Dried cow dungs for sale in Barkor Street

Turf and cow dung, especially the latter, are major sources of fuel in most of the areas in Tibet other than the southern forests.

It seems somewhat unbelievable that some Tibetan artists are said to dislike the smell of cigarettes but love that of cow dung. Inspiration would go along with the absence of cow dung even in a short period of two or three months, returning only on the occasion when drinking two bowls of aromatic buttered tea boiled by cow dung and eating some zanba (roasted highland barley flour) in herdsmen's tents or farmyards.

It is said by old people that cow dung has a history of over a thousand years of being used as a fuel. Despite the fact that many residents in Lhasa now live in spacious and splendid houses, they still maintain the habit of purchasing or bringing plentiful dry cow dung from the Barkor Street fair or the countryside, which will be stacked up along the eaves and burnt on the first and fifteenth day of lunar new year or on holidays in order to create auspicious smoke.



Drying cow dungs on walls in Doilungdeqen

Everyday meals and heating depend on cow dung in rural and pasturing areas. No matter how busy people are, they will always spend some time mixing straw into the dung, and then sticking and tamping the pats on the wall. When they become dry, they become solid and burn for a long time. After a couple of days, cow dung can be taken away from the walls and kept in good order along the eaves or against walls in the yard, or piled up on the open space outside the house. In the Xigaze area, they are piled up everywhere, with some in special patterns, which can be regarded as a decorative art.

In summer, when cow dung is abundant, Gyigu people in Zhaxigang Village of Mezhokungka County collect and pile it up into a fence around the garden, in which they will raise cows and sheep during winter. After the animals are driven onto the summer pastures the following spring, the dung wall will be broken down and used as fuel. Herdsmen in northern Tibet stack up a one-meter-high enclosure with cow dung outside the tent to shield them from the wind. Some dung is also available on the left side of the tent entrance, where kitchenware is put.

Most of the settled herdsmen have their simple adobe houses with an enclosure made of cow dung of about one meter high as a cow pen or sheepfold. The enclosure will be customarily built up toward the end of the ninth Tibetan month and ready for animals to live behind throughout the winter. Isolated pens for cows and sheep will be constructed by herdsmen with larger amount of livestock, and those with less will stack a common one, with lambs at the center, adult sheep next and cows outermost, so as to prevent attack from beasts and keep warm as well.



Wall built with dried cow dungs in Gyigyi Village

In Tibetan pasturing areas, families with better living conditions are equipped with a dung stove, but this is not necessary when they are outside. When they want to boil some tea, they just need to make a cooking range with three stones, place the teapot or flat-bottomed pan on it, and light up cow dung. A pot of boiled tea will be ready in a minute. The herdsmen never fail to present the tea to the deities first however thirsty they are. They will pour some in the lid and sprinkle it three times on the field, saying "to the deities" simultaneously.

Before there were gas stoves, inhabitants of Lhasa and other places used dry cow dung as the major fuel. Placing the ash of the dung into the lavatory can clean up the trash and eliminate unpleasant smell. Nowadays, there still exist some teashops and Tibetan restaurants using cow dung as the fuel. Most, however, have gone over to gas stoves.

Cow dung can also be used to keep warm. Boiled tea is not potable when it becomes cool for congealed butter acts as a laxative. When boiled again, it is no longer tasty since the butter and water separate. Therefore, boiled buttered tea in the pot is usually put on figuline stove to keep the temperature constant.

In the Xigaze area, burnt cow dung ash is used to bake bracelet-shaped pastry. This is Palkor in Tibetan language, which not only looks nice but also tastes good.

In addition, cow dung is of great importance in some other Tibetan customs. Upon completion of a new house or moving home, a bag of superb cow dung, a bucket of water and the statue of Tangdong Gyibo (a monk with the Gagyu Sect) are indispensable in the new residence.



A bag of dried cow dungs and a kettle of water are indispensable for traditional wedding

On the first day of Tibetan lunar calendar, people from each family will go out, holding a qema box containing cereals for auspiciousness and zanba (roasted highland barley flour) in their hands. They will pick up some superior cow dung from other families without being noticed, and sprinkle some zanba there for auspiciousness to enter that family. Then, they will bail some water from the fountain and present hada scarves; afterwards, cow dung will be burnt for auspicious smoke, on which is sprinkled some zanba for appreciating the god of water.

When returning home, people will stick a butter sculpture on the cow dung that they have collected, place this in the cow pen, and lay the fountain water in front of the statue of Buddhist guardian in the principal room. It is believed this will bring luck and happiness, and frost and hail will not damage crops.

During the sacrificial rites on the first and fifteenth day of the Tibetan lunar calendar, half-burnt cow dung is utilized as kindling to start the auspicious smoke.

Cow dung is also as raw material for making a kind of Tibetan mask, when mixed with herbal medicines and vegetable gum, and formed into bodiless lacquer ware with cloth fibers. This kind of mask is usually hung up as a holy article for worship.

Source: China's Tibet
BY ZHANG ZONGXIAN