Chhurpi – the Himalayan cheese as referred to in a range of languages like Nepali, Pahari, Tibetan and Bhutia – signifies food sovereignty for the highland communities of this region. The exceptionally hard chhurpi has long been ubiquitous in cold-arid, alpine and temperate terrain with bare-bones infrastructure and a minimal ecological footprint, situating this foodstuff at a unique intersection of food culture, environmental stewardship and local resilience across the Himalayas. Production of the cheese is an ecologically adaptive response among highland pastoral and nomadic communities who graze yaks, cattle, sheep and goats across highland pastures and passes.

Their physically demanding lifestyle among rugged mountains requires these communities to have reliable sources of locally produced protein. Chhurpi solves the problem of storing milk and of transporting it long distances, and over time the highland communities have adapted their palate to consume milk in this form (Lal and Lepcha 2024). Traditionally, hard chhurpi was a trusted travel companion, serving as an energy-rich snack for nomads, pastoralists and traders during their highland traverses.

As nation-state borders are becoming hardened, traditional hard chhurpi is getting softer. Securitized borders make it difficult for communities to access many high- altitude pastures, leading to scores of people resettling in the lower valleys with better connectivity. Thus, they do not necessarily produce or require hard chhurpi to be carried around and stored easily. The hard bordering practices of nation-states across the high Himalayas resemble the hard-textured yak-milk chhurpi traditionally consumed in these higher reaches. Yet these highland communities are being dispersed to lower altitudes due to the intensification of securitized bordering effects. Now they must navigate, negotiate and chew on these hardened border realities.

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Contact the authors: Uttam Lal | Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman

First published by Roadsides Journal.