Horses were the main means of transportation on the tea horse road and the passage originated from the tea horse trade of the tang and song dynasties. International journal ofcultural chinaheritage studiestourism and ancient tea horse road 531 vol. Chinas ancient tea horse road by cognoscenti books. 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. 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. Located in puer citys ninglang county, it has profound historical and cultural heritage. Though the tea horse road is not nearly as important as the silk road of china, it holds significance nonetheless. Pdf cultural heritage tourism and the ancient tea horse road of. As we ply on our individual tea horse roads trading our time and effort for a living, a well made hot cup of tea is a solace a journey to our own shangrila. The ancient tea horse road was an important trade route in ancient china. The matcha ceremony in japan tea was brought to japan from china during the ninth century by a traveling buddhist monk and was later firmly integrated into the japanese culture.
Visitors can take the opportunity to go horseback riding to experience the way in which ancient people traveled, as well as other ancient customs of the road and of puer. 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. Case study of the ancient tea horse road in the south of yunnan. Jeff fuchs is a canadian explorer, mountaineer and writer.
Insight on asia asian corridor in heaven made by kbs. Tea and other goods were actively traded on these routes for more than a thousand years. Tibetqiangyi corridor is a research on the regional culture of ethnic minorities, and its core area is called the ancient 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 fuchs frequent tea thirsts. Pdf the ancient tea horse road and the politics of cultural. Join us at the teahouse to learn more about the art of tea making. Old tea horse road is a tea company based out of holyoke, massachusetts. The ancient tea horse road meanders across the rooftop of the world. 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. Many a traveler and backpacker heads to this town and learns about the tea horse road. Its the longest and most arduous trading route the world has ever known. The 2250 kilometer long trail begins with the sichuan province of china and stretches to lhasa, the capital city of tibet. Yunnan puer teas which used to travel along the ancient tea horse road, you name it. Tea horse road national geographic magazine the tea horse road, jeff fuchs, the silk road, vol.
Thanks to this perilous passage, the fame and influence of yunnans puer tea spread far and wide. Greenness index from phenocams performs well in linking climatic factors and monitoring grass phenology in a temperate prairie ecosystem. Follow the ancient tea horse road from lijiang, yunnan to. The ancient tea horse road, sichuan tibetyi corridor, cultural belief of dance accompanied by music, cultural fusion. On the positive side the living standards of a vast proportion of the population have dramatically improved and china has now realized the long.
Kindle store go search best sellers gift ideas new releases deals. A brief introduction to the history of the ancient tea and. One of the longest and most dramatic trade routes of the ancient world, the tea horse road carried a crucial exchange for centuries between china and. The past and present of the ancient tea horse road. The ancient teahorse road locally known as chamagudao is a network of meandering caravan paths through the mountains of yunnan, guizhou and sichuan in southwest china. These information answers detailedly about what to visit in puer. Tea horse road jeff fuchs tea and mountain journals. The ancient tea horse road is an international trade passage in the southwestern region of china used for economic and cultural communications. The ancient tea horse road in china was a trade route mainly through yunnan, sichuan, and tibet. An article in the may 2010 online issue of national geographic article tells more about the tea horse road.
In other words, we followed the ancient tea and horse road, which links up with the silk road in tibet. Ancient teahorse road and caravan culture from the perspective. Selena ahmed one of the longest and most dramatic trade routes of the ancient world, the tea horse road carried a crucial exchange for centuries between china and tibet. The ancient tea horse road english edition ebooks em. In 20067 five tibetans and myself would complete a 7. In the spirit of the meandering local side paths of the tea horse road that brought traders and tea to small pockets of local populations, the author, too, brings us along divergent paths and into the lives and cultures of people in yunnan, sichuan, tibet, burma and india who were and still are affected by the tea horse road. In the heart of the ancient tea caravanserai village of shuhe, next to lijiang in yunnan, the bivou is our centre for exploring one of chinas most photogenic and culturally rich regions. Cultural heritage tourism and the ancient tea horse road of southwest china article pdf available in international journal of china studies 12. The ancient teahorse road was a commercial network of caravan paths winding. Pdf cultural heritage tourism and the ancient tea horse. The tea horse road or chamadao now generally referred to as the ancient tea horse road or. One of the worlds highest teahorse road has been walking for thousands of years.
