Khapse

Deep-fried Tibetan festival pastry — wheat flour dough enriched with butter, rolled thin, cut into strips or shaped into elaborate twisted, knotted, or plaited forms, and deep-fried in oil or clarified butter until crisp and pale golden. Made in enormous quantities at the Losar (Tibetan New Year) festival, Bumchu (sacred water festival at Tashiding monastery), and Buddhist ceremonial occasions; the shapes carry symbolic meanings — ear shapes, wheel shapes, and long braids each signifying different auspicious qualities. Not heavily sweetened; the flavour is of butter-fried dough with a light dusting of powdered sugar. Stacked in decorative pyramids as offerings at monastery altars before being distributed to devotees.