The vision behind the Tibetan cheese project
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| The Tibetan Cheese Project is the fruit of a collaboration between an extraordinary Tibetan monk with a great vision and a genuine commitment to his people and Trace Foundation, a private nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the cultural continuity and sustainable development of Tibetan communities in China. | ||
| Jigme Gyaltsen, a senior monk of the renown Ragya monastery in Golok Prefecture, is the founder and headmaster of a private welfare school that carries his name. Since 1994, when it was founded, the school has enjoyed an excellent reputation amongst Tibetans. A model for Tibetan education, the school offers free classes to over 580 nomad children and is filled to capacity. Its curriculum includes both traditional and modern subjects and is the only school on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to incorporate the teaching and debating methods used in Tibetan Buddhism for more than a millennia as a tool to study modern sciences. | ||
| While Jigme Gyaltsen managed to run his school for years solely through soliciting private and government funding, running costs kept increasing so rapidly that it became almost impossible for him to keep up with the growing need. As a funder, Trace Foundation had supported a number of projects: training in teaching methodology, building classrooms and a student kitchen, providing library books and paying teacher and staff salaries. With costs continuing to rise, it became clear to both Jigme Gyaltsen and Trace Foundation that an alternative solution was needed to ensure sustainability of this educational and cultural initiative and reduce dependence on external donors. | ||
| This need resulted in a collaboration between Jigme Gyaltsen and Trace Foundation to find a viable income generation activity that could sustain the school and also benefit the nomadic families of the area. These families rely upon the yak, known to Tibetans as the “treasure of the plateau”, an animal that has sustained nomadic life for centuries. Perhaps the yak held the answer. Yaks provide shelter with their hides, ropes and clothes with their wool, meat, milk and butter for year-round sustenance and dried dung for fuel. The milk of the female yak, the dri, can be drunk fresh, but can also be made into yogurt. First boiled, then pressed, the whey is used to make ‘chura’ a traditional type of hard cheese that is set out in the sun to dry. The traditional breakfast of Golok herdsmen consists of a little tsampa, or roasted barley, milk-tea and chura, all warmed together to make a rough porridge. |
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| Producing and bringing yak cheese to market as a product could benefit nomads in this remote region in a manner which would be a logical extension of their traditional way of life. Yak cheese, produced from the milk of the dri, woulduse two of the most precious renewable resources of the nomadic population: milk and the pristine environment in which they live. Extending traditional methods and techniques by making a new kind of cheese, would enrich the nomads’ unique way of life, in which dairy production already plays an important role. Income made through the sale of the cheese could support the school. | ||
| The Tibetan Cheese Project came to life in 2001 when Jigme Gyaltsen and Trace Foundation cooperated to build a small cheese factory one-and-a-half hours drive from Ragya Monastery. The factory lies at the junction of three magnificent valleys where Tibetan herders bring their animals for summer pasture. There, the yak forage on more than sixty indigenous species of wildflowers and grasses, and produce fragrant milk that has twice the fat of cow's milk. | ||
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It took long summers of work on the plateau for Jigme Gyaltsen and Trace Foundation to convince the nomads that selling milk directly to the cheese factory could dramatically increase their incomes. Almost none of the fresh products they make, such as yogurt, milk or butter, could be transported in time even to the local market, a long horse ride away from where they live. Much of the milk they produced would spoil before it could be sold. It took trial and error, and firm dedication to the idea of using traditional, local yak dairy products, before entrepreneur Jigme Gyaltsen and Trace Foundation joined with Slow Food to form the Tibetan Plateau Yak Cheese Presidium. Established in 2004, the Presidium is an economic development project designed to improve the quality of Ragya Yak Cheese and establish market-viable systems for international distribution. Two summers with master cheese makers from Italy and Switzerland enabled local cheese makers to incorporate techniques to produce a hard mountain cheese with an aroma reminiscent of an aged pecorino and a clean flavor that finishes with mild herbal and grassy notes. The Presidium now works with 35 yak herders and a dozen cheese makers on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau to identify ways in which their local products can be made into sustainable sources of income. |
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| In employing their new livelihood to sustain their way of life, the sale of milk has the added benefit of increasing the productivity and value of yak herds. Beginning in 2006, Trace Foundation began providing training in milk hygiene, herd management and common disease recognition to families who live the three valleys adjoining the cheese factory. In turn, the nomadic families, whose children study at the school, provide milk and other support for the school. | ||
| Throughout the process of developing yak cheese for market, Jigme Gyaltsen was working on another important idea, one he considered his duty as an educator. The monastery where the Jigme Gyaltsen Welfare School is located could only provide training to boys, so Jigme Gyaltsen dreamed of creating a companion school for girls to be built at the foot of a beautiful holy mountain in Jungu County. In 2003, Trace Foundation donated the necessary funds to an Italian INGO to build the school which opened its doors to 90 girls in October 2005. | ||
| It is the hope of the nomads, Jigme Gyaltsen, and Trace Foundation that the nomads’ traditional way of life can be maintained as long as possible despite modern pressure for them to settle in one location and to fence their herds. The Jigme Gyaltsen Welfare School makes education a reality for many who could only dream of having such an opportunity. The Ragya Cheese Factory serves a prime example of how a scattered community can sell a sustainable product while maintaining its traditions and avoiding exploitation by external markets. Both projects, well-grounded with support of the local community, will serve to reinforce the value of the nomadic way of life and Tibetan traditions for year to come. | ||
A rich library of photos and video is available on the Presidio and the Tibetan cheese project.
For more information on Trace Foundation please visit our website: For more information on Slow Food, please visit
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