It seems fitting that a route that was imbued with both tea and mountains, The Ancient Tea Horse Road , would become a fixation in my life. In 2006/7 five Tibetans and myself would complete a 7.5 month 5,000 km length of the entire route – making it a first for any western explorer, or any known ‘outsider’. With bodies bowed, veins full of tea and heads loftily left in the magnificent heights, our perspective and scope of knowledge of both tea and the Himalayas had been irreversibly broadened. For the most remote, battle and nature hardened peoples there was no commodity equivalent to Jia, Cha, or simply Tea, no route more sacrosanct to so many isolated peoples than the grand mysterious band called Gyalam (Wide Road) to the Tibetans, Cha Ma Gu Dao (Ancient Tea Horse Road) to the Chinese and to others simply as ‘The Eternal Road’. For 13 uninterrupted centuries, laden caravans, migrants, villains and warriors alike treaded the great path through the mountains – a path that gave as well as took life.
In my ensuing book ‘Ancient Tea Horse Road-Travels with the last Himalayan Muleteers’ (Penguin Canada) the route, it’s understated crucial role in the Himalayan history, and the adventure that our expedition tea happily engaged in is documented.
This stunning and daunting route, so vital to so many of the remote Himalayan peoples, somehow remained a virtual mystery to the west for almost 13 centuries – it is now hopefully getting its due and some of the acclaim it deserves, as one of the globes’s most daunting and incredible journeys.
Buy “The ancient tea horse road” at Amazon
Casting ethnic characters is a very hard thing to do, but it’s important. It’s also interesting.
I believe in communication; books communicate ideas and make bridges between people.
Tonight I was introduced to the Tea Horse Road through a radio interview you gave and I found the subject and your anecdotes and stories very engaging. Particularly the description of your friend’s 800 meter journey to the edge and of the elders telling you two days of your attention were required to properly understand the undertaking.
After hearing you speak of these things there’s not a shadow of a doubt that your book will be a good read.
Good luck with the art show!
Hope the reading of the book provides a bit more flesh to the route and the very passionate characters on the journey.
Thanks for the note….and that elder’s advice of “two days” to understand, stays with me still.
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
It was wonderful to learn more about teas and to learn of this historic road at YCIS-Beijing today. I hope to have the chance to visit part of Tea Horse Road with my family in the near future. I finally remembered the name of the “tea pioneer” in the documentary I mentioned: David Lee Hoffman. Heard of him? I found your Jalam Teas link off this website. It is great to know that there is a reputable source where one can purchase pu’er in N. America! It was a pleasure to meet you and thank you for the terrific talk and for doing this work. I look forward to reading your book once it finally is available on Kindle!
Thanks for showing up for the talk and better yet writing. Yes, have heard much of David Lee Hoffman…he is in his own right a pioneer of ‘real’ tea.
Will be in touch regarding a book on Kindle.
thanks again for writing Jean,
Jeff