Butter Tea Churn
date: label: Accession Date
content: 9 Dec 2019
label: Collection Date
content: 1967
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Mary Slusser
label: Donor Name
content: The Estate of Mary S. Slusser
notes: label: Notes
content: Butter churn, considered a "tea churn". Churn is a cylinder made from long, wooden slats held in a circle by six metal rings, with a long metal rod/dasher inserted inside.
label: Notes
content: This type of churn is used to make butter tea, "Po cha" or "cha süma". The traditional tea base is often Pu-erh tea, which comes in bricks. One method of making butter tea is to boil water and add tea into the water, which is allowed to steep until it turns almost black. The tea is then strained through a colander, to produce a tea concentrate called "chaku". The chaku/concentrate is added to boiling water, and salt is added, and it is put into a wooden butter churn, and a lump of butter (traditionally this is yak butter, from the Dri or female yak) is added (and sometimes milk is also added). This is then churned until the tea reaches the proper consistency. This type of churn is called "mdong mo" in Tibetan or "chandong".
label: Record Last Modified
content: 10 Oct 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Bauddha, Kyirong, Tibet, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tibetan
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2084056
label: USNM Number
content: E436899-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Tea Churn
physicalDescription: label: Length - With Handle
content: 113 cm
label: Diameter - With Handle
content: 14 cm
label: Length - Churn
content: 86.3 cm