The Buttered Tea and Zanba (roasted highland qingke barley flour)--The Unique in Tibet
Buttered tea is the favorite drink of Tibetan people. It is made of boiled brick tea and ghee. Ghee, which looks like butter, is a kind of dairy product of fat abstracted from cow milk or sheep milk. Tibetan people like the ghee made of yak milk. When they make buttered tea, they mix boiled brick tea and ghee in a special can, add some salt, pour the mixed liquid into a pottery or metal teapot and finally heat up it (but not boil it). Different people have different tastes for the buttered tea. Some people like salty flavor, others prefer to light flavor. People who do manual labors, especially men, like the strong-tasted, cream-like buttered tea. Old people, children and women like light-flavored tea. People usually heat up the buttered tea because cold buttered tea is not easy to be digested and does harm to one's stomach.
The staple food of
Tibetan people is Zanba, a kind of dough made with roasted highland qingke
barley flour and yak butter with water. Method of making: grind the roasted
Highland Barley into flour, and mix it with ghee. It is similar to parching
wheat flour in northern China.
People in northern China
grind the wheat into flour before parching it, but Tibetan people do the
opposite. They roast the Barley seeds before grinding them into flour. What's
more, Tibetan people do not remove the husk of the Barley.
When eating Zanba,
Tibetan people put some ghee in a bowl, pour some boiled water into the bowl,
then put some roasted flour into the water, and mix them with one hand. When
mixing the tea, they press the flour slightly against the edge of the bowl with
their fingers to avoid spilling the tea. After mixing all the roasted flour,
the tea and the ghee until the thing gets thick, people knead it into dough
balls and eat them. Tibetan people use hands instead of chopsticks or scoops
when eating. This habit is a little similar to the habits of Indians, who also
use hands when eating rice.
Zanba is a simple
food. It is quite easy to take some Zanba when Tibetan people move about in
search of pasture. When Tibetan people leave home for a long time, they always
carry a Zanba bag on their waists. Whenever they are hungry, they eat some
Zanba. Sometimes, they take out a wood bowl, put some Zanba, buttered tea, and
salt in the bowl, mix them. Then they knead the dough into balls and eat them.
It's very convenient. Sometimes, they drink some buttered tea while eating
Zanba. Sometimes, they pour Zamba and buttered tea into a leather bag named
"tangu". Then, they hold the mouth of the bag with one hand and knead
the bag with the other hand. After a while, the delicious Zanba dinner is ready.
During the Tibetan New
Year Festival, every family will place an auspicious wood container called
"Zusuqima"on the Tibetan-style cupboard. In the container are qingke,
Zanba and zholma (groma food, a kind of Tibetan food), on top of which are ears
of qingke wheat, wheat flowers and colored cards on which the sun, the moon and
stars are drawn. When the neighbors or the relatives come to pay a New Year
call, the hosts will entertain them with the food in "zhusiqima". The
guest will take some Zanba with one hand and flick in the air for three times.
Then he takes some Zanba and put it in the mouth while saying "Tashi
Delek" (meaning good luck and happiness) to express the best wishes.
Translate
