Tea Horse Road: China's Ancient Trade Road to Tibet [1 ed.] 9749863933, 9789749863930

Table of contents :
Cover
Contents
Introduction
1. Tea mountains
2. The stone road
3. High passas, deep gorges
4. The grasslands
5. The Burma road
6. The high plateau
Bibliography
Notes on the photography
Index

Citation preview

TEA HORSE ROAD

First publish ed and distributed in 2011 by River Books Co., Ltd. 396 Maharaj Road, Tatien , Bangkok 10200 Tel: (66) 2 225-4963, 2 225-01 39, 2 622-1900 Fax: (66) 2 225-3861 Email: ord er@riverbooksbk. com www.riverbooksbk. com Collective work © River Books Text © Michael Freeman & Selena Ahmed Images © Michael Freeman Michael Fr eem an & Selena Ahmed are h er eby identified as the author s of this work in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Design s and Patents Act, 1988 All rights r eserved. No part of this book or DVD may be r eproduced or transmitted in any form or by any m eans, electrical or m echanical, including photocopying, r ecording or by any information storage or r e trieval system without th e written permission of the publish er. ISBN: 978 9 749863 93 0 Editor: arisa Chakrabongse Production : Paisarn Piemmattawat Design: Peter Cope Printed and bound in Thailand by Siriva ta na Interprint Company Limited

Captions to photographs on the opening spreads I A late afternoon storm shrouds the northern Daxu e Shan Range. ParUy in shado w, a huge fi eld of three-m e tre Buddhist fla gs covers a hillside by U1 e Xianhui River.

2 Public, and physical, de bate has long been a part of Tibetan Buddhist practice in the monasteries. Here at Ganzi, young monks pair off in the morning for on e-to-one dialecti cal de ba ting. Th e formalised techniques includ e ridicule and handclapping. 3 Member s of the Khampa community sit on a bridge over the Zheduo River in the centre of the town, against a poster for the tovvn's famous Love Song of Kangding , whi ch begins A running horse, slipping and sliding on the mountain, A single cloud shines directly upon the Kangding city wall.

Contents

2

Introduction

22

Chapter 1: Tea Mountains

82

Chapter 2: The Stone Road

132

Chapter 3: High Passes, Deep Gorges

180

Chapter 4: The Grasslands

238

Chapter 5: The Burma Road

276

Chapter 6: The High Plateau

326

Bibliography

328

Photo grapher's No te

328

Acknowledgements

329

Index

During the 7th century, Tibe t's power and influen ce ros e sudd enly and, for China,

w e ak it h a d an even gr eater n e ed for horses to match those of the Mon gols. These

unexpectedly. Under Kin g Songtsiin Gampo (604-650), Tibe t, unite d for the first

horses had to be paid for, and by the middle of tlle first century CE, China h ad lost its

time, began military expansion, leading to the cr eation of on e of the mosl important

monopoly on silk, which had stood it in good stead for perhaps two millennia. How

trade routes of the ancient w orld, economically, politicaUy and culturaJly - a n etwork

fortunate, th en , that tea becam e such a value d commodity for China's n eighbours.

of trails extending more than 3,000 kilom e tres, !:ravelled by horses, mules and

The sta te assiduously promote d this, and under the Song took control over tl1e trade

porters, tha t became known in Chinese a s the Cha Ma Dao , the Tea Horse Road.

via the Tea Tax Bure au and tl1e Tea and Horse Trading Office. An10ng Tibe tans, the preferre d te a for taste wa s Pu 'er , from the soutll , bul government manipulation of