We traveled with wildchina from jinghong to shangrila. Pdf the tea horse road chinas ancient trade road to tibet read online. Its route crosses some very high and dangerous terrain. Pdf the ancient tea horse road and the politics of. 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. Jeff fuchs the author follows the last of the lados on the perilous and ancient path through asia known as the tea horse road.
Puer travel guides 2020 puer attractions map yunnan. 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. During the recent and rapid urban development in china, many stonepaved ancient roads like the tea horse road have been destroyed and replaced by concrete, and this linear cultural heritage is under the threat of disappearing. Volume 10 issue 5 journal of resources and ecology. 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. Silk road foundation an authoritative article about the ancient tea route by yang fuquan, director of the yunnan academy of social sciences. First, it was well organized, and our guide, jeff fuchs, was incredibly knowledgeable and funny. In love with the ancient leaf, and dealing with people who share our passion, we seek out the most incredible examples of handcrafted, artisanal tea that we can get our hands on. Earliest tea as evidence for one branch of the silk road. While parts of the ancient teahorse road pass by the bustling, picturesque cities of dali, lijang, and shangrila, most of the ancient path crosses a rural terrain of. Meanwhile, the road also promoted exchanges in culture, religion and ethnic migration, resembling the refulgence of the silk road.
The ancient tea horse road is a 4000 km route used by ancient tea and horse traders in ancient china. What is it like on the path of the ancient tea horse road. Explore the 26 distinct tibetan, buddhist, cultures living there today and discover art and treasures along the way. 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. The rise of the outdoors and chinas first long distance branded hiking trail. 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. Our first chinese guide, michael, was also superorganized. Over seven gruelling months, canadian jeff fuchs took on the challenge of following traditional muleteers along this twelvehundredyearold route. The tea horse road western medical missionaries in china. The ancient tea horse road brought puerh tea from yunnan to the rest of the asian world. Life along the tea horse road is briefly reignited in a passionate and unforgettable adventure. It was added to by a route from a second source, the tea mountains of sichuan, and the combined network of stone roads and mountain trails became known as the tea horse road, cha ma dao. Yunnan tea has been of vital economic importance to many nationalities since the tea horse road, to even today.
Cultural preservation andthe ancient tea horse road. Ancient tea horse road attraction travel guidebook, puer mustvisit attractions. Thirty years of reform and openness have brought great changes to the peoples republic of china. The custom of tea drinking spread from china to other countries through cultural exchanges via the ancient tea horse road southern silk road and other trade channels. The hostels along the tea horse road, socalled caravanserais, were melting points of the most diverse ethnicities, cultures and trades, and the resulting multiethnic populations are still characterizing the areas along the trail today. The ancient tea horse road winds its way through some of the most unforgiving terrain on earth.
Traversing the ancient tea horse road with jeff fuchs. Less familiar is its more southerly equivalent, the ancient tea horse road that once linked the lush gardens of southwest china with the frigid wastelands. Study on the cultural fusion of minority dance accompanied. Much of it photographically untapped, central yunnan lies on the old tea horse road and is inhabited by naxi and yi peoples. Chinese ancinet teahorse road, discover the ancient tea. 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. The ancient commercial passage, dubbed the ancient teahorse road, first appeared during the tang dynasty 618907, and lasted until the 1960s when tibetan highways were constructed. Ancienttea horse road page introduces the history, origin and the two routes of the ancient tea horse road, as well as development and tourism of ancient tea horse road, etc. The tea and horse caravan road of southwest china is less well known than the famous silk road. The ancient tea horse road is a twothousandyearold route used to transport tea from china to tibet trading tea for horses. One of the longest and most dramatic trade routes of the ancient worl. In the history, two important trade routes namely tangbo ancient road and tea horse ancient road linked the qinghaitibet plateau and the surrounding. Our plan had been to follow vestiges of a trading route that chinese scholars and officials call the ancient teahorse road, and some call the tea and horse.
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