Tag Archives: Tea Horse Road
Keynoting World Tea Expo 2024
It is perhaps in some of tea’s more informal moments (and people) that something of the leaf’s spirit is kept immortal. I’ll be happily ranting on about this and tea’s restorative and connecting abilities at the upcoming World Tea Expo … Continue reading
Lobsang – On Water in the Himalayas
A morning of brittle cold that brought the eyes to a standstill in Darlag, southern Amdo. Lobsang watches while his two sons source ice from a nearby ‘lake’ to bring home to boil for morning tea. Lobsang asked me whether … Continue reading
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
Dolma, the Titan
Over the course of a decade of repeated visits to a nomadic community and little Dolma’s clan near Litang, I would continuously be in awe of the ’nomadic ways’ of doing simply anything. Moving up to a half dozen times … Continue reading
Leaf Journeys, Leaf Ageing, and the Heights
It was upon the months’ long journeys along the Tea Horse Road that the big-leafed ‘assamica’ material and eternal panacea, tea, would transform and morph from a simple green tea into an almost compost-like blend that many Tibetans began to … Continue reading
Pomo – The Girl Who Could Do It All
‘Cheshi’ in the early morning in her family’s nomadic camp of Shin’zhu’gong at close to 5000 metres. I continually messed up her name, though I spent weeks with her and family. She patiently dealt with me until she reminded me … Continue reading
The Goddess and the Butter
Her’s was the last tent in the windblown nomadic community of Ala Dhotok (Stone Roof), before we headed up the snow pass of Nup Gong La. It was another morning of cold along a portion of the Tea Horse Road … Continue reading
Tea Horse Road Chronicles – A lusty bit of Leaf Tribute
One of the most exquisite pieces of tea porn I’ve come ever across was this compressed mass of large leaf material, formed into seven gourds, sized in ever-descending size to form a large pyramid of vegetal fuel. It was also … Continue reading