Welcome to Nubri, where everyone knows how to distill alcohol

Source: French to English Tester   Published on: 2026-05-16

Source: The Conversation – in French– By Geoff Childs, Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis

Imagine a place where every household owns all the necessary equipment to distill alcohol, where people toast on almost every occasion, and where your taxes – paid in grains – are directly poured into a communal still.

---

Welcome to Nubri.
Perched in northern Nepal, this valley is home to about 3,000 Buddhist mountaineers of Tibetan origin. Over the past three decades, I have spent a lot of time in NubriTo observe the interaction between demographic trendsand social changes. I was often accompanied by a colleague ethnomusicologist,Mason Brown, who studies local musical traditions. Through extensive fieldwork, we both became enthusiasts of homemade beverages – chang and l’arak – which we learned to brew and distill alongside Jhangchuk Sangmo Thakuri, a resident of Nubri who became a research collaborator.
Other specialists in Tibetan and Himalayan societies have emphasized the importance of chang in rituals and as a social catalyst. In Nubri, where the population is mostly of Tibetan origin, we havediscovered by ourselves the essential rolethat these two drinks played a role in maintaining local rituals, the economy, and the development of social relationships.
The basics of manufacturing
Thechangeis a fermented and non-carbonated drink made from corn, barley, or rice. A starter culture inherited from the previous batch is added to boiled cereals that are still warm, all enclosed in a container with water. Depending on the temperature and the desired effect, the waiting time varies from a few days to two weeks. The result has an alcohol content between 3% and 6% — the equivalent of a European lager — and is consumed with its sediments, slightly sweet, slightly tangy. Villagers enjoy it fresh, especially during fieldwork.
Thearak, however, requires a distillation of about one hour: the fermented must is heated over an open flame, the steam condenses upon contact with a cold water container, and the clear liquid that drips down reaches 15% to 25% alcohol by volume – stronger than a glass of wine but less than whisky. It is clear and dry, with a flavor and mouthfeel similar to Japanese sake.
In the valley, almost every household – except the poorest – owns its own still. Those who do not have one borrow one from their neighbors when grain supplies allow.
In hell… or towards glory?
The Tibetans drinkchangefor at least thirteen centuries. A legendfrom the 7th centurytells how court officials were sent by an emperor in search of a boy endowed with magical powers. When they met a child and asked him where his parents were, he replied: “My father has gone to look for words. My mother has gone to look for eyes.” The father reappeared with somechange, the mother with fire. Yet, not all Tibetans are drinkers – among them are abstainers and prohibitionists. In the 15th century,the Buddhist lama Ngorchen Kunga Zangpostated: “Since a person (who drinks) has created and accumulated the karma of a madman, their body will eventually deteriorate, and after their death, they will be reborn among the infernal beings of the lower realms of existence.”
The message is of an elegant simplicity: drink and you will go to hell!

Apart from Kunga Zangpo’s warning, intoxicating drinks have long been appreciated in Nubri society. An 18th-century text features Pema Wangdu, a Nubri lama famous for his chants about spiritual realization. It recounts that one day, while seeking advice from a local lama, he had to present an offering; so he went to steal some chang from him while his family members were working in the fields. Pema Wangdu’s main master, Pema Döndrub, also from Nubri, describes a visit to a neighboring valley during which an official asked the local villagers to bring chang to the lama and his entourage. Apparently, they brought more than was needed, because Pema Döndrub replied: “We kept the tasty chang and sent back that which was not to our taste.”

The chang is also often mentioned in thefolk songsfrom Nubri, passed down from generation to generation. In one of them, the singer rejoices in having benefited from multiple strokes of luck: he lives in a civilized country, inhabits a golden room, and owns an elegant foal as well as many sheep. Claiming that his prosperity is deserved, the singer orders his wife: “Don’t even think about giving me less chang!”
A drink for every occasion
Today, the Nubrians prefer arak, which is stronger. During Buddhist rituals, arak gives some participants endurance and a bit of lightheartedness. Others, notably the monks, abstain from it. These drinks are provided through the local temple’s tax system. When a couple establishes a new household, they take on a mandatory loan of about 100 kilos of grain from the village temple. Each following year, they must repay a third of this loan as interest.
Each ritual is associated with a “loan document” specifying what percentage of a household’s annual repayment is used to finance this event. This system guarantees the acquisition of a considerable amount of the harvest so that it can be fermented and then transformed in the temple’s stills.
An associated document entitled “Rules (established by) the monasteries” specifies when, in what quantity, and to whom the arak must be distributed throughout the ritual. Each moment of distribution has a name. There is the “chang of connection” which honors the first auspicious gathering of the participants in the ritual, the “chang of commencement” to mark the beginning of each day, and the “chang of going to bed” for the end of each day.
During an offering to the deities, participants are served the “victory chang,” which expresses the wish that their supplications be granted, and the “good fortune chang,” in anticipation of positive outcomes.

One last anecdote for the road
In May 2023, we left Nubri after completing a long research stay. Dorje Dundul,an old friend, accompanied us to a religious building marking the outer boundary of his village. From the depths of his tunic, he took out a flask filled with arak, dipped the stem of a medicinal plant into it while reciting prayers, then sprinkled droplets to the four corners of the world as an offering to ensure our safe journey.
Then, he handed us the flask, urging us: “Chö, chö” (“Drink, drink”). We each took a long sip of this warming liquid. He then recorked the flask, slipped it into the side pocket of our backpack, and said: “This is lamchang (road beer). Have a good journey.” During the arduous descent to the plains, this parting gift renewed our strength while constantly reminding us of Dorje’s concern for our well-being. “One last drink before leaving” had never tasted so good.
The ethnomusicologist Mason Brownand the Nubri researcher Jhangchuk Sangmo Thakuri contributed to this article.

Geoff Childs received funding from the National Science Foundation.

–ref. Welcome to Nubri, where everyone knows how to distill alcohol –https://theconversation.com/welcome-to-nubri-where-everyone-knows-how-to-distill-alcohol-282617