Tibet expand e d east into

an zhao (no w Ywman). To the south of anzh ao, wher e

th e trad e Jed to large tracts in Sichuan be.in g plante d witll lower quality monoculture

the Mekon g River begins to flow south east, then east, is the centre of bio-diversity

tea. From these two sotU'ces, soutllern Ywma n and tlle part of Sichuan aro und Ya'an,

of tea, Cameltia sinensis, and it is likely that Tibe tan expansion brought them into

tlle two principal roads led tow ards Tibe t, m eeting at tlle trading town ofMangkham

contact with a drink that w ould soon become central to their diet. At th e same time,

n ear the Mekon g and continui.n g w est to Lhasa. The trade continued into the 20tll

the new Tibetan Empire's r ela tionship with China involved dialogue and contact

centw·y, but declined naturaJly as horses ceased to have a m ajor military use, and

with the capital Chang'an (now Xian) , and the emperor Taizong. Exposure to te a

as road s wer e paved for more efficient tran sport. For a co uple of years in the middle

drinking may also have beg un here, or on the occasion of the marriage of the

of tll e century tller e w as one last burst of activity, as tlle r oad and tlle horse caravans

Chinese Princess Wench en g to Songtsiin Gampo , a hi gh-profile attempt a t political

becan1e the commodity lifelin e for w estern China , w hich was cut off by tll e Japanese

alliance. Although this h as since become m ythologise d, there are accounts tha t th e

armies advan cing from th e east. By 1945 tllis was over, and the coll ective era that

Princess took te a with h er to Lhasa as part of h er do wr y.

followed 1949 brought fin al closure to tll e trade.

Tea did not grow on th e Tibe tan Plate au, but th e Tibe tans soon develope d a n eed

Today, Pu 'er tea and tlle Tea Horse Road h ave n ew lives, albeit very differe nt from

for it, not only a s a stimulant, but also for i.ts properties in reducing the oxidative

before. Th e marke t for fin e Pu'er tea has recently boomed throu ghout Chin a, witl1

stress of high altitudes, and as a dietary supplem ent in an en vironment that could

buyer s in Hon g Kong, Taiw an and Guan gz hou being particularly a ctive. Prices began

n ot support fruit or ve ge tables to any significant extent. Their taste for tea began a s

to rise in tlle e arly years of this century, rea ching a pe ak in 2007, by w hich tim e aged

a r efin e d pastime among the elite, but spread socially down w ards as U1e way it was

individual bing (tl1 e discus-shaped compressed tea cake) wer e fetching as much as

con sumed also evolved. If Western er s and the British in particular, took culinary

300,000 RMB (roughly US $ 44,000) at auction, making so me individual Lea-growers

liberties with te a by adding milk and s ugar, the Tibetan s went furth er and Lw·ned it

very wealtlly. Like tlle m arket for investment wine, it also attracted tlle less scrupulous,

into a food supplement, even a m e al in itself. They adde d butter from ya k milk, salt,

witll practices such as fa lse la beling and inferior product masquerading as the best.

and, after several-bowls of this at a single sittin g, mi xed in fin ely ground barley

Eventually, tll e bubble bw·st, leaving Pu'er wiU1 a damaged r eputation. Ho wever,

flour to make a paste that was e aten. On average , they dr ink around 15 cups a day.

demand for high quali ty Pu'er still remains strong, and its unique characteristics keep iL prominent in tll e overaJl spread of Chinese teas internationally.

Although c0111I11er cial tea com es from a single species, th er e are two varie ti es and within the se a huge ran ge of cultivars and land-races. The varie ty th a t grows in

The Te a Ho rse Road and its hi story, has becom e a vital component in a dri ve to

Yurman and also in Sichuan is the broad-l eaf assamica, differentia ted from th e small-

promote tourism in Yunn an , Tibe t and Sidman. Everytlling tJ1at can be linked to tll e

leaf sinensis fow1d throughout the ea st of China. The tea mountains of soutl1ern

old tra de is n ow so labelled. The Cha Ma Dao (Tea Horse Road) has becom e tl1e

Yunnan produce a particula r tea that cam e to be known as Pu'er , named after th e

Cha Ma Gu Dao (Ancient Tea Horse Road ), a s roadside posters from Yunnan to

prefecture that became the central point for its distributi on. It has one special

