Natural Roots

Tamu Lhosar: Today, Lhosar is being celebrated by the many Tamu people across the country and within the diaspora community worldwide. According to the Tamu calendar, today marks the beginning of a new year and a shift in the annual lho.

In the towns and cities, a festive gathering is organised with food stalls and musical programmes, to which everyone is welcome. Historically, there was also the practice among the Tamu people to go for a forest picnic called स्योकै (shyo kain) in Tamu language. Many Tamu also refer to this as स्योकै खाने. At this time, people go to the forest and harvest yams and taro, which they enjoy with their families and neighbours.

Pictures of wild yam harvest in Gorkha.

🌿🍲 Foraged food of bamboo shoots (tusa) are still available for a few more weeks. In Lamjung, indigenous women make a Tusa ko Tarkari - a flavorful curry with fresh bamboo shoots and protein rich soybeans (bhatmaas).

If you want to try this recipe, it is available on our indigenous food traditions series on Nepal Food Archives (YouTube).

🐝🪵 While at the National Museum in Nairobi we were fortunate to visit a special exhibition on honey bees and beekeeping in Kenya. As part of a beekeeping equipment, a log of wood was featured in the display, which we found very intriguing. In Amboseli, a Maasai land near Mount Kilimanjaro, we were actually able to see how these types of logs are actually used, hanging high up in the Umbrella thorn Acacia tree. So amazing to see this traditional practice still being maintained in the Maasai community!