When you travel in Bhutan, you will find road side stops selling fruits, nuts and vegetables. You will also find bundles, like bouquets of white cubes tied together with strings.
These are cheese known in Zhongkha, the Bhutanese national language as chugo. (Nepal and Tibet have the same cheese known as chhurpi.)
Chugo is made from yak milk.
Yaks are suited for high altitude grazing of the Himalayas. (Chugo can also be made from cow milk but yak milk is considered the best for higher fat content and more flavour.)
Traditionally, yak milk is churned in a leather bag to make butter.
The buttermilk (skimmed milk added with fermented milk) is slow boiled for curd to form. The curd is sieved out and compacted between heavy slabs of rock to make blocks of cheese curd.
The cheese curd block is then cut into squares which are then stringed together (traditionally with yak yarn).
The bouquets of stringed cheese are aged by air drying in dry cold mountain air or smoked.
Besides street side stalls, bouquets of chugo are sold in general shops (what we call provision shops in Singapore and Malaysia).
Hanging from the roof, the strings of orange hued smoked cheese reminds me of fire crackers.
Air dried cheese (non smoked) looked yellowish / milky or white / grey.
Chugo are stone hard and can last hours of sucking and nibbling in the mouth.
Chugo tastes and smells salty and dairy sweet with a slight gaminess. Needs some getting used to for the uninitiated but I love it right away (as I was already a fan of goat cheese before trying yak cheese).
Chugo can last for months (or years) without going bad, so it is perfect for travelling in the Himalayas. It is rich in protein, and probiotics, so it is an important staple in Bhutanese lifestyle. Chugo is so valuable that it was used as currency in the past.
Written by Tony Boey on 18 Dec 2025
Who is Tony Johor Kaki?
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