Cultural side of Tibet

Some interesting stuff that we learnt about Tibetians during the trip:

· Greeting term is “zha1 xi1 de2 le4”, thank you is “tu1 ji1 qie4”.

Us with our ma3 da2 (white scarf), given while saying zha xi de le.

· National animal in Tibet is the Yak (mao2 niu2). However, yak is only the male version. The female one is called the ‘dju’. Hence, I wonder how the term ‘yak milk’ came about. Hmm..

Yak milk tea (aka butter tea), most common beverage in tibet, very good for keeping warm. However, it tasted like melted butter! ultra oily! >.<

Yak is not only for it's milk, but also for its meat! yumyum.. i ate yak at every chance i could

Yak curry

Yak sekuwa (nepali dish)

Yak meatballs

Yak stew

Yak stir fried with capsicum

Some other photos are with bong.. but.. you get the idea. yak tastes similar to beef, but you don't get it in singapore!! ^_^

· National food in Tibet is Tsamba. It is made mainly from Barley, processed into barley flour, and mixed together with cheese, butter and sugar. Sounds really yummy eh? ^_^ It is usually eaten with yak soup.

We tried Tsamba at a tibetian restaurant in Shigatse

· They have 4 types of burials after death. Water, air, land, fire. Fire is like cremation, used for Dalai Lamas. Land is just burying of the body. Water burial involves the stripping of the body, then wrapped with a white cloth called the ‘ma3 da2’, then attaching stones to the body before throwing into the river to be devoured by the fishes. Air burial involves the cutting of the body in pieces, mixed with Tsamba, priests pray and the ‘boss vulture’ will lead the rest of the vultures to consume the body. People who have sinned much are believed to be left uneaten during air burials. Sick people are usually given land/fire burials to prevent spread of disease. Otherwise, tibetians in general prefer air/water burials, as they believe in returning their bodies to nature after death. (I argued with the tour guide that land burial also can return to plants.. but.. oh well.. plants and animals are different, I guess. Haha)

Mountain for air burials

Lake for water burials (thus, don't eat fish in tibet!! >.<)

· Some villages in Tibet still practice arranged marriage. Furthermore, if a family has more than 1 son, only 1 son has to marry a wife, and the remaining brothers share the same wife! (However, some the Tibetians are getting increasingly modernized, and do no see a need in marriage without feelings, thus arranged marriages are decreasingly popular)

Other random photos of tibetians

THey're very strong people, the tibetians. The amount of yak meat (much tougher than beef) they eat must be a factor

They tend to carry around this thing that they keep swirling around. Each swirl means 1 additional chance

Kids posing for my camera!! ^_^
Road side stall

Bong said this is my "national geographic shot" XD

Shops along bu4 xing2 jie1 (walking street) in Shigatse, the model town in Tibet

Pool tables are seen EVERYWHERE in tibet. along the streets, outside almost every shop and house. I suspect it is their national sport!

the sheep rule the road!

tibetian tent, with nice mountainous view behind

Tibetians like to hang these colorful scriptures everywhere. Colors signify different parts of nature-- red for earth, yellow for earth, blue for sky, green for plants, white for clouds. They hang it in the windiest places, and even on roof tops, for each time the wind blows and the scriptures move, it signifies that they've read the scriptures once.