Tibet Tour - Tibetan Eating Taboos

Tibetans devote particular care to etiquettes, especially on eating and drinking. Tourists should respect the local diet habits and never violate their eating taboos during the Tibet tour.

Certain kinds of food are prohibited in the eating taboos of Tibetans. Generally, Tibetans eat beef and mutton. They never eat meet of horse, ass, mule and dog. Some of the Tibetans even don't eat chicken, pork and eggs. Tibetans never eat fresh meat since they thought that the souls are still staying in the meat in the first day and the souls would leave the body in the second day.

Tibetans never hunt or eat birds and pheasants. Some birds are regarded as holy birds by Tibetans. It is a taboo to hunt birds in Tibet.

The Tibetan taboo of eating fish is pretty complicated. It has close relationship with different areas in Tibet. In eastern Tibet, people never eat fish and never touch snakes, frogs. They hold that fish and frog are the pets of the Dragon God. People will catch diseases if they hurt or touch there animals. Generally, people think that the Tibetan taboos related to fish is due to the Tibetan Buddhism. But Tibetans in eastern Tibet don't eat fish since ancient times. The taboos of fish are strengthened after Tibetan Buddhism is widely spread in Tibet.

But, Tibetans at the river basin of Yarlung Zangbo River eat fish since ancient times. There are fishing village in Shigatse, Lhasa and Shannan. Archeologists discovered the tools for fishing at several historical sites. It could be inferred that there is long fishing history in these areas.

There is also a taboo related to garlic among Tibetans. Tibetans cares a lot about eating garlic. They do take it as a condiment in their daily life, but they never eat garlic in advance of certain religious activities, such as circumambulation.

Tibetans hold that the bad smell of garlic will stain the holy place. Some of them think that it is not suitable to step into the monasteries or other holy places after you eat garlic within a week. It takes at least 7 days to sweep away the smell of garlic. Some of the religious followers of Tibetan Buddhism never eat garlic.