Tea Horse Road Chronicles – The Fry…a really Good Fry

Dakpa and I had been rolling around tea forests, tea houses, and tea characters for months along strands and points of the Tea Horse Road at this point and though there were many ‘moments of the leaf’ upon our journey, this one summed up so much, so simply. A young family embedded in tea harvesting, production, and selling in an epicentre of tea for centuries, Yiwu, was buzzing around their little home . Yiwu was one of the main tea origin points in the history of the Tea Horse Road and Dakpa and I had arrived exhausted and with a thirst. We installed ourselves in this tea frying sanctuary out back of this little home and silently watched successive waves of leaves get pan-fried and churned. We were damp wrecks and we simply sat sipping tea, taking in tang of baking leaves that hit the nasal cavity like the rich, sweet wafts of a bakery in full cry. We did this for what felt like hours allowing the leaf fuel to seep into us. Tea’s vital stage laid bare amidst a humid day of mists. We left with some tea in hand, happily wired.
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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – He Said, She Knew

Tea Horse Road Interview

He Said

This ‘moment’ was more accurately a series of moments and most of an afternoon, with an old muleteer and his wife. We interviewed the gentleman who lived near my home in Shangrila and he began (and ended) our chat with some locally brewed barley whisky and a bit of tea. His wife sat quietly listening to him recount his tales of time spent upon the Tea Horse Road, which went on for hours and as time progressed and successive whiskies were downed, she would intervene more and more often to gently correct certain parts of his tales, which included dates of journeys, relationships, and even cargo of some of the caravans. She knew because she had kept records of his absences and had cared far more about his work than perhaps he realized. He became gently irate and insistent with her and she calmly annihilated his logic and facts until we were no longer part of an interview but rather amidst a torrent of arguing. It was magic and she was quite epic. In the end, we believed (almost entirely) the woman.
Tea Horse Road Interview

She Knew

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – Part 6 – Tenzin

Legend, guardian of caravans, and hunter of ‘tea thieves’, Tenzin.
We had heard of this legend but worried we wouldn’t track him down upon the route. Worried that we would not get time nor access to listen and take in an incredibly unique perspective of the days of trade along the Tea Horse Road. There was the added draw of Tenzin becoming a kind of idol in our team’s collective mind. Tenzin had acted as a kind of headman of caravans that were run by a monastery, and it was within his mandate to protect the sacred commodities of tea, salt, wool, copper, and mules…and punish those who thieved. In such a way he became known – by his reputation for both protecting and punishing. We found him living simply in between the two great snow passes of Shar and Nup Gong La (East and West Gate Passes respectively) deep within Tibet along a stretch of the trade route that cut through the Nyenchen Tanghla Mountains, a sub-range of the greater Transhimalaya system. Sitting with tea outside, Tenzin was composed, regretful at times, and utterly graceful. He worked his mala beads continuously during our hours with him. He only asked that we remember him as someone who did his job along the route. He regretted some of what he had to do in the name of protecting the caravans on their journeys through the sky. I remember him as grace personified.
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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – Part 5 – The Load

A continuation of some of the embedded moments – both large and small – of our 7.5 month expedition to chart and document the Tea Horse Road.

Along the Tea Horse Road, the careful daily ritual of loading and unloading of commodities was considered an art form. Securing loads that didn’t chafe animals with too tightly bound a harness, was just as important a skill as securing it ‘just’ tightly enough that the loads didn’t tip or unbind. Here a nomadic host of our team readies our mules as we prepare one morning. It is still an honour to assist in the loading (Tibetan: “gyap’kè”) and unloading (known as “gyap’po”), upon the Tibetan Plateau and still a skill taught to young children. Many a time I’ve been politely, but firmly, shoved aside by men, women, and children as I try and contribute to the loading process. I have over the years timed locals as they competently strap commodities and gear atop yak, mules, and horses. On average they are three times faster than I’ve ever been, and their loads are far less likely to go wonky on the journey than mine. Skills of the mountains matter and so do too the codes of welcoming and farewells.

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – The Coming Snow

The Coming Snow.
A nomad tucks in amidst a coming snow storm at 4200 metres near Litang, western Sichuan.
The Litangba (people of Li’thang) were revered and feared along portions of the Tea Horse Road for sometimes opposing reasons. Not only did they make daunting guardians for many of the caravans loaded with tea, salt, resin, and wool; they were also formidable thieves of the very goods caravans were hauling. One tea trader in Lhasa remarked: “When Litang people are involved, you speak straight and keep your word. If you don’t, there will be problems”. For a decade Litang was an often returned to bit of pleasure for me, with its reckless authenticity, bludgeoning winters, and bravado.

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Tea Horse Road Chronicles – The Little One

In the coming weeks a trip back into the characters and moments of our journey along the Tea Horse Road (the first documented western journey along the magnificent highway through the sky).

The first segment then begins here.

