Tea Horse Road Chronicles – Empress of Cloth

Ponzera, or Benzilan as it is now known, is a small valley town in northwestern Yunnan that lies alongside a headwater stream of the Yangtze River. For its size and population, its contributions to the Tea Horse Road spanned vast and deep. Rhododendron roots carved into butter tea bowls, humour, and some of the better muleteers hailed from this town of heat. Another and more rare commodity was also sourced here: fine stitched fabrics that were coveted in Lhasa and beyond. Sitting with this matron sipping tea, we listened to how her family over generations had been weaving and stitching fabrics for traders to take east to Lhasa. She spoke with a quiet dignity and pride of her lineage and contributions to the great highway through the sky or the ‘Eternal Road’ as some referred to the Tea Horse Road. Auntie Lhamo was riveting and commanding in every micro movement and breath and our team sat around her, enthralled and perhaps in a kind of adoration and love. Majestic, she wasn’t at all surprised that we sought to to meet with her in her home, saying: “You should come to see me. I have the Tea Horse Road in my blood”.
 
Her tea too, was imperious with fresh thick yak butter , with a heavy salt tang, gathered from nearby brine wells. As friend and team member on the expedition would say later, “You can tell much about a person by the tea they serve”. And so, the Empress’ offering mirrored her character perfectly.

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.
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