Dege Butter Tea

Dege Butter Tea

　　In Tibet, in every Tibetan household, butter can be seen everywhere at all times. Butter is an indispensable daily food for every Tibetan. Butter is extracted from cow or sheep milk. In the past, herders had a rather unique method of extracting butter. First, they would heat the milk, then pour it into a large wooden barrel called a "xuedong" (about 4 feet tall and 1 foot in diameter), and vigorously churn it up and down hundreds of times to separate the oil from the water.

　　A layer of yellowish fat would float to the top. This was scooped up and poured into a leather bag. Once cooled, it became butter. Nowadays, many places gradually use cream separators to extract butter. Generally speaking, a single cow can produce four to five pounds of milk per day, and fifty to sixty pounds of butter can be extracted from every hundred pounds of milk.

　　Butter can be consumed in various ways, mainly by making butter tea, or it can also be mixed into tsampa (roasted barley flour) for eating. During festivals, it is also used for frying pastries. Tibetans usually enjoy drinking butter tea. When making butter tea, first the tea leaves or brick tea are boiled in water to make a strong tea, which is then poured into a "dungmo" (butter tea churn). Butter and salt are added, and the "jaluo" (churn whisk) is moved up and down dozens of times to mix the butter and tea together. Then it is poured into a pot to heat, resulting in fragrant and delicious butter tea.

　　Tibetans commonly serve butter tea to guests, and there is a set of customs for drinking it. When a guest is invited to sit at a Tibetan-style square table, the host will place a wooden bowl (or teacup) in front of the guest. Then the host (or hostess) lifts the butter tea kettle (nowadays often replaced with a thermos) and shakes it a few times before pouring a full bowl of butter tea for the guest. The freshly poured butter tea is not drunk right away; instead, the guest chats with the host first. When the host comes over again with the butter tea kettle, the guest may then pick up the bowl, gently blow away the layer of floating oil on the tea, take a sip, and praise, “This butter tea is really well made—the butter and tea are perfectly blended.” The guest then puts the bowl back on the table, and the host refills it. This process continues—drinking and refilling—until the tea is finished. A hospitable host will always keep the guest’s bowl full. If you don’t wish to drink more, just leave the bowl untouched. If you’ve drunk half and don’t want more, the host may refill the bowl, and you may just leave it there. When the guest is about to leave, they may take a few more sips, but should not finish the tea completely—the bowl should be left with some tea and floating oil at the bottom. This is in line with Tibetan custom and etiquette.