Tibetan Tea Culture

In Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, tea serves many purposes. It is a symbol of hospitality, a sacred offering, and a meal in itself. People drink the tea alongside flat cakes of ground corn, barley, or buckwheat, called tsamba. The tea is offered to guests in villages, monasteries, or private homes as a sign of hospitality, and must be consumed before conversation can begin.

  Tea to Tibetans just as coffee to Westerners

To the Tibetans, tea is a beverage that is just like coffee to the Westerners -- a wake-up and a shake-up drink to start the day on the right path.

In Tibet no morning can pass without drinking some tea, usually the sweet tea, while no meal can be complete without some tea, which is almost always Tibetan buttered tea.

The sweet tea, prepared by mixing milk and sugar with the juice from fully boiled fermented tealeaves, serves as the refresher.

Town folks prefer to go to ateahousefor sweet tea before going to work for the rest of their day. Teahouses sometimes stand as alternative places to find the ones who are otherwise expected in their workplace in the morning and in the early afternoon.

The Tibetan buttered tea is prepared by mixing butter and salt with the juice from fully boiled fermented tealeaves. Before serving, the mixture has to be further blended in a special blender.

More often than not, a slim wooden cylinder is used for the blending. After the mixture is put in the cylinder, a piston is used to push and pull inside the cylinder. With the passing of the mixture through the slit between the piston and the cylinder, the mixture of butter, salt, and tea is forcefully and thoroughly blended.

In Tibet, tea, whether sweet tea or Tibetan buttered tea, is served in small or large thermo flasks, as both kinds of tea are best when served hot.

The local habit of drinking tea has to do with the local food composition. The Tibetans eat lots of yak and goat meat. The strong buttered tea not only helps to keep the body warm but also helps to promote the digestion of the meat that is taken almost three meals a day, 365 days a year.

Local sayings go that the others cannot do without salt whereas the Tibetans cannot do without either salt or tea.

 Tea to Lamas

All Tibetans, including lamas, consider tea essential.

Every morning, lamas attend a morning mass held under the auspices of the sutra teacher. This is followed the consumption of buttered tea and a roasted highland barley dish known as tsamba.

At noon, they gather in the sutra hall of the Buddhist school of the monastery to pray and recite Buddhist scriptures while drinking tea. This ceremony is much the same as the morning Mass, but is held on a smaller scale.

In the evening, lamas gather in Khang-tshan organized according to where they are located to pray and drink tea in a fairly informal setting (kamqa in Tibetan).
It is very common for benefactors to visit monasteries, where they offer tea porridge to lamas while presenting them with the titles of the Buddhist scriptures they wish the lamas to recite for them. There are also senior lamas studying for Geshi (a Buddhist academic degree equivalent to a PhD) who also offer tea porridge to the lamas of the whole monastery.

 Two kinds of tea

Buttered Tea

Buttered tea is an indispensable part of Tibetan life. Before work, a Tibetan will drink several bowlfuls of this tangy beverage. The tea is also always served to guests.

To prepare buttered tea, a little freshly-brewed brick tea with the tea leaves removed, a lump of butter, and a pinch of salt are put into the wooden "tea churn" with some boiling water and then churned for a minute or so until the tea is well mixed. The resulting liquid is poured into a kettle, heated, and then served. Tea churning is a daily ritual. When prepared, the tea is transferred to a kettle to be kept warm over the fire.

With butter as the main ingredient, the buttered tea is a very warming drink and a good antidote to the cold, so it is especially suited to high altitudes.

According to the Tibetan custom, the buttered tea is drunk in separate sips, and after each sip the host refills the bowl to the brim. Thus the guest never drains his bowl yet it is constantly topped up. If the visitor does not wish to drink, the best thing to do is leave the tea untouched until the time comes to leave and then drain the bowl, except for a small amount. In this way etiquette is observed and the host will not be offended.

Milk Tea

Tibetans like drinking tea. Besides salted buttered tea, sweet milk tea is another popular alternative. Hot boiling black tea filtered is poured into a churn, and then fresh milk and sugar are added. Vigorous churning turns out a light reddish white drink. There are many teashops inLhasaserving the sweet milk tea.

 Way to make tea

The Tibetans are addicted to tea drinking. Such a habit has given birth to their unique way of making tea. Tibetans in the Amdo area love broad-leafed tea and tea bricks. A tea brick, which is rectangular in shape, usually weighs two kilograms. Such a tea brick can withstand long journeys.

Tibetans mix tea with cold water in a teapot, before heating over a small fire. When the water turns brown, the good tea is ready. Most Tibetans love to have salt in their tea.

In some areas, the Tibetans love to put fruit, ginger, and peppers in tea. Such tea is believed to cure headaches and colds. Some Tibetans love to have milk and sugar in tea. When brown sugar is added to tea, such tea is believed to be good for women in their prenatal and postnatal periods.

 Way to sip tea

People of Gannan drink tea three times a day. In the morning, they drink morning tea containing fried flour, milk dregs, and butter. After lunch, they often drink several bowls of tea in order to beef up their stomach's digestive ability as well as to perk themselves up. After supper, the whole family usually sits around the table, talking while drinking tea to their hearts' content.

Tibetans pay close attention to sipping tea. For instance, bowls used to contain the tea should be flawless and the tea bowl should be held with both hands.

When refilling the bowl, the palm of the left hand should face the sky, and no tea should spill out of the bowl. If lamas are invited to recite sutras in the home, others should not touch the utensils that the lamas use.

Tea has a thousand uses for Tibetans. When one has guests, he or she will entertain them with tea. Parents and elders are often toasted with tea. When older people themselves sit together, they sip tea, gossip, and often recite the Six-Syllable Prayer. When going to visit friends, one's gifts should include tea.

When a couple becomes engaged, tea is indispensable because it represents everlasting ties to Tibetans. When the bride reaches her husband's home for the first time, she should go directly to the kitchen, where she will make tea for her parents-in-law.