A taste of Tibetan food in Beijing

Founded by Tsethang Wangchen in 1997, Makye Ame now has four branches in China: two in Beijing, one is on the famous Barkor Street of Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, and one in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province. It has made to be a leading chain Tibetan food enterprise to open restaurants in the inland market.

The prestige of Makye Ame can be attributed to not only its tasty food but also the underlying culture elements, including a love song of the same name and a related romantic story.

One night about hundreds of years ago, a man was having food at a Tibetan restaurant on the southeastern corner of Barkor Street, while it so happened that a pure and pretty girl came in, too, whose beautiful look and quiet temperament left a deep impression on the man.

From then on, he often came to the restaurant, looking forward to meeting the girl again. But, the pity is that the girl never reappeared. Then the man wrote a poem to reminisce the girl and to express his affection.

The poem was named Makye Ame, meaning "a pure young girl" in Tibetan language. And the man's name is Tsangyang Gyatso, who is better known as the 6th Dalai Lama and a famous Tibetan poet.

Photo shows the Tibetan styled metal highland barley wine goblet, which is decorated with four of the eight auspicious symbols of Tibetan Buddhism: Precious Parasol, Goldfishes, Treasure Vase, Lotus, Dharma Wheel, Knot of Eternity, Victory Banner and White Conch. [Photo/China Tibet Online]