk and a small amount of tsampa. Commonly, people in pasturing area don't eat vegetable. As we all know, beef, mutton and butter tea are high-calorie food which is beneficial for the people live in high altitude area to resist cold. The interesting point is the Tibetans eat raw meat. You can see the dried beef and mutton hung in the house or tent in pasturing area and agricultural area. If you come to visit a Tibetan family, the hospitable host will invite you to taste the dried beef and mutton which only can be tasted in Tibetan plateau.

Tibetan Food and Drink – Butter

Butter is necessary food in Tibetan life. It is a kind of rough wrought cream which is similar with the butter in inland. The main ways to eat butter is making it into butter tea and use it to fry food in festival. The funeral of the lights in the monasteries in Tibet is butter. Butter is variously used in the life. In thousands years ago, Tubo people used hot butter to stop bleeding. In Tibetan, it is ancient tradition to welcome customers with butter tea. You can taste delicious butter tea when you come into a Herdsman's tent, or a little house, as well as visit your friends.

Tibetan Food and Drink – Milk

Milk is also necessary food in Tibetan life. People not only make milk into butter, yoghurt, but also drink fresh milk. In Tibetan diet, especially the diet in pasturing area, people not only drink milk, but also goat's milk. It is interesting that people eating yoghurt and watching Tibetan Opera in Shoton festival, so this festival also named "Sour Milk Festival". It is rarely see in other nationalities.

Tibetan Food and Drink – Drinks

In general, Tibetan main drinks are butter tea, tea, sweet tea, fresh milk and barley wine. Among them, butter tea, tea had with tsampa and as daily drinks. Tibetans will make large amount of barley wine before festival. From April to August in Tibetan calendar, almost all the traditional festivals or non-traditional festivals, religious festivals or non-religious festivals, people in Lhasa will come to grassland with three or five persons together, to put up colorful tents, they drinking barley wine while singing and dancing. This fully showed the charm of Tibetan wine culture.