Tibet, and travel agents' we bsites and brochures now proclaim. Perhaps in evitably,

character istic: th e imm ediate processing to w hi ch te a leaves are subj ecte d straight

some of this is becoming r econstructe d history, perhaps even invente d. Certainly

after picking, to 'fix ' them and prevent de terioration, does not, in the ca se of Pu 'er,

in tJ1 e m ain tourist centres, it is n eatly packaged for ea sy digestion by vi sitor s.

comple tely deactivate th e enzymes. The resttlt, unique am on g tea s, is tlrnt Pu'er cakes age like good wine, acquiring a fl avo ur profile tha t h as alw ays been hi ghly

What saves tlle real history is tl1e sheer size of tlris ancient trade route. In its day, tll e

r egarde d by connoisseu rs. And ageing, m eaning oxidatio n and ferm entation , was

Te a Horse Road w as an enterpri se tllat touch e d tlle lives of many, beginning with

of course in evitable on th e long road to Ti be t. The bamboo packaging was semi-

the te a farm ers on the south ern mountain s. The m en who travelle d th e road and

p ermeable, and the rich combination of horse sweat, rain , and atmospher e on the

gave it its spirit Jed h ard, often , bitte r lives. They includ ed th e caravan leaders or Ma

month s-lon g journey gave it an identifiable llavour by U1e tim e it r ea ch e d Lha sa.

Guo Tou ('He ad of Horses a nd Pots'), Mu slim g uilds descende d from the invading armies of Kublai Khan, Tibe tan lados adept a t negotiating tlle dan gerous high passes

But tea w as only one side of the e quation . The other w as th e continuing sear ch for

4

of tlle pl atea u, and porte rs who struggled witll 100-kilo load s strapped to tlleir backs,

w ar horses Lo protect China 's northern fronti e rs against p eoples w ho were more

a s they climbe d tlle freezing heights of Erl an gshan. A few ar e still aliv e; we have

culturaJly a ttun ed to horses and could make better militar y use of them . The n eed

interviewed th em and walke d witl1 th e m . ln a sen se, thro ugh all tlle changes that

for war horses w as paramount and cru cial. When the empire w as strong, it could

have happen e d to thi s old trade route, this is tlleir story, told a gainst the backdrop

deal easily wi th th e nomadic p eoples of th e central Asian gr asslands, but wh en

of some of U1 e w orld's m ost ru gged and powerful landsca pes.

INDIA

Imphal.

Kath a

• Honghe

I Tagaung ~

MYANM)AR (BURM /A)

5

Zhang lang, a Bulang village c l.osc Lo the Burmese borde r in Xishuangbanna s urrouJ1ded by ils carefully mai nlaincd agro-f'oresls Lhal g row hig h-quality Pu'er tea. 6

(Following spread) April tea-picking on BL1langshan, where tJ1e Akha ethJ1ic group maintain some of U1e most hi ghly regard ed Pu'er tea gard e ns. 7

Tibetans took Chinese tea from the south and tmned it into a very different, full-bodied nutritional drink, adding yak butter and salt. Monks at Songzanlin monastery in Shan gri-La enjoy a morning cup. 10

(Following spr ead) A pack train descends the ston e stretch of the old road, carrying goods from Deqin to the village of Adon g. Tea n ow travels everywher e by b,1ck. 11

(Previous spread) Horses and mules still ply a soutbern section of the road leading towards Burma from Heshun, an old village close to Tengchong, passing m1der a stand of old banyan trees. 16

A group of yom1g Tibetan men from Litang cross the 5,000 m etre Donga Pass on the former Tea Horse Road to Lh asa, body-length at a time on their several month pilgrimage. 17

Women from Jia Da village on the upper Mekong pour out saline water from their well to evaporate in shallow pans, as the river sw·ges past. 18 I

(Following spread) Retired villagers in Banqiao, close to the southwestem Yunnan city of Baoshan, gather

every day to pass the time in a local tea-h ouse that has changed little in its 140 year -old hislory.

