Momos[a] are a type of steamed filled dumpling in Tibetan[1] and Nepali cuisine[2] that is also popular in neighbouring Bhutan, Bangladesh, and India.

The word mo (馍) itself means wheat flour food products or mantou (馒头), steamed buns.

[8] Historically, Chinese names for steamed buns did not distinguish between those with or without fillings until the term baozi (包子) emerged during the Song Dynasty between the tenth and thirteenth century.

[16] Some argue that momos were introduced in Tibet by a Nepalese Newari princess who was married to a Tibetan king in the late fifteenth century.

After arriving in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, the meat was more often chicken, and mixed vegetable momos were introduced to feed the large population of vegetarian Hindus.

[3] Unproven, but substantiated by the dates and references to momos in colloquial references, the civil war in Nepal pushed out the Nepali diaspora to seek a livelihood in India, which further increased the prevalence of Himalayan style momos in the southern half of India especially in the cities of Chennai and Bangalore.

The earliest Tibetan dumplings were made of highland barley flour as the outer covering, and beef and mutton as the stuffing.

The dumplings are then cooked by steaming over a soup (either a stock based on bones or vegetables) in a momo-making utensil called mucktoo.