Phulbari Street

Phulbari in Boudha’s Tibetan quarter is filled with small eateries: Tibetan noodles and other food are prepared here right by the street. Among the usual treats is white Laphing, a cold sheet of starch cut into pieces and mixed with a sour, garlicky, spicy dressing. People eat on the go at low tables, while the smell of cooking drifts from open doors along with the voices of customers.

CD Laphing Center is still open on Phulbari. Its name promises both food and compact discs, although compact discs have not been sold here for a long time. They were displaced by a dish that the owner first set out on a single table outside the shop.

Sonam Tenzing Lama is the son of a Tibetan refugee who needed to establish her family anew in Nepal. She came here with her parents around nineteen fifty-nine. Sonam was born in Kathmandu, lived in Tibet for a time, and returned after his mother died. He went specifically to Boudha because he had heard that the local monasteries gave refugees shelter and food. Sonam wanted to become a monk, but he was only given paid work at a monastery. There, during a major ritual, he met a woman who also worked at the monastery. They married, left the monastery, and rented a room with their savings.

His wife found work as a housemaid. Sonam traveled to trade in Tatopani and other towns, but he could not earn any money. An elderly Tibetan couple from Tushal, where he regularly ate yellow Laphing, suggested a way out: cold sheets of starch, cut up and dressed with vinegar, garlic water, soy sauce, and chili paste. Sonam became friends with the owners and decided to sell his own white Laphing.

In two thousand three, he opened a compact-disc rental shop on Phulbari. Laphing occupied a table and chair in front of the entrance and at first remained a side income. Then the internet came to homes. Compact discs were rented less and less often, while more and more people came to the table for food. Sonam removed the rental shop and gave the entire space to Laphing.

At first, almost all his customers were Tibetans. Then local boys began bringing their school friends, who returned with their own groups, and other traders saw the demand and began opening Laphing places all over Boudha. This is how Phulbari became a street of small eateries, where people come for Tibetan noodles and dishes prepared right there.

Later, Sonam said that the family never did buy a house or a car, but the income was enough to feed and educate two daughters and three sons. Two letters from the vanished rental shop remain on the sign of his establishment: “CD.” They are now followed by the word “Laphing.”