Chhurpi: The World’s Hardest Himalayan Cheese

High above the village of Parvathy Kund, at an altitude of 4,000m a chhurpi maker from the nearby village of Gatlang named Pasang Darche Tamang patiently churned chauri milk in a makeshift tent perched at the end of a precipice. Fog rolled into the tent’s opening from the green valley below as relentless rain pelted its blue canvas. Smoke from the wooden fire filled the tent, where dried pieces of meat hung over the boiling milk cauldron to extend its shelf life in the harsh, Himalayan altitudes. He had been turning the handle of the machine that separates milk from cream without a break for more than three hours.

“It needs strength,” Tamang said. “Without force, the machine won’t even turn.” Every morning, Tamang wakes up at 04:00 to start milking his 25 chauris to make chhurpi. Several yak herders from nearby pastures visit Tamang’s tent to deposit fresh milk from their own chauris throughout the day. Including the milk from his herd, Tamang collects more than 300 litres per day, which has to be turned into chhurpi immediately before it goes bad.

Living on the roof of the world with limited trade opportunities and arable land, animal husbandry has been the mainstay of many Himalayan communities for centuries. According to Mukta Singh Lama Tamang (no relation to Pasang), an anthropologist at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, dairy has been an inextricable part of Himalayan culture and livelihood throughout history. Mukta says chhurpi was concocted thousands of years ago out of the need to do something productive with the extra milk that can’t be consumed or sold anymore. One of the unique features of chhurpi is that it has a very low moisture content. This makes it very hard to bite into, but it also helps the cheese stay edible for months, or even years, when fermented for six to 12 months, dried and stored properly in animal skin. In the remote Himalayan highlands, this has made chhurpi particularly desirable, as yak herders have been able to rely on it during long journeys, as well as transport and sell it at markets. Since both fermentation and dehydration extends a food’s shelf life, chhurpi is particularly well suited to high altitudes where there are few fresh supplies and other protein-rich foods. Soft chhurpi, before it is smoked and dried, is often used in curries, soups and pickled along with cucumber and radish, while the hard variety is chewed by itself as a snack.
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