I 19

The rusty white enamel mugs that are standard tea ware in the tropical montane

pattern on the surface of their toothed leaves. Taxonomists at the Kunming Institute

villages of China's southern Yunnan Province are misleading. This was one of our

of Botany of the Chinese Ministry of Sciences have determined that Camellia sinensis

first lessons in the heart of tea country. The uniformity and simplicity of the cups

has at least eighteen wild relatives, comprising twelve species and six varieties. 11

from one household to another is no indication of the extraordinary diversity of the

of these 12 wild species of tea are densely gathered in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau

beverage served in them. The full sensory experience of each cup of tea begins

and are harvested by local cultural groups. The wild relative species of Camellia

only as the cup nears the mouth. First, you are introduced to a range of volatile

sinensis include: Camellia tachangensis, Camellia grandibracteata, Camellia kwang-

aromatic compounds delivered by the steam of the brewed infusion. Then, as the

siensis, Camellia taliensis, Camellia crassicolumna, Camellia sealyana, Camellia

steam greets the pores of the face and the nose's olfactory receptors, you begin to understand the complexity of what you are drinking. More than a thousand years

gymnogyna, Camellia costata, Camellia leptophylla, Camelliafangchen-gensis, Camellia ptilophylla. South of 25 degrees north in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau,

of management and domestication of this plant by a mosaic of socio-linguistic

Camellia sinensis is diITerentiated as a broad-leaf variety (Assamica), while in the

groups in the forests and ancient gardens of Southeast Asia have contributed to this

north it is a small-leaf variety (Sinensis).

sensory experience. The varied biophysical and cultural environment ofYunnan, together with farmer Standing on a ridge ofDazhongshan, the Great Central Mountain, in Lincang

selection over millennia, has resulted in an evolutionary explosion of tea, so that

Prefecture in the southwest ofYunnan, we are guided by Tah Pah, an elderly lady

hundreds of tea landraces (a landrace is a cultivar that has been domesticated to

of the Bulang cultural group. On this early morning, we try to catch a glimpse of

adapt to specific local conditions) now populate these uplands. Tah Pah manages

the Mekong River far below, through the sea of fog and clouds that surround us.

fifteen tea landraces in her quarter of a hectare plot of tea garden. In addition, she

The Bulang are a Palaung-Wa sociolingistic group and descendants of the Pu, an

harvests two wild tea species in a forest several kilometers away. The richness of

ancestral people recognised by historians as the first cultivators of the tea plant

the tea germplasm, coupled with varied human management practices in forests

over 1,700 years. The Bulang, who generally live at between 900 and 1,500 metres,

and gardens by at least a dozen c ultural groups, bestows on Yunnan the status of

have probably been cultivating tea for over 1,000 years, as have the Akha, another

global hotspot of biological and cultural diversity for tea . And tea is the most widely

mountain-dwelling group who share the habitat, though at a slightly higher altitude.

consumed beverage in the world after water.

Indeed, to the south we can see the clay-tiled roofs of an Akha village emerging from the slopes of another ridge. There is a similar basic pattern to man y of these upland villages, each surrounded by a thicket of bamboo, which also protects the patches of forest, tea gardens, swidden fields, and rice paddy, radiating outwards in an intricate pattern from tl1e cluster of homes with their characteristic broad gabled roofs. A Lahu settlement can be seen at a distance to the east. Tah Pah's village lies in the valley below, easily recognisable as Bulang by its golden Buddhist pagoda; uniquely among the upland minorities, they have adopted Theravada Buddhism from the lowland Dai rather than the prevailing animism. The Lahu, Akha and Bulang are just three ofYunnan's numerous hill-dwelling cultural groups. These moss-covered broadleaf evergreen forests high above the Mekong River in southwest China are the motherland of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) 0. Kuntze; Tbeaceae). The native tea-growing area, or tea belt, extends from Yunnan to contiguous parts of China (Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangxi provinces) and into Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and northeastern India. Linnaeus was the first to describe the tea plant taxonomically, in Species Plantarum in 1753, calling it Thea sinensis. He distinguished the species into black tea (Thea bohea) and green tea (Thea

viridis), but since then, botanists have recognised that both black tea and green tea come from the same species, Camellia sinensis. Discovering this was only possible after tea seeds had been collected from diITerent growing areas, and this took almost a century as the Chinese prohibited outsiders from entering the interior to collect them. Determined to maintain monopoly over th e tea trade, giving away their treasured tea germplasm represented a huge trade risk. For a botanist, both cultivated tea and its wild relatives are trees and bushes with medium-sized white flowers, numerous stamens and a distinct, reticulate vein

