by Tenzin Diki

ངའི་ཞིམ་པའི་བོད་ཟས།

Tsampa: my customary food, both salty and sweet.
Prepared with bare hands.
Roasted barley flour,
Yak butter, Chura ཆུར་ར་ cheese and churning salted tea.

Sacred ingredients of a wealthy food culture.
We should all savor

Tsampa རྩམ་པ་

offering to the Lord Buddha
treatment of illness
everything for a Tibetan.

Tenzin Diki is a freshman at LaGuardia Community College, currently majoring in Biology. She was born in the Tibetan refugee settlement in India, immigrated to the United States in 2017, and attended Newtown High School in Elmhurst, New York. This is her first-ever writing to get accepted for publication.