We sat in the dark gloom of his home, with a bit of lukewarm butter tea roaming around our hands. Another of the remaining legends of the days of trade and odyssey journey-making along the Tea Horse Road, Tseten was slow but steady to warm of the times and tales of his time along the great trade route. One memory spoken would unhinge another, which would lead to more meandering tales.
It was like this with many of these remaining participants of life along the Tea Horse Road. Stories started slowly and triggered a memory strand that in turn would lead to another. Hours and days could pass uncoiling the past. Tseten was ill during a visit near my old home of ‘Gyalthang’ (aka: Shangrila, Zhongdian, Jiantang) in northwestern Yunnan, but it didn’t prevent his old engine of a heart to rise as we sat together.
The great expanses of the Himalayas remained prominent in most of his tales and how they instructed, wreaked havoc, and formed bonds. This route and the conversations around it and the times, almost inevitably sparked something epic in people as though travelling back into a rare time portal. It always had felt that the these participants of the route, had garnered some magic dust upon them that lasted. When asked if he would mind a portrait being taken, he nodded immediately and excused himself. He would come back a few minutes later having fixed himself up. He was ready and he was stunning.
Kham (Eastern Tibet), where so much of the history of the Tea Horse Road passed through…and remains
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.
