The laphing maker- A story worth told.

Delhi, the city of rallies, the capital city of India, known to people not only for its political importance in the country but also the culinary thrills it upholds.

The city has endless options from fine dining to street foods. There are areas with impeccable cuisines and culinary expertise but one place that has always intrigued my interest is Majnu ka Tila.

This is a place, if i describe ,as you step in, you find yourself standing in the middle of an Asian chaos. The entrance begins with a narrow lane under a bridge over the main road. on your way inside you find many grocery shops that sell imported goods like spicy Korean noodles and candies or if you are an anime fan, then i should ignite your excitement too by telling you that it might be the perfect place for you to buy merchandise and idols of your favorite characters as well. As you go deeper, you will begin from The Buddhist monastery and end with tasting culinary expertise where the Tibetan culture and Asian food, from the incredible kitchens of this place leave you craving for more.From Korean to Japanese or Chinese cuisine based restaurants, it is a hub for all sorts of Asian cuisines, dominantly, cuisines from Nepal and Tibet. There are dining restaurants and other cafes as well which may serve fast foods like pizzas, burgers and sandwiches. Inside there are other vendors, who sell roasted buff on sate sticks, or chicken momos.

But yet, there is one dish, this place is quite popular for- Laphing.

You must be wondering what kind of a dish is Laphing?

So basically, this dish has multiple parts that begin with a 'crepe'. The crepe is yellow in color and round in shape. The process starts by kneading a dough of refined flour. The dough is then washed in water and the gluten is removed. The liquid batter which is then formed, is used to make thin sheets which are cooked by steaming on a covered flat pan. The crepes are layered with garlic water and chilly paste and finished by rolling soyabean chunks and 'Wai Wai' in between, cut into smaller pieces and served cold. While Wai Wai is a brand from Thailand for instant noodles, it is used in its uncooked and dried form.

In 2023, I traveled to New Delhi for a work based trip where I was sharing an apartment with five other girls whom I met for the very first time. We were all in our separated rooms when someone suddenly knocked my door, I opened, it was a fair and bright looking young lady. She asked me 'Are you hungry, have you had laphing before?', I will not lie about how i stared at her face for a second and how i agreed in an instant. We quickly changed our clothes and by 6:30pm we were out on the road. Ever since that day, Majnu ka Tila has been my 'my go to place' in New Delhi. Whenever I visit the capital city I make sure to have laphing before I travel back.

But all this time i never thought how much effort it took to cook this mouth watering appetizer before being sold. But this year, it was different, in the beginning of march 2025 I travelled to Delhi again, this time there was a different Tibetan lady selling laphing at the constant spot where I go. While she was making a portion for me, I noticing her seemingly tired and sleepy, it was 7:30pm at that time. i casually asked her if she felt tired because it seemed so. That is when the sweet lady told me ' yes, i am a little tired, since I slept at 3am and I had to wake up at 6am' . When I asked her why she slept so late and woke up so early, She began telling me that when she goes home, she has to start preparing for the next day, it takes her around 6 hours to make only 300 sheets of crepes for Laphing and takes a whole lot of effort. she also has 2 children whom she has to take care of and hence she has to wake up as early as 6am every morning to feed them and send them to school, complete her household chores and land back at Tila selling laphing for the sake of her and her sweet family's livelihood.

I feel that I have brought you to a point where you must be trying to figure out, how did a bunch of Tibetans end up with their entire settlement in Delhi, leaving their beautiful country ending up working day and night for their survival while still keeping their roots alive? To answer this question that must have struck you somewhere or sometime while reading this article, I will have to take you around the history of this place and the people who live here.

India has provided shelter and aid for refugees from neighboring countries for long, which also includes Tibetans. India has been providing them shelter since the past 60 years when the Tibetan uprising faced its downfall and their leader, Dalai lama fled to India. Tibet and India have ben sharing relations in India since the spread of Buddhism from India to Tibet during the 6th century A.D.

After the failure of the 1950 uprising Tibetans in exile have ben given asylum in India. The Indian government accommodated them into 45 residential settlements across 10 states in that country that created the Tibetan diaspora.

Majnu ka Tila is a colony in New Delhi which was created in 1950. It is officially known as New Aruna Nagar, Chung Town or Samye Ling. History says, the area was named after an Iranian Sufi mystic Abdullah who went by the name Majnu, who met shri Guru Nanak Dev, the first guru in Sikhism. Majnu used to ferry people across the river for free as a service to God and this impressed the guru mightily and he stayed there for a longer period of a month. Hence the area came to be known as Majnu ka Tila which means Majnu's hill.

In 1959-60, a small Tibetan refugee camp was put up across the road on the Yamuna river bed was allotted to them and now it is the home for the second generation of Tibet refugees. .

Coming from a culinary background, it is my constant believe that everything that tastes good, requires a whole lot of attention, dedication and hard work. These women and people of this community not only prove how necessary it becomes to follow the path of discipline in order to survive but also how the fruits of hard work can make everything worthwhile. No wonder the amount of struggle this community must have faced while securing a livelihood, but they have learned and shown to the world that happiness can also be found in little things or moments in life like with every other bite of Laphing!

"A disciplined mind leads to happiness, and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering." - Dalai Lama