Yak butter

[1][2] It is a staple food product and trade item for herder communities in south Central Asia and the Tibetan Plateau.

[3] Yaks provide their herders with many different benefits, including dung for fuel, draught power, meat, fiber, and milk.

Not all herding communities have a tradition of using yak's milk or making butter, although in regions of mountain pastures the practice is common.

[5] Fresh yak butter is preserved a number of ways, and can last for up to a year when unexposed to air and stored in cool dry conditions.

[1] Melted yak butter may be mixed, in roughly equal proportions, with roasted barley flour (tsampa).

[7] Other non-food uses include fueling yak-butter lamps,[8] moisturizing skin,[1] and the traditional butter sculptures for Tibetan New Year.

Yak butter for sale in Lhasa street market
Fat Composition of Yak Butter (from Composition, quality and consumption of yak milk in Mongolia) [ 4 ]
Butter churn, displayed with Tibetan kitchen items at the Field Museum. Note the strap for carrying it and its small size, adaptations to nomadic use.
Yak butter market in the Tromzikhang , Lhasa (1993).