Chapter 34 Kumbum Yogurt

It was in the early 1960s that Beijingers enjoyed yogurt more commonly.Fengshenggong in Dong'an Market is an old shop specializing in dairy products, but there was no yogurt for sale in the 1950s.Cheese, milk rolls, milk pastry, milk tofu and dried cheese are all the characteristics of Fengshenggong, but I have never heard of selling yogurt, as if yogurt is an imported product.In the early 1960s, the three-year difficult period had just passed, and the market supply gradually improved, and milk was no longer exclusively for newborns. In 1962, a dairy shop was opened opposite Dahua Cinema on Mishi Street, Dongcheng, and began to sell yogurt. People flocked to it for a while, and there was a long queue in front of the door every morning.The yogurt is packed in porcelain pots with blue letters on a white background, which is the logo of the milk company. This kind of porcelain pots has been used until today, and it has been made consistently for more than 30 years. It is also a miracle in the history of packaging.At that time, there was no sugar in yogurt, and the sugar had to be bought separately. It was yellow granulated sugar wrapped in rough paper, which is rarely seen today.Since then, yogurt has been available to the public in Beijing, and drinking yogurt has gradually been accepted by more people.Soon, Gongyihao opposite the Xidan shopping mall also started selling milk company yogurt. A year later, yogurt is no longer a rare commodity in Beijing.

Today, yogurt is so ubiquitous that you can find it at any small grocery store, and the variety is dizzying, from fruity to nonfat to zinc. Yogurt is not an imported product. In Mongolian, Tibetan and other ethnic minority pastoral areas, yogurt is a home-cooked drink for herdsmen.I have tasted yoghurt made from cow’s milk, goat’s milk, and even camel’s milk in the yurts of herdsmen in Inner Mongolia, and even in Ulan Bu and sumu in the desert.The production process of this kind of yogurt is completely the "indigenous method" of the herdsmen. From the perspective of hygiene, it cannot be compared with the yogurt produced by the milk company, but the difference in taste is not great.I once ate yogurt in Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai, and it should be considered the best among "earth-made" yogurts.

In the early autumn of 1986, I made a special trip from Lanzhou to Xining in order to visit Kumbum Monastery, an important temple of the Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism in China.After resting overnight, I drove straight to Lushaer Town, Huangzhong County early the next morning.In early autumn, Beijing is still suffering from the scorching heat, but here is the golden wind, so I have to put on a sweater when I leave in the morning.The terrain in Huangzhong is open, although it is not considered as a thousand hectares of fertile fields, it can be said to be boundless.I almost forgot that I was on a plateau.The sky is as blue as washing, and the white clouds seem to be floating in front of us.

After driving for more than 40 minutes, Kumbum Monastery is clearly visible, with blue sky and golden tiles, dazzling. Rushaer Town is the birthplace of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Gelug Sect. The Gelug Sect of Tibetan Buddhism is also commonly known as the "Yellow Sect". Things have been enhanced, forming today's scale.Kumbum Monastery is different from the temples in Tibet.It adopts the architectural form of combining Chinese and Tibetan, with Dajinwa Temple as the center, forming a neat and splendid architectural complex.The temple is bright and dazzling, with a large number of gold-plated Buddha statues, murals, pile embroidery, butter flowers, etc., which cannot be seen in the middle-earth temples in the mainland.Lamas in purple-red woolen robes prostrating and kneeling, worshipers prostrating themselves to the ground, and the ever-turning Dharma Wheel Sutra banners make people feel solemn and mysterious.

Near the parking lot outside the Dajinwa Temple is a large-scale free market. Apart from the general business, there are a few things that stand out. One is selling all kinds of carpets and tapestries. The wool is of good quality and there are many colors , and the price is cheap, just can't take it back.The second is to sell all kinds of accessories, including silver, copper, coral beads, turquoise, and amber stones. They have a rough beauty. I bought a string of turquoise bracelets just as a souvenir.The third is to sell all kinds of ritual utensils, most of which are handmade copper and aluminum products.Then there are those who sell ghee and yoghurt.Ghee is sold in tubs, while yoghurt is sold in tin or wooden barrels.

I have a soft spot for dairy products, and I really want to taste what the yogurt from Kumbum Monastery tastes like.A few years ago, I read "Hanshu Biography of the Western Regions", in which the "Wusun Princess Song" said: "The vault is the room, the wall is the wall, the meat is the food, and the cheese is the pulp", which fascinated me very much.The so-called cheese in the song is livestock milk in a broad sense, and yogurt is also a part of it.There have always been different opinions about Daigo. According to the "Nirvana Sutra": "Cheese comes out of milk, crispy out of butter, cooked crispy out of raw pastry, and blueberry out of ripe crispy." The pure cream that has been refined for the first time, and the yogurt can only be cheese.As for the butter from Fengshenggong in Dong'an Market, in a narrow sense, it should be crisp.The comrades who accompanied me from Xining told me that if you want to eat yoghurt, you should not buy it in the market here. There are yoghurts sold outside the temples, and the quality is better than that in the market.

I listened to their advice and first visited the Dajinwa Temple, the Dajing Hall, and the Nine Halls, then the Big Kitchen, the Flower Temple, and Da Lalang, and finally came to the Xiaojinwa Temple. In front of the temple, a Tibetan woman was selling Yogurt is served in a wooden barrel, with several wooden bowls beside it.I asked the comrades in Xining if the yoghurt here is safe to drink. They lifted the lid of the wooden barrel and looked at it with experience, and then said that the quality was good and let me taste it.The wooden bowl was used by everyone in turn, and after use, they just rinsed it in clean water. Anyway, they knew it well, so they didn't care about it.The Tibetan woman scooped out a bowl full of yogurt from the wooden barrel for me, and put it in front of me with both hands. I took a look, and it seemed that it was a little thinner than the yogurt sold in Beijing. After I tasted it, the frankincense was much stronger than that sold in Beijing. Drink it There is no sense of thinness in the mouth, but it is thicker than Beijing yogurt.After gulping it down, I still feel unsatisfied and want to have another bowl. The comrades in Xining said that they should try another place.Later they told me that the yoghurt here is made by the herdsmen themselves, and each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. These herdsmen do not have a business license, so they cannot enter the free market in front of the temple, and can only be sold at the gates of the temples inside. Really better than the market.

In front of another temple, the comrades in Xining offered me to taste the yogurt sold here. I bought a bowl according to what they said, and it seemed more sour in my mouth when I drank it. The frankincense was not as good as the former, and the color was slightly yellow. Some, but fine as oil, very palatable.Once I finished, they asked me how I was different, and I told them how I felt.Only then did they tell me that the first time the yoghurt was made of cow’s milk, but this time it was made of mare’s milk. I was astonished after hearing this. I drank sour camel's milk in Inner Mongolia, but I didn't expect to have another experience of drinking sour kumiss in Kumbum Monastery in Qinghai.