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.
Sonam moves up singing, chatting, all the while moving through his Tibetan Mala beads. Mingmar dances from stone outcroppings to thatches of stems and back. Always he is looking for medicine, herbs, or simply that which matters to him – … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Glaciers, Mountains
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Tagged avalanche, climate, environment, Glaciers, Himalayas, Ice, Kyanjin Gompa, Langtang, Lirung, mountains, Nepal, Sherpa, Tea, tea and mountains, Tibet, Water, wisdom
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“We cannot change too much of what is there, but we can manage what we see and how we move forward”, Uncle Dawa says at one point over a tea. As with so much in my own frames of life, tea is a conduit and facilitator. It is a fluid that soothes, and stimulates. Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Glaciers, Mountains
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Tagged Glaciers, Himalayan Water Towers, Himalayas, kyanjin, Langtang, Lirung, mountains, Nepal, Sherpa, Tea, tea and mountains, tea break, Third Pole, Tibet, Water
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Perceptions are everything and here there is so very much within sensing distance. Syabrubesi is a dusty gateway that lies behind us. We head west through green tree lines of pine, birch, and rhododendron and nettles. The Buddhist sage and … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Glaciers, Mountains
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Tagged documentary, environment, Glaciers, herbs, Himalayan medicines, Himalayan Water Towers, Himalayas, Ice, Jeff Fuchs, Langtang, Lirung, Milarepa, mountains, nettles, rhododendron, storytelling, Tea, Third Pole
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A flow westward out of one of the most precision oriented cultures of the leaf to a tiny corner (and an old home of mine) in southwestern China, where the leaf is still at times an imprecise thing of random … Continue reading →
Posted in JalamTeas
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Tagged Asia tea, Bulang Mountain, China Tea, Jalamteas, jeff tea, Jing Hong, Menghai, Nannuo Mountain, Pu'erh, puer, Sheng Puerh, Tea, tea cake, tea pot, tea production, Tea shop, tea travel, teahouse, white tea, Xishuangbanna, yunnan
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The first concept that is immediately put on the shelf about a teahouse here in Japan is that there will be no fun. The second concept is that there must be a kind of rigid adherence to structure and form. … Continue reading →
Posted in JalamTeas
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Tagged chado, Green Tea, japan tea, koicha, matcha, Offering, powdered tea, sake, Tea, tea ceremony, tea culture, tea house, teahouse, thick tea, thin tea, tradition, usucha
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Some sage and simple wisdom as always from those who spend time at the source, at the cup, and in the tea houses. Travel through some of Japan’s tea zones has been an immersion into more informality than expected. Expected … Continue reading →
Posted in JalamTeas, Media, Tea
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Tagged Cha, chagama, Green Tea, Gyokuro, Jalamteas, japan, japan tea, jeff tea, Kyotanabe, Nippon tea, Sencha, Tea, tea tradition, Umami
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One of the most impactful concepts and terms last year was the word ‘Ayni’. Used in the Andean world by many of its peoples, it was a concept embraced by the Inca people. Link here for Teasers During our journey … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, In from the Outpost, Media, Tea
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Tagged Andes, Ayni, Coca, Culture, documentary, In from the Outpost with Jeff Fuchs, mountains, offerings, Pachamama, Peru, Reciprocity, South America, Tea, tv, wisdom, Worship
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Tea fuelled, I’ll be returning to one my favourite haunts – and of the most intense and provocative spaces anywhere – collaborating with Exodus Travel and the Royal Canadian Geographic Society for a journey into northern India to immerse in it all. … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Media, Mountains, Tea
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Tagged Asia Travel, Canadian Royal Geographic Society, collaboration, exodus travels, Guided Tours to India, India, India travel, Jeff Fuchs, Northern India, Tea, tea fuelled, Travel
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The second part of our journey took us from the high arid zones of Mustang right into the rumbling, high spires of Solukhumbu. The lands of the Sherpa people, the Rai people and names like Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse, and … Continue reading →
Posted in Explorations, Media, Mountains
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Tagged Chukung, EBC, Everest, Everest Base Camp, Everest Three Passes Trek, Glaciers, Gokyo Lake, Gokyo Ri, Himalayas, Jeff Fuchs, Kongma La, Kongma La Pass, mountains, Nepal, Ngozumpa Glacier, Rombuk Glacier, Sherpa, Solukhumbu, Tengboche, trekking
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