Three main crops are grown in Zanskar: barley, wheat and peas. The growing season is very short but there’s usually a surplus. Most harvesting is done by hand and people share the labor, although machines are increasingly used. Flours from each of these are used for all kinds of food. Barley flour, called tsampa, is the most prevalent of the three and is used in about everything I’ve eaten here, from chapatis and thantuk noodles to something like cookie dough balls I’ve eaten at the monasteries.
Here’s a tsampa grinder in a small “house” in the valley between Karsha’s monastery and nunnery. A few nuns were there snacking away and shared some roasted grains with me, which were delicious. There are tsampa houses throughout the region, but I doubt any is as elegant as this one.
