The staple Tibetan food is flour dough (rtsam-pa, or zanba) made of roasted barley, which is consumed daily. Other major dishes include baked goods made from wheat flour, yak meat, mutton, and pork. Dairy products such as butter, milk, and cheese are also popular. The people at higher elevations generally consume more meat than those of the lower regions, where a variety of vegetables are available. Rice is generally restricted in consumption to the well-to-do families, southern border farmers, and monks.

Two beverages—tea and barley beer (chang, or chhaang)—are particularly noteworthy. Brick tea from elsewhere in China and local Tibetan tea leaves are boiled in soda water. The tea is then strained and poured into a churn, and salt and butter are added before the mixture is churned. The resulting tea is light reddish white and has a thick buttery surface. Chang, which is mildly intoxicating, is thick and white and has a sweet and pungent taste.

Festivals

Festivals are both national and local in character. The many local celebrations are varied; national festivals, though fewer, are marked with a spirit of unity and lavishness.

The first day of the first month of the Tibetan calendar (February or March of the Gregorian calendar) is marked by New Year (Losar) celebrations throughout Tibet. Monasteries, temples, stupas (outdoor shrines), and home chapels are visited at dawn, and offerings are made before statues and relics of deities and saints. A special fried cookie known as kha-zas is prepared in every home. Either a real or an artificial head of a horned sheep adorns the offerings. A colourful container filled with barley flour and wheat grain and another container of chang are presented to all visitors, who take a pinch of the contents and make an offering to the deities by throwing it in the air.

The New Year celebrations are almost immediately followed by the Smom-lam (“Prayer”) festival, which begins three days after the New Year and generally is celebrated for 15 days, though the length of the festival varies from place to place. The festival marks the victory of the Buddha over his six religious opponents through debates and the performance of miracles. During this festival, special prayers are offered daily. Prayers, fasting, and charitable donations mark Sa-ga zla-ba (or Saga dawa), the celebration of the anniversary of Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death—three events that all occurred on the 15th day of the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar.

The anniversary of the death of Tsong-kha-pa, founder of the Dge-lugs-pa sect, is observed on the 25th day of the 10th month by the burning of butter lamps on the roofs and windowsills of every house. This festival is known as Lnga-mchod. The Dgu-gtor festival, or festival of the banishment of evil spirits, takes place on the 29th day of the last month of the Tibetan year. At night a bowl of flour soup and a bunch of burning straws are taken into every room of every house, and the evil spirits are called out. Outside, on a distant path, the soup and straws are thrown and left to burn.

Superstitions

Superstition is prominent in Tibet. A traveler who encounters either a funeral procession, the source of running water, or a passerby carrying a pitcher of water is considered to have good fortune awaiting. If a vulture or an owl perches on a rooftop, it is believed that death or misfortune will soon befall the household. If snow falls during a marriage procession, it is believed that the newlyweds will face many misfortunes or difficulties. A snowfall during a funeral, however, symbolizes an impediment to death in the family for a long period of time.