Tibetan Tea Etiquette

A bowl of tsampa – From a skin full of butter, placed within convenient range, each person takes a piece of oleaginous compound and lets it melt into his bowl of steaming tea. Then, oh joy! Oh rapture! With furtive grasp he draws the nectar to his lips and heaven is opened unto him. The bowl is again filled, into the steaming liquid, he throws a handful of tsampa (parched barley meal) and drawing forth the sodden lump works in into a ball of brown dough with a deft movement of his left hand, and successively bites off pieces of this delicacy and drinks his buttered tea until the visible supply has vanished... – photo source, Pinterest

Tea forms one of the principal articles of commerce throughout Tibet and Mongolia. The native is miserable without it and when it cannot be obtained is willing to cheat himself by various expedients, such as boiling dried onion heads, herbs, or even an infusion of chips of wood in water, in order that he may not be. at least, without a suggestion cf his favorite beverage. The tea imported from China is pressed into small oblong-shaped bricks, made up into cases of nine bricks, securely sewn in rawhide, and not only is used as a beverage, but in fact, forms a staple of currency as negotiable as Bank of England notes or American paper currency. 

The native method of preparing this delicacy is not appetizing. The tea is first ground to a fine powder by vigorously pounding it in a mortar until no splints of wood or other impurities are visible to the eye: it is then put into the kettle when the water is hot, to boil ten or fifteen minutes. By way of giving increased flavor, salt or soda is added, and, this part of the operation being completed, the all-important business of drinking it commences. The family being gathered round the fire of yak-dung. In order that atmosphere, as the painters would say, should not be lacking, each one draws from some hidden recess in the folds of his voluminous sheepskin coat a little wooden bowl, and with a satisfaction which must be seen to be appreciated fills his private dish with the liquid. All this, however, is by way of preliminary. 

From a skin full of butter, placed within convenient range, each person takes a piece of oleaginous compound and lets it melt into his bowl of steaming tea. Then, oh joy! Oh rapture! With furtive grasp he draws the nectar to his lips and heaven is opened unto him. The bowl is again filled, into the steaming liquid, he throws a handful of tsampa (parched barley meal) and drawing forth the sodden lump works in into a ball of brown dough with a deft movement of his left hand, and successively bites off pieces of this delicacy and drinks his buttered tea until the visible supply has vanished, when, in order that his table etiquette may not be impugned, he licks his bowl clean, wipes what superfluous fat he has not got on his face on his boots, and eagerly looks forward to the moment when gods and fate shall again become propitious. — Outing News, 1904

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