Tibetan yogurt

Foreign tourists are sharing yogurt during Shoton Festival

With the impending Shoton Festival, southwestern China's Tibet Autonomous Region witnesses another peak tourism season. Shoton Festival is also known as Yogurt (Banquet) Festival as locals customarily eat Tibetan yogurt during the gala.

In order to ensure a safe yogurt supply, East end sub-bureau personnel of the Lhasa Industrial and Commercial Administrative carried out a safety inspection of dairy products in Lhasa on August 19, 2011.

It has been confirmed that there is no quality problems of yogurt during the one-day inspection.

Yogurt packed in paper carton has only 21-day shelf life. The expired yogurt would be thrown away or be changed by suppliers, according to one yogurt wholesaler in Lhasa.

Tips for people buying safe yogurt: choose yogurt brand with a good reputation and make sure the product have logo, manufacturer name, address, date, shelf life, storage conditions, and so on.

Shoton Festival is one of the grandest traditional festivals in Tibet. "Sho" means yoghurt and "ton" means banquet in the Tibetan language. Shoton Festival or Yoghurt Festival is one of the most popular holidays in Tibetan Buddhism, conventionally celebrated in the sixth month of the Tibetan calendar.

This year, Lhasa will celebrate the festival with a series of "happy Lhasa, colorful Shoton" themed activities from August to September.

Officers are checking dairy products at a store in Lhasa