Author Archives: JeffFuchs

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.

Immortal Words of the Mountains

Another in the series of ‘mountain immortals’ and their equally timeless words. Neema, at 89 years old, says of his days upon the Himalayas’ Tea Horse Road: “The mountains and mules had a contract with eachother. If we traders didn’t … Continue reading

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Our Jalamteas’ Zhang Lang Tea gets some good press from ‘Tea for Me Please’

One of our newest (and rarest) offerings at Jalamteas gets a nice bit of press from Nicole Martin at ‘Tea For Me Please‘. To see the review please see here

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Tea Horse Road Portraits Appearing in China’s GoKunming

    A series of portraits that I took along that immortal route and obsession of mine, The Tea Horse Road. The series is simply called ‘The Immortals’. Gokuming’s article and the portraits appear here

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New Article in About.com About the Tea Horse Road…

Was asked to do an article about those stunning and often tortured Himalayas for About.com on trade and those icons of the mountains, the people. Article here

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Mountain Eloquence

I’m reminded of some simple mountain-borne brilliance. The deliverer of the words was as simple and straightforward as the words themselves. The old Himalayan brigand and trader’s words about the mountains rings truer on every journey through them that I … Continue reading

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Expedition Update: Video of Parang La Descent

  A little video clip here shot as our team descends the magic monochrome of ice that is the Parang Pass. This pass was as notorious for its brigands and bandits as it was Mother Nature’s ‘moods’. Upon summiting the … Continue reading

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South China Morning Post Feature of our expedition – “The Pass Masters” –

  My feature of the ‘Route of Wind and Wool’ in full tea fuelled ‘colour’ here

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Expedition Update: A Team’s Faces

The skin, bones, and essence of our trip: the faces and personalities behind the efforts. I thought it time to properly ‘introduce’ the team with some thoughts, some colour, and some quotes from our magnificent team. We begin with Suresh … Continue reading

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Asses, Water, and Footprints

Wild Asses exist. One long muscular creature stands in front of the shimmering surface that marks the legendary Tso Moriri lake. The one Michael and I stare at on the flat surface is a muscle-laden thing that doesn’t look at … Continue reading

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Expedition Update: Purple and the Pass

Mornings, and particularly bad one’s can be down to simply being unable to shut off the mind the night before, or too much cold, maybe the tent location is off, or sometimes they can simply be down to an unknown. … Continue reading

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