We started our journey in the dark near the village of Nyalam on the Tibet-Nepal border on a morning of driving snow and wind. As pale morning light took over from dark, all of the winds and snows stopped as though flipped by a switch. This little one was bouncing around with other children running around in the heights near one of our tea break points.

The Little One of Nyalam

She fixed our entire team with those eyes and she moved my entire world in a second. Months into the Tea Horse Road journey, this was one of those moments that marked time. For my own journey at that point, she marked a transition point as we made our way off of the Tibetan Plateau and would soon begin the long coiling route to Kathmandu. If felt like she knew everything in a moment by sheer intuition…it feels like she still does looking at her even now.

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New Website – New Platform – Same Mountains, Tea, and Characters

After many years of slight technological delinquency, I’ve spruced up my existing website and brought it into something resembling a 21st Century site. Still the images and characters and tea embed every post; now though there is more written content on the expeditions, the people, and the motivations. The new site is still jefffuchs.com, though it has risen from its minimalist origins into something more alive and hopefully more vibrant. It now rests here. Gents like the below cheesemaker in Extremadura in Spain will be happy with the changes, and I hope you will as well.

 My wife Julie gave the shove and assisted in the creation of a more expansive home for the work, which includes a blog page here.

All to say that there is a better home for some of those exquisite moments and visceral characters and journeys, that deserve as much. Look forward to your comments and thoughts on the new set up.

A better site is surely fitting for the nomadic matriarchs of Karnak

As always, stay well and get out there, wherever that ‘there’ might be.

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Intuition, Water, and Tales from a Boy

Thinking about times past, lessons, and inspired moments and a little sun burned cheeks, few words, and a fearless countenance comes to mind. Thinking too about the importance of communities that still transfer their knowledge as a point of pride and pragmatism.

Little Lubden with the abilities to read and feel what his ancestors long were able to. Knowledge kept!!

Often (so very often) I’ve been treated to moments – or a series of moments – when the senses are engaged, the breath is smooth, and the entire self seems to be blown wide open to something significant and magnificent, and sometimes brutal. This particular series of moments were entirely about this young nomadic boy and his intuition in an ever-changing climate, and remind that some still value passing along information about the world around us. I was living with a nomadic family in southern Qinghai Province documenting how they dealt with living in a time where water and precipitation were more uncertain than ever. On this morning I joined 7-year old Lubden and his brother for their morning ’task’, which was to bring ‘water’ (ice) from a small frozen lake in pales back to the homestead.

The collection of water in any form is part of the morning ritual across the Himalayan world.

It was winter and locals had been praying for precipitation of any kind as the earth and their animals were parched that particular winter. I had listened for two weeks to such complaints and worries. At one point this little boy on this sun-blasted morning just gaped towards the east and blurted out “ka” or “snow”. Not a cloud in the sky…nothing. He repeated it a couple of times. We cut and gouged out chunks of ice from the ‘watering hole’, and marched back home. The next day, it snowed and there was joy, which was celebrated with an extra thick portion of churned butter tea that was served to all. His mother later explained to me that he had “smelled it coming”. Here at altitude, where life is lived on the brunt end of Mother Nature’s every mood, there is no disconnect from what is vital.  Here, it is in the doing and witnessing; then in the understanding, where the reverence for the earth and its offerings is continued forwards. Lucky, that we still have those that remember this.

A family affair is the collection of water because it is a question of life.

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International Tea Day, May 21st – Conversation on Youtube Live

Nice bit of recognition for the leaf as this coming May 21st has been officially designated as International Tea Day…though for many of us, we could simply call most days “International Tea Time”.

If interested, please join in some leaf-fuelled chat on May 21st (International Tea Day) on Youtube live at 17:30 EST. I’ll be sipping and chatting all things Puerh. It is part of an all-day streaming event honouring tea and its people from around the world. This ‘Sofa Summit’ will air for the entire day in every single time-zone with sippers, growers, and sellers from around the world. Bit of tea raging never goes astray! Link follows for the Youtube live feed is here.

Line of contributing chatters and sippers is here:

Image may contain: text

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Live Chat with Michael Kleinwort and Kora this Wednesday April 15th at 16:00 PST

Within one of the many nomadic encampments where Michael and I shared tea, warmth, and tales.

Will be chatting all things mountains, trade routes, yak wool…and tea, with friend and longtime expedition partner (and founder of Kora) Michael Kleinwort this coming Wednesday April 15th here: https://www.facebook.com/koraoutdoor/ at 16:00 PST. The chat will be live, and tea fuelled (at least on my side) with a live question feed worked in.

Live Chat with Kora and Jeff Fuchs

Michael and I somewhere in Spiti (the ‘Middle Land’) following part of a trade route that ushered Pashmina, salt, and tea through the Himalayas.

One can write in questions, comments, greetings, or just thoughts. Join us, provoke us, and sip with us. Hope to hear from you there. Michael is a fellow tea junkie as well so if the travel chatter doesn’t inspire, the tea surely will.

As Michael often says of yak wool, “What could be better than a Himalayer”?

Join us with a beverage nearby.

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