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Ancient Tea Horse Road – Trade’s Eternal Faces
By Jeff Fuchs
Posted: June 17, 2011Within the mighty Himalayan weave of geography and culture, there were ‘eternal’ routes that acted as lifelines to some of the most remote and hidden lands on the planet. Acting as pipelines for migrants, armies and precious commodities from distant lands these routes provide a context for the rich fabric… read more
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Ancient Tea Horse Road – Trade’s Eternal Faces
Jeff Fuchs
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 such publications as The Toronto Star, Kyoto Journal, World Geographic, The Spanish Expedition Society, The Earth, Silkroad Foundation, The China Post Newspaper, Singapore Airlines Silkwinds magazine, Outdoor Exploration, Outpost, The China Post and Traveler amongst others. Various pieces of his photographic work rest in private collections in Europe, North America and Asia.
As well as having consulted for National Geographic, Fuchs is a member of the Explorers Club, which supports sustainable exploration and research. His photo-essay on eastern Tibetan nomads is also a finalist in National Geographic Traveler’s international ‘World in Focus’ pro-photo contest.
Jeff has worked with secondary schools and universities, giving talks on the importance of oral traditions, tea and mountain cultures. He is one of the only foreigners ever to be given access for a month long stay with the fierce Khampa nomads to study their language. Fuchs has been an invited keynote speaker at the prestigious Spanish Expedition Society in Madrid on culture and trade through the Himalayas.
His work has been the focus of a television documentary in China (Tanglong Media’s ‘Follow Me’) and he has appeared on numerous national radio and television shows. He has also provided indigenous perspectives into tea culture as a keynote speaker at the 1st Annual North American Tea Conference in Niagara Falls in September, 2010.
His telling 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.
Jeff’s book is available at Thyme & Again
Fluent in Mandarin and the Tibetan nomadic dialect he makes his home in Gyalthang (Shangrila), in northwestern Yunnan – close to his two needs, mountains and tea. He leads expeditions for private groups and with Wild China along portions of the Ancient Tea Horse Road.
He is, along with two others, planning a Trans-Himalayan expedition entirely by foot in late 2011 to focus attention upon the ‘third pole’s’ great water issues. A book on Asia’s ancient green elixir, tea is in the works.