Category Archives: Uncategorized
Time with Tseten – Tea Horse Road Trader
We sat in the dark gloom of his home, with a bit of lukewarm butter tea roaming around our hands. Another of the remaining legends of the days of trade and odyssey journey-making along the Tea Horse Road, Tseten was … Continue reading
Tseba, his Tea, and the Walk(s)
One of the most purpose-driven of walkers, Tseba, would prepare a kettle of butter tea every morning before leaving to circumambulate around Litang’s Chode monastery. No less than three rotations would ever be done and afternoons would often see Tseba … Continue reading
Omu, The Strong
Arriving to a new camp and homestead, Omu sets about going through an unending list of ‘musts’. One of the musts is securing tent ‘fly’ lines of twined yak wool, hammered into the high-altitude turf. Using a stone picked up … Continue reading
The Tea Sessions – Latest Column Piece – “Karma’s Chai”
Few mortals provide (and have provided) as much leaf pleasure as the immortal Karma. Over years and expeditions, he has alchemized his fierce brews at thousands of metres high, on cliffs, glaciers, and in snow blown Himalayan camps. Within his … Continue reading
Tea Horse Road Chronicles – ‘The Dorjè’
Immersed in a hotspring that is tucked within a mountain cave, sitting beside the venerable and irrepressible Dorjè Kandro. Just days before, we began the fifty-two day walk from my – then – home in ‘Shangri-la’ (Gyalthang) in northwestern Yunnan, … Continue reading
Mustang Spaces 1 – The Khampa Route
Departing along the Khampa route along the eastern flank of Mustang. Continue reading
Outdoor Immersion – With Tea
Outdoor Immersion Programs with Jeff Fuchs and Julie Rogers on Hawaii’s Big Island Continue reading
Puerh – A Sheng Takes the Palates
Snow has that wonderful natural ability to paint big swaths white, and slow everything down to a trickle. “Cooperate or perish” say many Himalayan inhabitants of the natural elements and their forces. Snow and Puerh seem an ideal way to … Continue reading
Mustang – Part 2 – Route of Khampas
“A land of little and a route of much” is how I often view this present journey and it is how I’ve viewed many of Himalayan trade routes I’ve travelled. Our present route here in Mustang has taken us past an … Continue reading
Mustang’s Eastern Trade Route
Trade routes (still) offer up hints and teasers about how lands evolved and functioned. Everything from DNA to luxuries and tid-bits from the past travelled and each shipment and caravan needed the guardians, the traders and the willful to ensure … Continue reading