The Sherpa people believe that one can become ill if allowed to become hungry. Lucky me! So we spend our days centered around food. Maybe I am part Sherpa because that is what I do back home too!
All ingredients must be gathered, fresh, for every meal. There are no shops or stores, nothing is packaged or processed for storage. Therefore, there is no need for refrigeration in Cchulemu!
The people of the village wake at dawn to stoke the coals in the sacred, kitchen fire. Black tea is quickly brewed and mixed with salt and milk. Get this my fellow countrymen, the milk is NOT pasteurized! It is not even refrigerated! It's left in a pot, in a cupboard overnight!
By the time we polish off a pot or two of the salty brew its time to do some work. The cows and goats are taken out of the barn and tethered in areas throughout the terraces that are in need of a bit of weeding. The dog, who spends his nights guarding the corn fields against hungry bears, is let to relax in his shelter during the day. The calf is brought to one of the lactating heifers for inspiration and a few cups of milk are gleaned from her. The corn, beans, or barley that we gathered the day before, are taken out of the first floor shelter and laid out in the courtyard to continue drying.
All the houses in the village look exactly the same when you first arrive. But after several weeks you begin to notice the little things like Pemdeki's roof is darker than the others, Doma's house has a small railing attached to the window on the second floor and Dawa's house, my home, has the largest prayer flag in all the village.
Each home is made from heavy, dark wood logged from the nearby jungle and stones quarried from above timberline. All have three stories. The first floor is used for dry storage and to keep current food related projects, such as corn kernels spread out on mats to dry. We leave our shoes here before climbing the dark stairwell.
The second floor is for sleeping and praying. This room is lined with wooden cots covered with mats and cheerful colored blankets. The household's Buddhist shrine is located in this room. The shrines size and ornateness depends upon the wealth of the family. In the home I am staying in, the shrine fills an entire wall with a gorgeous, gold-leaf statue of the Buddha as the center piece. However, last week I saw a household shrine that consisted of only a small wooden box lined with seven steel bowls filled with water. It was the only offering that that family could afford.
The top floor is the kitchen. Cooking is done on a low sitting, open fire in the middle of the room. There is a hole for the smoke to go, yes, but still the room is filled with smoke! The "dark wood" I mentioned earlier, is black in this room due to the fire that is never extinguished. The kitchen room has a pitched ceiling and one small window. Although there are open shelves for keeping dishes and utensils, there are no tables or counters. Chopping and preparing food is done while squatting over ones work on the floor.
Whoa! Its been nearly two hours. We need more tea! Solja she! - "Drink your tea!" Tea and the first meal of the day are prepared around 10a. Breakfast could be left overs, roasted potatoes or corn on the cob.
After a meal its back out onto the terrace fields. There are beans, wheat and corn to pick and brought up to the courtyard. This is my favorite time of the day. The entire household and often a neighbor or two, sit on the ground in the courtyard for a couple of hours shelling beans, shucking corn, and chatting. I cant understand what they are saying but its the same everywhere around the globe isnt it... Who is doing what to whom!
Oh my gosh! We haven't had tea in more than two hours! Best rush inside and stoke the coals. Maybe this afternoon we will have sugar with our milk tea instead of salt? Besong throws together rice flour and water and makes everyone a few rounds of Tipton (Tibetan) bread to dip into the sweet tea.
In the afternoon, as the cool air begins to settle in on us from the high peaks above, the food projects are put away into the storage areas on the first floor. Vegetables for the evening meal are gathered from the small terrace just outside the courtyard.
Sherpa people are vegetarians but not in the western "Ooo-gross-I-cant-eat-that-it-touched-a-spoon-with-chicken-broth-on-it", sort of way. They don't kill animals and hence it makes it very difficult to prepare chicken kiev for dinner. However, the Rai people just down the hill are of a lower caste and can kill animals, which they do, for a fee of course, for the occasional Sherpa festival and feast.
Meals are always tasty here as the Sherpa people use lots of fresh, curry-style spices in the veggie stews. In the kitchen I watch, asked questions and take copious notes on how to prepare these fabulous dishes! And they cook it all over a fire with one pot! I really hope I can replicate some these dishes at home. If you can, meet me for a Sherpa feast when I get home!
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