Traditional Tibetan dessert to try in Tibet

Speaking of Tibetan delicacy, people would think of traditional food such as yak meat, Momo, Ciba and Tibetan noodles. Speaking of drinks, people would think of buttered tea and highland barley wine. But in fact, apart from these traditional staple food and drinks, there are many special traditional Tibetan dessert made of simple materials, with rich nutrition and good taste. You could have them as dessert after dinner or as staple food. If you want to travel to Tibet, you can not miss these delicacy. Please follow us to explore the special traditional Tibetan dessert.

1. Tsampa

Tsampa is made by fried highland barley, buttered tea and the Naizha of pure goat milk. It is rich in microelements. It could be eaten as staple food and dessert after dinner as well. Apart from that, because of its round shape the Tsampa is easy to carry, therefore it could be taken out as rations. In face of the harsh environment on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, Tibetans sometimes go out for pasturing cattle or patrolling for a whole day. So how to solve the problem of food for the day? Carrying Tsampa. When people feel hungry, eating some Tsampa could not only supplement calories, but also feel the warmth of family. When you travel to Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, you must have a taste of this traditional Tibetan dessert and you will surely fall in love with this unique Tibetan delicacy.

Tsampa

2. Naizha dessert

Naizha dessert is also a quite famous dessert on Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. It is mainly made of silverweed, Naizha, sugar, buttered tea and dates. It has rich nutrition and good taste. It is agreeably sweet and very popular in Tibet. Tibetans usually make this dessert to treat the guests during New Year or festive days.

Naizha

3. Kasai

Kasai is an indispensable food during traditional Tibetan festivals. It is a deep fried food made of white flour, butter, milk and sugar and so on. The shape of Kasai varies from shape of ear, shape of butterfly, strip, square to circle. Kasai is a necessity for Tibetan families to treat guests and worship the gods during New Year festival.

Kasai

Speaking of cow dung bread, people would feel disgusted, thinking that the bread is made of cow dung. However, is that really the case? No. As a matter of fact, the name of cow dung bread originated from its materials and culture related. On the one hand, the shape of the bread looks like cow dung. The bread is baked with black highland barley. The shape and colour resembles cow dung if without polishing. On the other hand, cow dung is the main fuel for Tibetan farmers and herdsmen to warm themselves and cook, therefore cow dung culture is one of the unique cultural phenomena of Tibet. These two reasons together contributed to the name “cow dung bread”.

cow dung bread