Arriving to a new camp and homestead, Omu sets about going through an unending list of ‘musts’. One of the musts is securing tent ‘fly’ lines of twined yak wool, hammered into the high-altitude turf.
Using a stone picked up casually from the surroundings, Omu pounds homemade wooden pegs at an angle that she will adjust and modify over the coming months. Soon after the tent was erected, tea was served. She remarked once, “when we make our first tea in a place, we are settled”.
Though over the years I’ve spent months with her family, it is her that the community revolved around and it was her that I marvelled at for all of the vital roles she occupied within her family. It was she and her quiet husband Ajo who decided when to move and when to allow the yak to dictate the journey to more luscious grazing and it was Omu who ‘felt’ when the seasons were shifting, precipitating a move of her tented household.
It was she too who cared for and understood the yak, it was she who prepared meals, and it was she who prepared tea daily in huge, rich doses. It was her too that was dared not defied. Her two sons and a nephew knew better than anyone that her words and intentions stood.
About JeffFuchs
Having lived for a decade in Yunnan, Fuchs’ work has centred on indigenous mountain cultures, oral histories along with an obsessive interest in tea.
Fuchs is the author of 'The Ancient Tea Horse Road' (Viking-Penguin) and he was the subject of 'The Tea Explorer' documentary based on his exploration of the Tea Horse Road.
His photos and stories have appeared on three continents in publications such as 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 UNESCO amongst others. Various pieces of his work are part of private collections in Europe, North America, and Asia. Fuchs served as Asian Editor at Large for five years at award-winning Outpost magazine.
Jeff has worked with schools and universities, giving talks on both the importance of oral traditions, tea and mountain cultures.
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.
Fuchs partnered with Wild China to create a journey along the Tea Horse Road which National Geographic Traveler called one of the "50 Trips of a Lifetime".
He is co-founder of Akahiao Nature Institute on the island of Hawai'i along with his wife, Julie Rogers.