24 1

Tea tree in managed agro;[orest on Yibang tea mountain, southern Yunnan.

Dazhongshan is just one of about two dozen tea-producing mountains in Yunnan,

All this is far from the concept of tea popular in the West, where it is frequently

and many are south of here, in the hill country close to Myanmar and Laos known

served as a bag with a string attached, dunked unceremoniously into a mug, and is

as Xishuangbanna and Simao. A few days later, on a warm Spring evening, we

generally regarded as coming from small clipped bushes set in neat rows on man

climb the dusty track from the lowlands southwest of the Mekong up to Bulangshan,

made terraces. Terrace tea is certainly the commercial pinnacle of the industry

where Bulang, Akha and Lahn grow some of the most sought-after tea in the world.

worldwide, but tea-drinking began in a very different way.

We arrive in the Akha village of Baljalpashu just after the tea has been laid out to dry on bamboo mats, the dinner dishes have been washed, and most women and

The organoleptic, h ealing, and stimulant properties of the tea plant are responsible

children are in bed. Men sit on low stools around bamboo and rattan tables which

for its extensive domestication, cultivation, commercialisation and use by hwnans.

have been crafted in the village. They are smoking cigarettes, drinking homemade

Tea is considered to have developed from a medicine to a tonic, food and beverage.

rice wine in sho t glasses, sipping on tea in rusty white enamel cups, and sharing

Its h ealin g attributes were first docwnented in the third and fourth centuries,

stories. As we enter the room, Lau Da, the former headman of Baljalpashu, looks

when the poet Liu Kun referred to the medicinal use of tea, while another, Zhang

up. 'You must be hungrJ, Have you eaten?,' he says as he cracks a few eggs to

Mengyang, mentions tea conswnption in Sichuan Province during this period in his

prepare an omelette-like dish with wild mushroom and the bitter green leaves of Euodia lepta (Theaceae). This is one of almost 200 wild vegetables in the local

Deng Chengdu Lou Shi (Climbing Tower of Chengdu). Tea cultivation and tea drinking spread across China from the country's southwest. Buddhist monks were

cuisine to be found on trails running between the community's tea gardens. It is also

among the first to disseminate the use of tea from its centre of origin throughout

used locally as a treatment for stomach pain, and is worn as a crown for spiritual

China and into Japan. They cultivated the tea plant in their monastery gardens

protection by men walking out of the burial forest. We are already beginning to

and prepared it as a healing tonic for the sick. Monks held it sacred as an aid for

understand that tea gardens are not just spaces for tea cultivation, but also sources

extended meditation. Today there are over one hundred traditional wellbeing

of wild foods, medicine and ritual plants.

functions attributed to tea, including immune system strengthening, balancing the

Lau Da moves away from the stove as the omelet cooks to pour us cups of tea from

of obesity, invigoration of the mind, the reduction of swelling in soft tissue, the

a blackened kettle that sits on the floor near the stove. 'It's from our oldest garden,'

treatment for rhewnatism and stones, as a sleep inhibitor, a digestive aid, a stress

he says as we all take big gulps of the lukewarm tea, which has the highest intensity

reliever, and as a remedy for headaches and hangovers.

body's hot and cold temperature levels, blood detoxification, nutrition, prevention

of flavour of any that we have tasted. At first the tea delivers a high octane of bitterness, but befor e you can take your next sip, the taste profile has already shifted into sweetness. This sharp contrast of bitter and sweet intensity within the same beverage is one of the defining characteristics of high quality tea from this mountain. The flavour profile of tea in this region, known as Pu'er, is heavily influenced by terroir, and also, as we shall see, by its processing. The next morning, we walk through Lau Da's oldest tea garden to collect the leaves.

