We traveled with wildchina from jinghong to shangrila. Zhang yun the buddhist, seeing what was going on and seeing, regardless of his good intentions, it wasnt going to work, left the main contingent taking me with him high into the mountains basically retracing the steps of the ancient chamadao, the tea horse trail or tea horse road. Exploring the history behind chinas ancient tea horse road. Jan 07, 2016 phytoliths and biomolecular components extracted from ancient plant remains from changan xian, the city where the silk road begins and ngari ali in western tibet, china, show that the tea was grown 2100 years ago to cater for the drinking habits of the western han dynasty 207bce9ce, and then carried toward central asia by ca. An epic journey of tea, mountains, and memories, that opens up a rarely acknowledged part of china and asias ancient past, the ancient tea horse road is a grinding adventure of will, wit, and fuchs frequent tea thirsts. Our first chinese guide, michael, was also superorganized. With a total length of 21km, it starts from fuling town, jixi county, anhui province and ends at maxiao town, lin an, hangzhou.
The first thing one notices about the new book tea horse road. Apr 08, 2016 the ancient tea horse road was an enormous network of trails which grew up between yunnan, sichuan and tibet in the long historical period. Are there any other puerh books floating around out there. The world heritage application of the ancient tea horse road, jointly carried out by china, mongolia and russia, will serve as an example for international cooperation, according to sergey. In the 21st century, the legacy of the tea horse road has been used to promote a railway that will. The antique silk road that connected the chinese and mediterranean worlds for more than a millennium, facilitating the exchange of both goods and cultures.
He gained prominence with his successful bid to become the first westerner to trek the entire yunnantibet ancient tea horse road, stretching almost six thousand kilometers through the himalayas and a dozen cultures, documented in the book the ancient tea horse road. Generally speaking, it was divided into two major roads. Follow the jingling mule trains carrying tea across the centuries from china to tibet. The ancient tea horse trade route also known as the southern silk road is a sprawling web of millenniaold paths connecting southeast asia to southwest china and tibet. Exploring the history behind chinas ancient tea horse road which began during the tang dynasty 618907 and still used up to the 1960s, with several different routes originating in the town of puerh, in chinas yunnan province to tibet and other points. The lancangmojiang ancient tea horse road is an important branch of the puer ancient tea horse road. The uk tea council an independent nonprofit making body dedicated to promoting tea.
The addition of the word gu or ancient, making the currently popular name chama gudao or ancient tea horse road is a much more recent designation. Chinas ancient tea horse road by andrew forbes, david henley. Chinese tea and tibetan horses were long traded on the legendary tea horse road, a harsh 2,250km trail stretching from chinas sichuan province to tibets capital city of lhasa. In 20067 five tibetans and myself would complete a 7. The ancient tea horse road china heritage quarterly.
The ancient tea horse road winds its way through some of the. Sep 15, 2016 such prosperity on the tea horse road created the splendid history of dali and lijiang ancient towns, the major transfer centres of the ancient road to tibet or down to southeast asia. Traversing the ancient tea horse road with jeff fuchs wildchina. This is the first comprehensive visual documentation of the tea horse road that takes the audience on a journey from the birthplace of the tea plant along the oldest trade route of tea in the world. Chinas ancient tea horse road by cognoscenti books is. Jeff fuchs, the author, lives in china, so he knows the people and the territory well. Chinas ancient trade road to tibet freeman, michael, ahmed, selena on. With the development of urbanization, the tea horse road and its spatial have been changed dramatically, and the cultural heritage along the road faced the threat of gradually disappear. Horses were the main means of transportation on the tea horse road and the passage originated from the teahorse trade of the tang and song dynasties. One of the longest and most dramatic trade routes of the ancient worl.
Before work, a tibetan will typically enjoy several bowlfuls of this beverage, and it is always served to guests. Explore free books, like the victory garden, and more browse now. Chinas ancient trade road to tibet reprint by michael freeman, selina ahmed isbn. A cup of butter tea in kangding city can reflect a colorful culture and local history. Life along the tea horse road is briefly reignited in a passionate and unforgettable adventure. Sichuantibet tea horse road and yunnantibet tea horse road. Kindle store buy a kindle free kindle reading apps kindle books french ebooks kindle unlimited. One of the longest and most dramatic trade routes of the ancient world, the tea horse road carried a crucial exchange for. Drinking butter tea is a regular part of tibetan life. Locating at the boundary of anhui and zhejiang province in eastern china, huihang ancient caravan trail is considered as the third ancient road after the famous silk road and the tea horse ancient road. From the 6th century to the 20th century, people in sichuan and yunnan provinces traveled by foot and horseback with pack horses to exchange tea for horses with people in tibet and thus the pathway was called the tea horse road. Tea horse road jeff fuchs tea and mountain journals. For centuries, this road carried tea out of the forests of yunnan province, china to the faraway lands of tibet, nepal, india and burma.
