“Tsampa”, which means “roasted flour” in Tibetan, is a staple of the Tibetan people’s diet. When you visit in a Tibetan household, the host will offer you a cup of delicious butter tea and roasted barley flour with both hands, along with yellow yak butter and “chura” (dried yak cheese), and other snacks.  

The Garze water-rinsed tsampa is widely famous and Drakar, a villager making water-rinsed tsampa has been listed as an inheritor of this intangible cultural heritage.

Drakar comes from Erong Village in Nanduo Township, Garze County, Garze Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, Sichuan province. He learned to make water-rinsed tsampa from his elders when he was a child. In 2005, Drakar registered a store to produce and sell Garze water-rinsed tsampa. His registered brand, “Snow Land Dechong Tsampa”, follows traditional production processes, making the sweet and delicious water-rinsed tsampa through a complex series of steps: selecting materials, washing, drying, washing in hot water, fermenting, frying, and grinding the barley. In 2012, “Snow Land Dechong Tsampa” was certified as a national food QS and listed as a “Sichuan Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage” item. Drakar himself became an inheritor of the water-rinsed tsampa tradition of Garze Prefecture.