Food and drink in Tibet are much related to climate, local products, religion and folk customs. Butter tea, barley flour, sweet tea, beef, mutton, barley, pea, horse bean, potato, round root, white lotus are all traditional food. The butter tea is the most common drink in Tibet. The butter tea is made of brick tea with butter and salt being mixed together, which is quality tea for receiving guests. Tibetans like to drink barley beer very much, which is made of barley and tastes a bit sour. The barley beer can be always used in all kinds of happy occasions.

The main traditional food in Tibet is firstly offered in barley flour that is fried flour. It is enjoyed eating with a proper amount of butter and sugar stirred together. Tibetans often bring barley flour with them in small leather bags while they go out or do some business, then they may catch to eat in hand at any time. Besides this, the Tibetan noodles, breads, cakes, all have a special taste.

Tibet is rich in beef and mutton. They are not only used as main food but also as the non-staple food. The herdsmen like to eat a big piece of mutton cut by the hand, but the people in Lhasa specially pay attention to fried dishes in shallow oil. Every year in winter, Tibetans cut raw beef and mutton into slices and hang them up outside their houses and make them dry in cool air.

Tibetan food has its own cuisine. There are more than 48 dishes in the noble banquet; Tibetans avoid dog and donkey meat. They don't eat fish, but some of them have changed now. In recent years, with the development of transportation, the foods on the Tibetans table are getting richer day by day. All kind of fruits, wines and fresh vegetables can be found everywhere.

Tibet is vast in territory and rich in variety of products, exquisite of traditional craftsmanship and many local specialities. Some of them are exported to many foreign countries: for instance, carpets of Gyantse, aprons of Gongkar, the tweeds of Dranang, religious articles made of gold and copper from Chamdo, Tibetan knives of Lhatse, jade wares of Rinpung, wooden bowls from the Himalayas, etc. A lot of Chinese medicines produced in Tibet are deer musk, caterpiller fungus, bulb of fritillary, rhizome of Chinese goldthread, snow lotus flower, tube of elevated gastrodia.

The Tibetan calendar, a kind of almanac created by Tibetans has a history of 1,300 years. The Tibetan calendar is mixed with the calendar of Yin and Yang, which is divided one year into four seasons: winter, spring, summer and autumn. The first month of the twelve is Yin (correspondent to March). The big months alternate with the small months. After every two or three years an intercalary month is added to regulate the seasons. It is quite different between the intercalary time and agricultural calendar. Due to being influenced by the Han calendar, the heavenly stems have always designed the Tibetan calendar and Earthly branches as annuals. Its difference is used the Five Elements to go instead of ten Heavenly stems. Jia yi (the first and the second of the ten heavenly stems) is symbolized of wood. Bing din (the third and the fourth) is symbolized of fire. Mao ji (the fifth and the sixth) is symbolized of earth. Geng xin (the seventh and the eighth) is symbolized of gold. Ren kui (the ninth and the tenth) is symbolized of water. Any of the twelve animals goes instead of the twelve Earthly branches such as Zhi is symbolized of the rat. Chou is symbolized of oxen and so on. For instance, Jia zhi year in lunar calendar is called the year of fire tiger in Tibetan calendar. A cycle of sixty years is called “Rabchung”in Tibetan calendar, which is similar in content to “the sixty year-old” in the hinterland of China.