Tibet, the “Roof of the World,” a lofty plateau and autonomous region of China. You may know it as home to the Himalayas, but Tibet is also one of the spiritual hearts of Southeast Asia. Tibetan food culture is as fascinating as its geographic location, and we’re here to find out why.
Including the culinary practices of its people, Tibetan food culture reflects the landscape and pre-Buddhist Bön traditions. Tibet shares Mount Everest’s summit with China and Nepal, and the country is the world’s highest plateau. Reaching over 4,000m, it’s no surprise that Tibetan food is specific to the climate. Goat, yak, and barley are just some staples in the Tibetan diet, surviving the high altitudes and extreme weather.
Picturesque beauty, towering peaks, and rustic food, there’s so much to discover about Tibet, and our journey through its food is just the tip of the snow-capped mountain. Check out these nine national dishes you have to try, whether you’re venturing into the Tibetan plateau or just after a taste of authentic Tibetan culture.
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Tsamba
Barley is the most important crop in Tibet. Thriving in high altitudes, barley is a staple in all Tibetan diets, and this flour milled from roasted barley is a national dish. Tsamba is eaten during Tibetan festivals like the New Year celebrations of Losar. The flour is tossed high in a prayer demonstration for peace and prosperity, but it’s also used to exorcise evil spirits.
Tsampa is soaked in salty Tibetan butter tea before being kneaded and eaten alongside the beverage. Tsampa is calorie-dense but fueling and filling with protein, fat, and carbohydrates essential for surviving the harsh plateau conditions. A hearty and nutty taste makes this snack a long-time national favorite. Check out Makye Ame restaurant in Lhasa’s iconic Barkhor street for authentic Tsampa balls and butter tea. The restaurant is renowned because it is thought to be where the sixth Dalai Lama met a girl called Mayke Ame and fell in love.
Butter Tea
Speaking of butter tea, this popular drink is another Tibetan staple. The hint is in the name, as this beverage is made by placing yak butter in a steel bucket and melting it over a stove. Strong boiling tea is added, and the tea leaves are mashed with a wooden stick to combine the mixture.
Drinking this beverage is a daily habit for Tibetan people, and it is often drunk before work in the mornings. Serving yak butter tea to guests is an age-old tradition in most Tibetan households, and it’s also an ancient remedy for altitude sickness. Rich and high in calories, this is another survival staple for the harsh Tibetan conditions.
Momo
Reminiscent of Japanese gyoza or Chinese har goa buns, these Tibetan dumplings take their own form and vary from region to region. Usually round and crescent-shaped, yak is a typical filling, along with fresh vegetables. Momo is steamed and fried before being served in most Tibetan restaurants.
Cabbage, onion, and mushroom are also common fillings, making Momo reminiscent of Polish pierogi but with an oriental twist. Momo is often thrown in soups or served with spicy sauce and cucumber. You’ll find a variation of these buns all across Nepal, Bhutan, and India too.
Thukpa
This noodle soup is a typical dish in Tibetan tea houses across Lhasa. Thupka is traditionally served after pilgrim voyages around sacred Tibetan monasteries, and it’s a social dish served alongside sweet tea.
The noodles are often made from wheat flour with alkaline water before being pressed into a dough and shaped by a machine. But wheat can only grow in areas below 3,000 meters elevation, so yak bones are used to make Tibetan noodles in the highest regions of the country. The soup combines bone broth, shredded yak meat, and seasonal vegetables to create a mild-flavored dish enjoyed by Tibetans of all ages.
Check out Tashi II and Tashi II, two iconic restaurants in the Kirey Hotel, Lahsa, which are famous for constantly revising their menus while remaining true to authentic Tibetan cuisine. You’ll find world-class Thupka, Momos, and Tsampa at reasonable prices in a friendly atmosphere.
Tibetan Yogurt
This may look like the yogurt you can find in all your local stores, but Tibetan yogurt is made only from fermented yak milk without any additives. The result is a sour and popular pastime snack that you can find in restaurants and at street stands, sprinkled with raisins or fruit.
This yogurt has been a tradition in Tibetan food culture for thousands of years and is usually served during religious celebrations like the Buddhist Shoton Festival. If you’re visiting Tibet in August, get involved in Shoton and make trying this snack the starting point.
Tibetan Curry
While Tibetan Curry doesn’t indicate a specific dish, this is one of the most widely-eaten dishes across the country, and its essence remains the same despite regional variations. Tibetan Curry is characterized by the unique Tibetan ingredients and cookings methods like mutton, yak, potatoes, yogurt, barley, and spices. Tibetan Curry is usually braised, stewed, fried, and even roasted, and the result is also a fragrant bowl of hearty food to fight harsh conditions and nourish Tibetans.