Sep 20, 2012 chinese tea and tibetan horses were long traded on the legendary tea horse road, a harsh 2,250km trail stretching from chinas sichuan province to tibets capital city of lhasa. The antique silk road that connected the chinese and mediterranean worlds for more than a millennium, facilitating the exchange of both goods and cultures, is widely known and celebrated. Jan 01, 2008 the ancient tea horse road winds its way through some of the most unforgiving terrain on earth. Travels with the last of the himalayan muleteers first edition by fuchs, jeff isbn. Jun 30, 2008 the ancient tea horse road is an excellent read for people who love adventure trekking, written memoirs, cultural studies, and tea.
The book, written in the casual essay style of chinese rather than the. Thanks to this perilous passage, the fame and influence of yunnans puer tea spread far and wide. But it is extraordinarily frustrating for any reader interested in the geography of the tea horse road. An epic journey of tea, mountains, and memories, that opens up a rarely acknowledged part of china and asias ancient past, the ancient tea horse road is a grinding adventure of will, wit, and tea thirsts. The ancient tea horse road is a 4000 km route used by ancient tea and horse traders in ancient china. World heritage application of tea horse road promotes intl. It was actually in use until the chinese claimed their ancient right to tibet kublai khans era, i think. Chinas ancient tea horse road cognoscenti books book 1. Jun 22, 2016 the ancient tea horse road is an international trade passage in the southwestern region of china used for economic and cultural communications. Another factor was that export to countries to the west increased.
In other words, we followed the ancient tea and horse road, which links up with the silk road in tibet. Travels with the last of the himalayan muleteers 2008. First, it was well organized, and our guide, jeff fuchs, was incredibly knowledgeable and funny. Jul 25, 2016 trade along the ancient tea horse road, a title used for a informal network of caravan routes across a vast swath of asia, began in earnest around the seventh century and peaked between the late. It is also sometimes referred to as the southern silk road or southwest silk road, and it is part of a complex routes system connecting china and south asia. Jeff fuchs is a canadian explorer, mountaineer and writer. The route earned the name tea horse road because of the common trade of tibetan ponies for chinese tea, a practice dating back at least to the song dynasty, when the sturdy horses were important for china to fight warring nomads in the north. This trade was accomplished on the northern silk road and the southern tea horse road. Today, regardless of the vitality of this thoroughfare of commerce and rich fusion of commodities, the ancient landscape seems to be changing. Chinese ancinet teahorse road, discover the ancient tea.
Over seven gruelling months, canadian jeff fuchs took on the challenge of following traditional muleteers along this twelvehundredyearold route. Tea drinking became popular, and this necessitated the production of much durable and beautiful teaware. Fuchs book is good for its tales of the trail, and the men he meets along it. The ancient tea horse road meanders across the rooftop of the world. Cognoscenti books all books chinas ancient tea horse road. Puer tea has been grown for centuries in the six great tea mountains of yunnan province, and in imperial china it was a prized commodity, traded to tibet by horse or mule caravan via the socalled tea horse road and presented as tribute to the emperor in beijing. There are numerous surviving archaeological and monumental elements, including trails, bridges, w. The tea horse road or chamadao now generally referred to as the ancient tea horse road or. Again by contrast, the name tea horse road in chinese chamadao was in official use from at least the time of the tang dynasty 618907. Film of colors in the cup explores the historical significance of kangding on the ancient tea horse road. The tea horse road or chamadao, now generally referred to as the ancient tea horse road or chamagudao was a network of caravan paths winding through the mountains of sichuan, yunnan and tibet in southwest china. Heritage corridor narrative space system research case on the. The past and present of the ancient tea horse road. As the title of this book suggests the topic is about an extensive network of physical pathways and small local routes that came to be collectively known as the tea horse road.
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. Chinese porcelain history from the 1st century to the 20th. Two major types of porcelain were recognized in the empire. Earliest tea as evidence for one branch of the silk road. The network once ferried horses and silver from tibet to china in exchange for tea, but people also traded salt for tea, ivory for gold, and religious instruction for food and. In order for the tea to survive its long journey, ancient tea merchants had developed a preservation method where the tea leaves were steamed and subsequently compressed into bricks for easy transport on horse back. The ancient china tea horse road was a caravan route, actually several that merged along the way, from china to lhasa, tibet, and then on across tibet and down into burma, india and other countries. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. For thousands of years the tea horse road was the most significant corridor connecting the ancient civilizations of yunnan and sichuan in southwest china with tibet and. Aug 17, 2018 the ancient tea horse road in china was a trade route mainly through yunnan, sichuan, and tibet. Chinas ancient trade road to tibet by michael freeman, 9786167339535, available at book depository with free delivery.
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