Tibetan Food(s) and Identity in a Global Context

WALLENBÖCK, Ute. Tibetan Food(s) and Identity in a Global Context. In Invited lecture. 2021.

Basic information

• Original name: Tibetan Food(s) and Identity in a Global Context
• Authors: WALLENBÖCK, Ute.
• Edition: Invited lecture, 2021.

Other information

• Type of outcome: Requested lectures
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Keywords in English: Tibetan food, identity

Abstract (in English)

My current research deals with the cultural aspects of Tibetan foods and beverages since I argue that everyday foods illustrate cultural identity: Food(s) are vehicles for expressing culture. In course of my past project on the construction of the collective identity of the Tibeto-Mongol population in the contemporary Henan Mongol Autonomous County in Qinghai province, I have gained a lot of experiences in nomadic food culture and “traditional” cooking. I learned that traditional foods are connected to Tibetans’ socio-cultural, ecological, spiritual life, and health. And moreover, some foods are culturally important in various festivals and ceremonies. Subsequently, I have lately been discussing the use of ingredients in the various cuisines with a Swiss Tibetan chef de cuisine and started enhancing transdisciplinary dialogues on food culture(s) as many scholars have so far been occupied by analysis of specific aspects of a given food culture, but they failed to acknowledge the phenomenon of the effects of cultural transmission on the emergence and diffusion of innovation of semi-nomadic food(s) into the “sedentary” European culinary world. By discussing the role food and food-making play in identity shaping among the diasporic Tibetans in Switzerland and Austria, in this lecture, I examine how intergenerational and cultural differences in the diaspora can influence the “traditional” food(s). Moreover, I am investigating the adaption of ingredients, seasonings, as well as cooking techniques in the Tibetan cuisine.