Ladakh expedition plans changed last minute to Mustang. One stunning Himalayan world for another…and one historically linked to another in days of trade. We will trudge by foot north to Lo Manthang from just north of Jomson providing the flights are able to negotiate through the famed winds that can chuck a piece of metal around at will.
The mountain sanctuary that awaits
Our small team will still be travelling along an old trade route but a team and logistics have had to be conjured in quick time. November is a time of slow settling cold and clear bolt skies.
Bags remained packed, and a beautiful hunk of Naka ancient tree tea will still be the primary fuel.
A little joy too for me as I’ll be able to reconvene with an idol, Kunga, the muleteer and trader who remembers well a time when currencies were hauled aboard mule and yak. A time when journeys were measured in landmarks and moons rather than in numbers.
Tsarang, the ancient capital of the kingdom of ‘Lo’
In an offering that has become a kind of annual tradition, I’ll be bringing an offering of a good Sheng tea cake for Kunga. He covets these gifts and recalls a time when tea had deep flavours. Teas from southwest China were his preferred beverage…and so a circle rounds itself out once again as I return to the mountains and Kunga.
I get some time with idol Kunga…and a little presentation of a brick of tea on a journey last year.
In Tibetan they say “slowly slowly and you will arrive”…and so we go slowly slowly.
My prime fuel for the journey – stimulant leaves that have eternally fed the mountains. As precious and necessary as boots.
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.
