List of Tibetan dishes facts for kids

A yummy Tibetan cuisine meal with steamed bread, noodle soup, momos (dumplings) in soup, vegetable gravy, and condiments (sauces) in the middle.

A simple Tibetan breakfast.

Tibetan food is special! It's the traditional way of cooking for people in Tibet and for many Tibetans living in India and Nepal. The food shows off the high mountains and flat lands of Tibet. It also gets ideas from nearby countries like India and Nepal.

Tibetan meals often feature noodles, goat, yak, and mutton (sheep meat). You'll also find lots of dumplings, cheese (often from yak or goat milk), and butter (also from animals that live well in the cold Tibetan climate). Soups are very popular too!

The food in Tibet is quite different from what you might find in its neighboring countries. This is because most crops can't grow well at such high altitudes. Only a few places in Tibet are low enough for things like rice, oranges, bananas, and lemons to grow. Because of this, many foods like tea and rice are brought in from other places.

The most important crop in Tibet is barley. A special flour made from roasted barley, called tsampa, is the main food for Tibetans. People often eat it mixed with their national drink, Butter tea. For meat, Tibetans usually eat yak, goat, or mutton. The meat is often dried or cooked into a spicy stew with potatoes. Many Tibetans do not eat fish because fish are seen as one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism, which are very important in their religion.

Popular Tibetan Dishes

Khapse cookies.

Laping noodles.

Chicken momo with curry.

A bowl of Thenthuk noodle soup.

Here are some common and tasty Tibetan foods:

• Chebureki – These are deep-fried pastries filled with ground meat and onions.
• Cheser mog – A sweet dish made with rice, melted yak butter, brown sugar, raisins, and salt.
• Chexo – A simple dish of rice mixed with yogurt.
• Dropa Khatsa – A stew made from tripe (animal stomach), cooked with curry, fennel, and salt.
• Koendain – A pastry made from barley grain and yeast. It also has tsampa, dry curd cheese, wild ginseng, and brown sugar. This pastry is often eaten during the Tibetan New Year (Losar).
• Gyabra – A pancake made with barley flour, yak butter, dry cheese curds, and sugar.
• Gyagoh – This is a special hot pot dish, similar to Chinese hot pots. It contains vermicelli noodles, kombu (seaweed), mushrooms, meatballs, bamboo sprouts, and salt. Senior monks often eat it during important ceremonies.
• Gyathuk – Noodles similar to Chinese noodles, made with eggs, flour, and bone soup.
• Gyuma – A type of blood sausage made with yak or sheep's blood. Sometimes rice or roasted barley flour is added.
• Khapsey – These are deep-fried cookies or biscuits. People usually make them for celebrations like Losar (Tibetan New Year) or weddings.
• Laphing – A spicy cold noodle dish made from mung beans. It's popular in Tibetan and Nepalese food.
• Lowa Khatsa – Made from fried pieces of animal lung with spices.
• Lunggoi Katsa – A stew made from sheep's head with curry, fennel, and salt.
• Masan – A pastry made with tsampa, dry cheese, yak butter, brown sugar, and water.
• Momo – These are delicious dumplings popular in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and India.
  • Gong'a Momo – Filled with a meat paste.
  • Mokthuk – Served in a broth made from pork or buffalo bones mixed with vegetables and herbs.
  • Sha Momo – Filled with beef or mutton.
  • Shoogoi Momo – Made with mashed potato dough shaped into balls, with a minced meat filling.
• Sepen – A hot sauce made mainly from chillies and other spices.
• Sha Phaley – Bread stuffed with seasoned beef and cabbage.
• Sha Shingbee – A stir-fry dish of sliced mutton with green beans.
• Shab Tra – Stir-fried meat mixed with celery, carrots, and fresh green chili.
• Sweet sour and spicy vegetable gravy – A soup-like vegetable curry often served with tingmo steamed bread.
• Tsampa – Roasted barley flour, the main food for Tibetans.
• Yak butter – Butter made from the milk of domesticated yaks. It's a very important food and trade item for people living in the Tibetan Plateau.
• Yurla – A wheat pastry with butter, especially common in northern Tibet.

Tibetan Drinks

• 

  Butter tea

• 

  Chhaang

• Ara – An alcoholic drink made from rice, corn, millet, or wheat. It can be fermented or distilled.
• Butter tea – This is a very famous drink in Tibet and other Himalayan regions. It's traditionally made from tea leaves, yak butter, water, and salt. It's often called the "Tibetan national beverage."
• Chhang – A traditional Tibetan beer.

Tibetan Breads

Tingmo steamed bread.

• Balep – A type of bannock (a quick bread).
• Balep korkun – A round, flat bread mostly eaten in central Tibet.
• Tingmo – A steamed bread, often served with stews or gravies.

Tibetan Cheeses

• Chhurpi – There are two types: a soft one eaten with rice, and a hard one that people chew like gum.
• Chura kampo – Made from the curds left after boiling buttermilk. It comes in many shapes.
• Chura loenpa – A soft cheese, similar to cottage cheese, also made from buttermilk curds.
• Shosha – A strong-smelling cheese, often made from yak or goat milk, which are well-suited to the climate.

• 

  Chhurpi

Sweet Treats and Desserts

• Dre-si – A sweet dish with rice cooked in unsalted butter, mixed with raisins, droma (a gourd-shaped root), dates, and nuts. This is usually served only during Losar (Tibetan New Year).
• Thue – A special treat made with dri cheese (or other hard cheeses), brown sugar, and unsalted sweet cream butter.
• Tu – A type of cheesecake made with yak butter, brown sugar, and water, shaped into a pastry.

Doughy Foods

• Chetang Goiche – Strips of dough fried in rapeseed oil and topped with brown sugar.
• Baktsamarkhu – Dough shaped into balls with melted butter, brown sugar, and dry curd cheese. It has a sweet and sour taste and is red.
• Samkham Papleg – Dough fried in yak butter or rapeseed oil.
• Sokham Bexe – Fried dough with butter and minced meat.

Soups and Stews

A warm bowl of Thukpa noodle soup.

• Dre-thuk – A soup made with yak or sheep broth, rice, different Tibetan cheeses, and droma (a Tibetan root).
• Guthuk – A noodle soup eaten two days before Losar, the Tibetan New Year.
• Qoiri – A stew of mutton chops, made with flour, shredded wheat, chillies, dry curd cheese, water, and salt.
• Thenthuk – A noodle soup with hand-pulled noodles.
• Thukpa – A noodle soup that started in eastern Tibet. "Thukpa" is a general Tibetan word for any soup or stew with noodles.
• Bhakthuk – A common Tibetan noodle soup that includes small bhasta noodles.
• Tsam-thuk – Made with yak or sheep soup broth and tsampa (roasted barley flour), plus various Tibetan cheeses.

See also

• Beer in Tibet
• Tibetan culture
• Sikkimese cuisine