Although Tibetans have adapted their curries to suit their climate, they have been influenced by the culinary practices of surrounding regions, with Tibetan Curry not being dissimilar to Nepalese and Indian dishes. Tibetan Curry is also often served with the distinct Tibetan Cheser Mog rice. Also called Zhe-Se, this dish is made with melted yak butter, brown sugar, raisins, and salt. A traditional banquet food, Cheser Mog is served chiefly at festivals but is popular across the country and a great accompaniment to Tibetan Curry.
Dre-Si
Often eaten during New Year’s celebration, Dre-Si is a sweet rice dish eaten on special occasions like weddings and religious holidays. A signature dish of Losar, central Tibetan people, eat this auspicious sweet treat first thing on New Years Day and place it before Buddhist shrines.
The traditional recipe combines Droma, a nutritious root that grows in Tibetan grasslands, with butter broth and sugar. For added creaminess, most Tibetans add a touch of Dri, the Tibetan female yak butter, and eat this dish alongside savory food as well as on its own.
The taste can be compared to that of sweet potato and is famous all over Tibet. However, it’s uncommon for this dish to be found anywhere else in the world as Doram is unique to the mountainous regions. Dre-si is dressed up with dried cherries, pecans, and pine nuts on special occasions.
Chhaang
Also known as barley wine, Chhaang is a beloved Tibetan beverage with very low alcohol content but recognized by its thick consistency and white shade. Tibetan locals often drink this wine and share it with guests as a custom.
Made from semi-fermented barley, Chang is popular across the eastern Himalayas and usually drunk at room temperature in the summer months but piping hot when the weather is cooler. Chhaang is thought to be one of the best remedies to ward of colds because of its healing properties. According to legend, it was a prevalent drink with Yeti’s, or Himalayan Snowmen, who would raid mountain villages to drink it.
Offerings of Chaang are typical, and the drink is a social one, served to guests, love interests, at religious occasions, and even to settle disputes in traditional villages.
Dried Meat
Beef and mutton are key staples in Tibetan cuisine, high in calories to help fight altitude and cold conditions while being easy to prepare and store. Every winter, meat is dried to preserve it and change the texture. Strips of raw yak, the most common Tibetan beef, are hung in the shade and left to freeze in the dry wind. The harsh temperatures and drying process kill bacteria.
The dried meat is crisp, flavorsome, and very common in higher altitude areas in Tibet, where vegetarianism, often associated with Buddhism, is hard to sustain due to inhospitable conditions for fresh vegetables. Dried meat can be cooked in spicy stew or eaten alone. The high protein content makes this staple helpful for fighting colds.
What is traditional Tibetan food?
Traditional Tibetan food culture includes its people’s culinary traditions and age-old practices. Borrowing influences from the neighboring lands of India, Nepal, and China, Tibetan food is oriental but adapted for the harsh landscape and to help battle the extreme conditions of the high altitude plateau. Animals and plants that have adapted to the Tibetan climate are at the heart of the country’s cuisine. Goat, yak, mutton, dumplings, cheese, and noodles, often made from yak bones, are staples in the Tibetan diet. Barley is also widely popular and favored over wheat as it can survive harsh winters and high altitudes.
What culture is Tibetan?
Tibetan culture boasts distinct art, literature, and music that are all closely linked to prevailing Buddhist beliefs but that which have adopted their own form in Tibet. Most Tibetan are Buddhists, and they practice a specific variety of Tantric Mahayana Buddhism called Vajrayana. The pre-Buddhist Bon religions influence traditional Tibetan folk law, and the culture relies on shamanic belief systems, where spirits, spells, and exorcisms take precedence across the country.
Tibet is also often associated with being part of Chinese culture as a member of the extensive Chinese nation. However, Tibetans have developed their own distinctive traditions from hundreds of years of exchanges with other ethnic groups and their own climate and lands.
Why do Tibetans eat yak?
Yaks are crucial to Tibetan food culture, and there are more yaks than people in the country. But they’re not only indispensable for their meat. As a Buddhist country, plant-based lifestyles are favored in Tibet, but it’s understood that this isn’t always accessible in the harshest conditions. Yaks can survive the extreme plateau conditions better than grains, vegetables, and other animals, and they’re even used as a mode of transportation in Tibet.
Yak meat is high in protein, nutritious, and tasty. It’s also easy to preserve, and yak bones can be ground into powder to make good fertilizer for farmland. Yak hair is also used for advanced textiles, and dried yak dung even keeps Tibetans warm and allows them to cook tea and food.
Do Tibetans eat dogs?
Despite popular assumptions, donkey, horse, and dog meat are taboo in Tibetan food culture and not consumed by local people. Even certain birds are off-limits because of the traditional sky burials in the country where some deceased bodies are fed to birds. Meat is widely consumed in Tibetan cuisine, despite the aversion to it in the Buddhist faith. This is because vegetables and grains can be hard to farm at high altitudes. Still, most Tibetans will not slaughter animals themselves and only eat meat for mere survival.