Traditional Knowledge of Wild Food Plants in a Few Tibetan Communities Alessandro Boesi
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Boesi Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2014, 10:75 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/10/1/75 JOURNAL OF ETHNOBIOLOGY AND ETHNOMEDICINE RESEARCH Open Access Traditional knowledge of wild food plants in a few Tibetan communities Alessandro Boesi Abstract Background: This paper aims to present the author’s field research data on wild food plant use in Tibetan regions. It provides a general perspective on their significance in past and present Tibet, and examines the concept of wild edible plants as medicinal plants. The fieldwork was conducted in Dhorpatan (Nepal, May-August 1998), Lithang town and surroundings (Sichuan, China, April-September 1999, May-August 2000); Southern Mustang District (Nepal, July-August 2001); and Sapi (Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, India, July 1995, August 2005). Methods: The research was conducted with 176 informants. The methodology included ethnographic research techniques: participant observation, open-ended conversations, semi-structured interviews, and studies of Tibetan medical texts. The author worked in the field with Tibetan colloquial and written language. Results: The 75 total wild food plants and mushrooms belong to 36 genera and 60 species. 44 specimens are used as vegetables, 10 as spices\condiments, 15 as fruits, 3 as ferments to prepare yoghurt and beer, 5 as substitutes for tsampa (roasted barley flour, the traditional staple food of Tibetan people), 4 as substitutes for tea, and 3 to prepare other beverages. Data from Lithang, which are more representative, show that among 30 wild food plant species exploited, 21 are consumed as vegetables, 5 as spices, 4 as fruits, 3 represent substitutes for roasted barley flour, 2 substitutes for tea, and 1 is used as fermentation agent. Conclusion: Tibetans have traditionally exploited few wild food plants. These mainly compensate for the lack of vegetables and fruit in traditional Tibetan diet, notably among pastoralists, and are far more important during faminesassubstitutesforroastedbarleyflour.Todayfew wild food plants are regularly consumed, less in the main towns and villages and moreso in remote areas and among pastoralists. Younger generations from towns have almost lost traditional botanical knowledge. Owing to modernisation and globalisation processes, many local people have specialised in collecting natural products increasingly demanded in China and abroad. Tibetan people strongly benefit from these activities. Tibetan medicine sees diet as a way of curing diseases and medical treatises describe therapeutic properties of several wild food plants that Tibetans nowadays consume. Keywords: Wild edible plants, Traditional knowledge, Tibet Background and by the important role of the religious system of Introduction Tibetan Buddhism. Politically, according to one’sideo- Tibetan peoples traditionally live over a vast area located logical standpoint or historical frame of reference, Tibet in central Asia almost corresponding to the land mass may be a particular administrative unit of the contempor- occupied by the Tibetan plateau. As Kapstein [1] states: ary People’s Republic of China, the Tibet Autonomous “In its socio-economic dimensions Tibet may be thought Region, or else the much vaster territory…” inhabited of in terms of its dominant forms of production: high- by Tibetan cultural people, including other Chinese ad- altitude pastoralism and a barley-based agriculture. Cultur- ministrative units (Northern Yunnan, Western Sichuan, ally Tibet is distinguished by the use of classical Tibetan as Western Gansu, and Qinghai Provinces), and regions lo- a literary medium, by shared artistic and craft traditions, cated in the western portion of the Tibetan plateau and astride the Himalayan Range, which nowadays belong to Correspondence: [email protected] India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Via Luigi Zoja 1, 20153 Milan, Italy © 2014 Boesi; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. Boesi Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2014, 10:75 Page 2 of 19 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/10/1/75 Up to the 1950s, when the Chinese Liberation Army with flowers. People place on altars in houses and temples occupied it, Tibet has remained almost isolated - both flowers collected in the wild. Greatly appreciated for their culturally and politically - from the civilizations that beauty and fragrance as offerings to divinities, plants are flourished in the surrounding countries. Also the other also used in religious ceremonies. Tibetan medical texts regions belonging to the Tibetan world and not included describe the miraculous creation of certain plants through in today’s Tibetan areas within the PRC have remained the intervention of divinities and religious personages [7]. for a long time without any significant influence from And, last but not least, wild plants have been collected to the external world and only in the last few decades have be consumed as food, the subject matter of this article. started to be part of modernisation and globalisation Travel accounts dated to pre-modern Tibetan regions processes. This isolation allowed Tibetan traditional cul- [8-12], research data [13-18], and the author’s fieldwork ture to be preserved to foreign influences, and notably data [2,6,19], show that in some Tibetan activities the from western influence imposed by colonial powers in use of wild plants is less important today than it was in many Asian countries in the past centuries, except for the past whereas in others it is more important now. the Younghusband Expedition into Tibet in 1904. Actually in the past few decades the gathering and trading Since the Tibetan plateau was first inhabited by humans of natural substances has even become a crucial activity some 6,000-7,000 years ago, as a variety of research sug- for the economy of whole towns and villages. gests [1], context-specific knowledge of local environment Political, social, economic, and cultural transforma- has developed, concerning for example climate, soil fea- tions occurring in Chinese Tibetan regions since the tures, wild animals, vegetation, plant qualities and use. 1950s have changed Tibetan people’s way of life. Various This expertise originated from the constant relationship modern products coming from adjacent and distant re- between humans, plants, animals, and natural phenom- gions can be easily purchased in most Tibetan towns ena, and also from religious concepts both autochthonous and villages, among them tools and items that in pre- and imported from foreign lands, particularly India [2,3], modern Tibet people themselves used to manufacture from the 7th century onwards, when Tibetan civilization with materials taken from the natural environment. This as we know it now started to develop. trend occurs also outside China in Indian and Nepalese The Chinese takeover of Tibet gave way to tremen- areas inhabited by Tibetan populations. dous political, economic, and cultural transformations Modernisation processes, notably road improvement, that significantly changed the life of local people. The result in natural products being transported quickly continued socio-political and economic instability and from remote areas to trading points. So several wild constraint, and, particularly in the last few decades, the plant and mushroom species having economic value as effects of the globalized market system have been affect- medicine and food, and the demand of which is growing ing Tibetan traditional knowledge of the natural world, in regional, national, and international markets, have been and have significantly changed the extent and ways of its increasingly collected in the last few decades. The reve- exploitation. For example during the Cultural Revolution nues from this business nowadays represent an important the intent of revolutionary activity in Tibet was essen- percentage of the total annual income for several Tibetan tially to “destroy the social and cultural fabric of Tibet’s communities. The collection and trade of the well-known traditional way of life” [4], and Tibetan traditional medi- yartsa gunbu (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) is the best example cine with its knowledge about medicinal plants was de- of this phenomenon [17-20]. fined as one of the “four olds”: old ideas, culture, customs, and habits. Tibetan doctors were forbidden to practise Aims of the article medicine and large numbers of medical treatises were This article aims at presenting the field research data on destroyed [5]. the use of wild food plants, which the author collected in several Tibetan cultural regions, and at trying to pro- Interactions between people and wild plants in the vide a general perspective on their significance in Tibetan Tibetan world past and present life and culture. The issues related to the Wild plants have always represented an important resource use of wild food plants in the local diet as vegetables, for Tibetan populations [6], notably for cattle breeding, fruits, spices, in the preparation of beverages, as agents in house construction, tool manufacture, as a source of fuel fermentation processes, are addressed, and wild food (mainly