The walled town of Pu'er in about 1866-67, distribution centrefor Pu'er tea.

As we follow him under a forest canopy, branches scraping our arms, the first

Its name was changed to Simao in 1950.

impression is that this is a wild environment, but in fact it is a managed agricultural system known as a tea agro-forest, or traditional tea garden. It is also a naturalist's delight. Members of the fig, magnolia, bean, laurel, maple, oak, and soap berry families surrow1d us amidst tea trees. Yes, tea trees, not shrubs, growing from two to nine metres tall. Indeed, if left unpruned, tea trees can reach a height of 15 metres or more. We make a detour down the slope to our left, to a neighbour's garden, where we can see a large, sprawling tree with spreading branches. At about nine metres, this is the local giant, and old. The ages of famous old tea trees in Yunnan are often exaggerated in over-enthusiastic tourist literature, and claims of a thousand years or more are not uncommon, though implausible. The diameter of the trunk, however, is a good indicator, and this specimen looks to be between 150-300 years old. A young woman is up on a bamboo ladder that has been wedged permanently into the tree, picking leaves. She tells us tlrnt a buyer from Shanghai has negotiated an exclusive contract with the family, and is paying 3,000 Chinese RMB (about £285/US$440 at current rates) per kilo. That will make the tea from this tree among the most expensive in the world this year, although it will probably produce only five kilos ofleaves throughout the season.

12s

Laboratory studies have identified the catechins, a group of polyphenolic flavan-3-

Pleione and Paphiopedilum genera are collected for their healing powers. The

ol monomers and their gallate derivatives, as the primary compounds responsible

headman of a nearby village had earlier told us that epiphytic orchids impact the

for the health-giving, protective properties of tea. The main ones are epicatechin,

taste of tea, and we ask Lau Da for his opinion. Without hesitation he replies that

epigallocatechin, epicatechin-3-gallate, and epigallocatechin-3-gallate. The latter

every element of the environment contributes. Everything is interconnected - the

compound, also known as EGCG, is acclaimed as the most bioactive constituent in

soil, nearby trees, weather, slope of the mountain, water, the delicate balance of

tea, and over the last decade has entered the domain of popular wellbeing culture.

shade and sunlight, insects, and especially the way people nurture the forests,

Numerous studies have reported that tea catechins have anti-oxidative, anti-inflam-

gardens, fields and all their surroundings.

matory, neuro-protective, anti-cancer, anti-microbial, and anti-atherosclerotic benefits, while the methylxanthine compound caffeine delivers the stimulant

We continue our climb. Primed to look out for diversity, we spot high above us a

attributes of tea. Theo bromine, which resembles caffeine and is most notably found

golden orchid. The Tianzi Biodiversity Centre in Jinghong later identifies it as

in chocolate, is also present and is recognised as a vasodilator and heart stimulator,

Dendrobrium chysotoxum, the Golden Seed of the 'Iree of Life. The Centre has

as is theophylline. Amino acids such as theanine and free sugars make up the rest

learned to cultivate this orchid for its sustainable commercial use. Practitioners of

of the composition of a cup of tea and play immune-boosting and nutritional roles

Chinese medicine seek it out for its rare ability to enhance Yin for a harmonious

in humans. A combination of catechin, methylxanthine, carbohydrate and amino

balance between Yin and Yang. Laboratory studies validate the Golden Seed's

acid compounds contribute to the distinctive taste of tea. For the plant itself, all

immune-boosting, antioxidant, and glucose-regulating properties. Our local Akha

these compounds are defense agents against pathogens, predators and oxidative

'taxonomist' continues to identify Hu jah nah pah loboh ('mouse ear tea') and Aini

stress from the habitat, and this, ultimately, is why the tea from trees growing in

loboh ('Akha tea'). A botanfat would classify both of these tea landraces as the same

such bio-diverse forests is so highly valued.

