Tsampa

Pronounced Sahmpa. It is a Tibetan Staple of roasted Barley Flour traditinally carried when walking or trekking over long distances high in the mountains. It is roasted so it is edible without turning it into a barley bread. So, the Tibetans mix it with Yak Butter(cow butter will do) or milk from cows or yaks or sometimes even water. It is sort of used like Granola is by many hikers as a staple to carry over long distances to keep you going and yet it is light so all you need is to add butter, milk or water to it for it to be edible.

I went online and found someone who sold it here in the U.S. I think they were back east connected with something called Mahasiddha Organization or something like that. I bought through the mail some purple Tsampa and some white Tsampa. I found I like the white tsampa best because purple tsampa has sort of a bitter taste and obviously must be an acquired taste for Tibetans. I usually mix it with butter to make sort of fudge like Tsampa butter lumps that can be eaten as an afternoon snack to give you energy much like a protein bar or granola. It stores easily in the freezer and will keep a very long time while staying good as long as you keep it away from moisture in a plastic zip lock bag or something like that.

Hot Yak Butter tea is also a Tibetan staple to stay warm above 8000 feet in altitude since Tibet is mostly about 8000 feet and most people there live between 8000 and 13000 feet in altitude on the high Tibetan Plateau. If you are older than about 40 or 50 be sure to go to someplace like Santa Fe New Mexico or Flagstaff, Arizona because both are at about 7000 feet in elevation and stay for a week or so to acclimate your body to high altitude before trying to live a week or more above 8000 to 10,000 feet or more. For example, Lhasa is a 12,000 feet around the altitude of Lima, Peru. I knew a lady who flew in her 70s to Lhasa and dropped dead from the altitude just getting off her plane in Lhasa. So being prepared for sudden altitude changes like that is important.

For example, my wife a few years ago and I went to Lake Tahoe in the summer with our daughter. I told her not to unload the car into the resort rooms because there was too much smoke from a fire nearby. She was very angry at me for not unloading our luggage myself. However, I knew better. She didn't listen to me and got a combination of altitude sickness combed with smoke inhalation and had to be taken to the local hospital in an ambulance. Sometimes have three college degrees is counterproductive for some people.

Also, as a younger man I climbed Mt. Shasta when I was 22. I had no problems with the altitude then at all. However, when I climbed it about at about age 30 I got hypothermia at about 11,000 feet. However, the mountain is 14,161 feet so I had to turn back that time. But I had already climbed it to the top once in 1970 with 3 buddies of mine and two of them made it to the top with me then. But, at age 17 I tried to camp out at about 9,000 feet up San Gorgonio Mountain which is over 11,000 feet in Southern California. However, during the night I started throwing up I guess from lack of oxygen and didn't stop throwing up until I reached below 8000 feet in altitude. That was really awful. So, anyway don't take altitude lightly, you life might depend upon taking altitude very seriously. So, the lesson I took away from that was at least for me, "Don't sleep above about 7000 to 8000 feet. You can climb much higher but don't try to sleep higher than that." However, everyone is different and has a different metabolism regarding all this so just be aware of your specific limitations so you survive.