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.
It was here at the ‘first bend of the Yangtze’ in Yunnan province that the Mongolian armies of the Yuan Dynasty crossed the great waterway and would ‘take’ the previously independent region into the greater fold of the Middle Kingdom … Continue reading →
Posted in Mountains, Tea, Tea Horse Road
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Tagged Cha Ma Gu Dao, First Bend of the Yangtze River, Himalayas, Jeff Fuchs, Rivers, Shigu, tea custom, tea history, Tea Horse Road, tea horse road chronicles, Yangtze River, yunnan
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Within the tidy remnants of a former ‘Tea and Horse Trade Office’ in Mingshan County, near Ya’an in Sichuan, Jamyan and I wandered for 25 bizarre and wondrous minutes. As we made our way in to the horse dung and … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Media, Tea, Tea Horse Road
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Tagged Ancient Tea Horse Road, Asia tea history, Cha Ma Gu Dao, Jeff Fuchs, Mingshan, Sichuan Tea, Tea, Tea and Horses, tea custom, tea history, Tea Horse Road, tea horse road chronicles, tea trade, Ya'an
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Given the span of time and efforts to immerse in leaves and the lives connected to tea, there aren’t many more satisfying additions than starting up a tea column (in joyous collaboration with Outpost Magazine). These pieces will comprise ‘The Tea … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Tea, Tea Horse Road, The Tea Sessions
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Tagged chinese tea, Green Tea, Himalayan Tea, japan tea, Jeff Fuchs, Pu'erh, Tea, Tea Cups, tea history, Tea Journeys, Tea Moments, Tea People, Tea Pots, tea sessions, Tea Time, tea travel, The Tea Explorer, The Tea Sessions
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Not all stories of the Tea Horse Road were ones of grand expanses, snow caps, or buzzing tea sessions. A friend from the Yi minority invited me to visit his grandmother who had tales of her own to tell. She … Continue reading →
Posted in Tea, Tea Horse Road
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Tagged Cha Ma Gu Dao, China, Interview, Jeff Fuchs, Pu'erh, puer, Tea, tea custom, tea history, Tea Horse Road, tea horse road chronicles, The Tea Explorer, yunnan, Yunnan Travel
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Blankets and ridges of green stimulant leaf lie in rows near Puerh. Here the leaf is entirely industry. Gorgeous industry, but still industry. Local Hani, Han, Yi, Lahu, and Dai pluckers shimmy through the humid air to pluck, pluck, and … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Tea, Tea Horse Road
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Tagged Cha Ma Gu Dao, Jeff Fuchs, Pu'erh, puer, Tea, tea fields, Tea Horse Road, tea horse road chronicles, tea leaves, tea sourcing, Tea Time, tea travel, yunnan
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Ponzera, or Benzilan as it is now known, is a small valley town in northwestern Yunnan that lies alongside a headwater stream of the Yangtze River. For its size and population, its contributions to the Tea Horse Road spanned vast … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Mountains, Tea Horse Road
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Tagged Ancient Tea Horse Road, Benzilan, butter tea, Jeff Fuchs, Ponzera, Tea, Tea Explorer, Tea Horse Road, tea horse road chronicles, tea trade, The Tea Explorer, Tibet
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Yeshi and I shared tea with this old memory palace of time. Goat milk and butter were used instead of yak variations. The tea was deadly but his memories as he recounted the days of watching caravans along a portion … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Mountains, Tea Horse Road
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Tagged butter tea, Cha Ma Gu Dao, Himalayas, Jeff Fuchs, mountains, portrait, Tea, tea and mountains, Tea Customs, Tea Expedition, Tea Horse Road, tea horse road chronicles, tea travel, The Ancient Tea Horse Road, The Tea Explorer film, Tibet, trade routes, Travel
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Not heeding the warnings of Sonam Gelek; I should have known better at this stage of our journey than to plunge onwards without his counsel…but onwards I plunged. Consistently accurate and intuitive, Sonam had warned against our team traversing a … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Mountains, Tea Horse Road
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Tagged Himalayas, Jeff Fuchs, mountains, tea and mountains, Tea Horse Road, tea horse road chronicles, Tibet, Trade Route, Travel
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“When you are lost in the mountains you must sit and think with your good brain….think!” Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Mountains, Tea Horse Road
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Tagged butter tea, China, Expedition, Explorer, Himalayas, Jeff Fuchs, Lama, shangrila, Tea, tea and mountains, tea horse road chronicles, tea stories, tea trade, Tibet, trade routes, wisdom, yunnan
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“Tea is our everything. I don’t know where it comes from but we take it every day in the morning, afternoon, and night. Our children learn to make it when they are young but we must help them get the … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Mountains, Tea, Tea Horse Road
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Tagged Asia Travel, Asian History, Cha Ma Gu Dao, China, Jeff Fuchs, mountains, Nomads, Tea, tea and mountains, tea culture, tea history, Tea Horse Road, tea horse road chronicles, Tibet, Travel
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