Tibetan Cuisine

Tibetan cuisine encompasses the culinary traditions of the Tibetan people, shaped by the region's mountainous and high altitude terrain and by cultural exchange with neighboring India and Nepal. It is distinguished by its use of noodles, meat from yaks, goats and sheep, dumplings, and dairy products such as cheese and yogurt drawn from animals raised at high elevation, and it traditionally emphasizes meat consumption because growing vegetables at such altitude is difficult, though vegetarianism has been a subject of religious debate since the eleventh century. Barley is the most important crop, milled into tsampa flour that forms a dietary foundation, and other essential dishes include sha phaley, meat and cabbage wrapped in bread, balep, a breakfast bread, and thukpa, a noodle soup of vegetables and meat eaten as a dinner staple. Mustard seed is widely cultivated and featured in preparation, and unusually among Himalayan food traditions eaten by hand elsewhere, Tibetan dining traditionally employs silverware; the cuisine remains vibrant across Tibet, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh and among Tibetan diaspora communities in Nepal.