Timely cover feature in Outpost magazine as I head back up and into Nepal’s Himalayas and their tales and characters, their struggles, and stunning bits of magic. The shepherd I’m chatting with on the cover, spoke more clearly about the “changing weather” question, with less of an agenda, and more common sense than most mortals with a shirt on that I’ve encountered within the urban worlds. I’ve long wondered when it is that we will actively encourage and invite these characters and their tales (from ground zero) into the greater narrative of policy making for a future. Earth needs their old interconnected wisdom and empathy.
The above shepherd didn’t need time to think about answers. He spoke simply about lands he has trudged since childhood. Once again, it wasn’t so much change itself that he found startling; it was the speed of change. He spoke of his goats as clever and stubborn creatures that were his lifeblood. He spoke too of the need for beliefs to explain and rationalize why the “skies had changed”.
Mountains have long offered up guarded sanctuaries of beauty (if that is one’s thing) and they have also offered up knowledge basins and characters who remember common sense remedies and lifestyles that (if not always ideal) are still connected to something ‘connected’. Whether it be with climate, relationships, or simply the concept of sustainability (which ties in more to standard living than a separate concept for them).
Always a bow of the head and a smile as I return to the ‘hills’ and their lessons from the out and the within. As always, I have a tea cake stashed away for the always and all the time sessions while in the ‘beautiful ups’.
The He Kai cake that will feed and fuel. One of the old stand-byes for travel.
About JeffFuchs
Bio
Having lived for most of the past decade in Asia, Fuchs’ work has centered on indigenous mountain cultures, oral histories with an obsessive interest in tea. His photos and stories have appeared on three continents in award-winning publications Kyoto Journal, TRVL, and Outpost Magazine, as well as The Spanish Expedition Society, The Earth, Silkroad Foundation, The China Post Newspaper, The Toronto Star, The South China Morning Post and Traveler amongst others. Various pieces of his work are part of private collections in Europe, North America and Asia and he serves as the Asian Editor at Large for Canada’s award-winning Outpost magazine.
Fuchs is the Wild China Explorer of the Year for 2011 for sustainable exploration of the Himalayan Trade Routes. He recently completed a month long expedition a previously undocumented ancient nomadic salt route at 4,000 metres becoming the first westerner to travel the Tsa’lam ‘salt road’ through Qinghai.
Fuchs has written on indigenous perspectives for UNESCO, and has having consulted for National Geographic. Fuchs is a member of the fabled Explorers Club, which supports sustainable exploration and research.
Jeff has worked with schools and universities, giving talks on both the importance of oral traditions, tea and mountain cultures. He has spoken to the prestigious Spanish Geographic Society in Madrid on culture and trade through the Himalayas and his sold out talk at the Museum of Nature in Canada focused on the enduring importance of oral narratives and the Himalayan trade routes.
His recently released book ‘The Ancient Tea Horse Road’ (Penguin-Viking Publishers) details his 8-month groundbreaking journey traveling and chronicling one of the world’s great trade routes, The Tea Horse Road. Fuchs is the first westerner to have completed the entire route stretching almost six thousand kilometers through the Himalayas a dozen cultures.
He makes his home in ‘Shangrila’, northwestern Yunnan upon the eastern extension of the Himalayan range where tea and mountains abound; and where he leads expeditions the award winning ‘Tea Horse Road Journey’ with Wild China along portions of the Ancient Tea Horse Road.
To keep fueled up for life Fuchs co-founded JalamTeas which keeps him deep in the green while high in the hills.
