- Tea to Tibetans Just As Coffee to Western
To the Tibetans, tea is a beverage that is just like coffee to the westerners -- a wake-up and a shake-up drink that keeps almost everyone sound and safe.

In Tibet no morning can pass without drinking some tea, usually the sweet tea; and also in Tibet no meal can be complete without some tea, almost all the time the Tibetan buttered tea.

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

Town folks prefer to go to a tea house before going to work for the rest of their day. Tea houses 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 tea leaves. 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, either sweet tea or Tibetan buttered tea, is served in small or large thermo flasks, in that both are of their best smack when served hot.

The local habit of drinking tea has to do with the local food composition. The Tibetans eat lots of meat of yak and goat. 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 and 365 days a year.

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

- Tea to Lamas
Tea is considered essential by all Tibetans, lamas included. Every morning, lamas attend a morning mass held under the aegis of the sutra teacher. This is followed the consumption of buttered tea and a roasted highland barley dish known as zanba. 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. In Tibetan this is called Kamqa.

It is very common for benefactors to visit monasteries, where they offer tea porridge to lamas while presenting them with the names 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 Ph.D, who also offer tea porridge to the lamas of the whole monastery.

- Sweetened Tea Houses In Tibet
Outside a sweetened tea house in Lhasa are parked numerous bicycles and motorcycles. Inside are seated crowds of people.

In Lhasa and other parts of Tibet, there are many tea houses like this. Drinking sweetened tea has become a Tibetan tradition. Many say Tibetans learned to drink sweetened tea from the British invaders. But many others argue that the Tibetans learned it from the Indians and Nepalese. While most Tibetans make sweetened tea in a way unique to themselves, people in Yadong and Gyangze, close to India, follow a method similar to that in India.

The Tibetans make sweetened tea also with black tea, but with a taste different from that made by the British, Indians or Nepalese.

People in their 80s still remember the few sweetened tea houses in Lhasa and Xigaze. Beggars went there to seek money, and prostitutes looked for customers. Facing this situation, people of decent status and women tried to shun these tea houses as much as possible.

Nonetheless, the Tibetans loved sipping sweetened tea at home. Ordinary people made sweetened tea with home milk, while the rich did so with canned milk imported from India. Be they poor or rich, they drank two or three cups of sweetened tea generally in the afternoon. Sweetened tea was also served at wedding feasts.

Famous sweetened houses in the past included the Bottom Leaking Tea House, which sold bottomless dumplings stuffed with minced meat; the Owl Tea House, open at night only; and the Donkey Drivers?Tea House, where people from rural areas gathered.

- MODERN TEA HOUSES
Before the notorious "cultural revolution", in which the whole of China reeled from 1966-76, most sweetened tea houses in Lhasa were privately owned. They were all banned and didn??t reopen until China??s introduction of the reform and opening program.

Market economy being practiced in Tibet proves to be a hotbed for the revival of sweetened tea houses. Over the last 20 years, they flourished with each passing day. In order to attract customers, many play pop music, and add entertainment facilities such as caroms, Chinese chess and playing cards. There are also those who install large color Tvs, VCD and DVD players.

Most of these tea houses are not elegantly decorated. Drinkers get their own glasses from a plate. Each is required to use only the one allotted to him. They sit around a wooden table, on which they put their coins. Whenever the girls come to fill their glasses, they give them coins to pay for the tea and possibly also as a tip.

Most tea sippers are Tibetans. People with a high education tend to shun tea houses which lure customers with entertainment facilities. They tend to chat while sipping tea in a quiet atmosphere. Old Lhasans love to talk loudly in certain tea houses....

It has become a custom for working Lhasans to drink tea in the morning, but not in the afternoon. However, people from the rural areas, who do odd jobs in Lhasa, love to join the jobless in drinking sweetened tea in the afternoon and playing caroms.