[Tibetan.] An article of food made from barley-meal, extensively used in Tibet and adjacent parts.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Tsamba, a Tartar [properly Tibetan] name for the meal of barley.
1891. W. W. Rockhill, Land of Lamas, iii. 129. They cultivate the soil sufficiently to raise what barley is needed to make tsamba.
1908. Athenæum, 13 June, 721/3. The native food … in the Tibetan districts tsamba (barley meal mixed with yak butter). was plain and uninviting.
1909. Bible in the World, Sept., 268/2. After tea and tsamba I retired to the roof.