species, but Lau Dais confident of his ability to discriminate. He looks for different

The micro-ecosystems of trees play an essential role in creating the attributes of

This classification of tea landraces represents ecological knowledge tlrnt is developed

characteristics: shape, size, colour, taste, yields and health properties, among others. this tea. The trees are covered in moss, ferns and epiphytes, and ringed at the base

through intimate human-environment interactions, knowledge that is transmitted

with wild flowers and other plants used for food and medicine by forest dwelling

between and across generations through family and social networks. And these

communities. Lau Da shows us a medicinal semi-parasitic species on a low branch,

social networks extend even further, between villages and across national borders

called 'crab legs' because of its appearance. 'Crab leg' or Viscum articulatum is a

along the Mekong River and its tributaries.

member of the mistletoe family esteemed for its anti-cancer properties. A rare caterpillar, prized for healing properties in 'Iraditional Chinese Medicine, is also occasionally found, while orchid members of the Dendrobium, Bulbophylum, Bletilla,

The Mekong River has played a pivotal function in the dfapersal of tea seeds from the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau towards Soutl1east Asia. Surging from its source at Mount Guangguori in the Tanggula Mountain Range of tl1e Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in the central highlands of China, the Mekong then cascades past snow-capped peaks of some of the highest altitudes in the world before flowing through the

A gable decoration in a Qing merchant's house in Anhui showing a teapot on a low

tropics ofYunnan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam into the South China Sea.

table with drawers for tea utensils.

At more than 4,800 kilometres, the Mekong is the tenth longest river in the world and, after the Amazon, home to the largest diversity of water life. This waterway sweeps tlrrough two hotspots of biodiversity, the lndo-Burmese and that of the Mountains of southwest China. The Greater Mekong Region is home Lo approximately 20,000 plant species, 1,200 bird species, 8,000 reptile and amphibian species, 430 manimal species, and 1,300 fish species. New plant and animal species are continually being discovered in this region - 1,068 species in the past decade. These days, however, the dams, hydropower stations, and repercussions of development threaten the biological and cultural diversity along the Mekong's banks. Along with natural dispersal, many cultural groups have journeyed and migrated along the Mekong River, carrying Lea seeds and associated cultural knowledge and practices. Some of these groups, including the Bulang, Akha, Yao, Lahu, Yi, Wa, Jinou and Hmong have a historical pattern of migration into the uplands, in order to create satellite communities when population sizes reach their carrying capacity, and also to escape more politically dominant groups, in particuJar the Han Chinese. These peoples, and other close upland islands of indigenous groups in neighbouring countries and Chinese provinces are collectively called Zomia by political ecologists.

26 I

Challenging conventional geographic notions of 'region', Zomia is an area united

'cooked', 'ripe', tea, and unless yo u are willing lo pay a small fortune for what purists

by anarchical social structures of indigenous communities that have elected to

consider the real fuing, this is fue Pu'er that you will now normally encounter.

resist inclusion by the politically dominant lowland cultures and rule. Such co mmunities-on-the-run carried their tea seeds with them as they moved to new

A few days later we return to the hot plains and the river city of Jinghong, and

surroundings, and also often sought out locations where tea trees flourished.

prepare to set off for a fuird tea mountain, Jingmaishan. This, too, is highly regarded for tlle quality of its tea, which is tended by Bulang communities. The Bulang have

We re turn from the forest later in the clay, accompanied by Lau Da's eldest son,

adopted many aspects of the culture and religion from tlle lowland Dai peoples,

Da Twu, and the leaves he has collected. Lau Da himself will take charge of the

including the celebration of th e sixth lunar monfu. In Xishuangbanna, as furoughout

processing, just under tl1e large house he completed several montl1s ago wilh tlle

mainland Southeasl Asia, Apri I is tlle peak of the hot season. Alfuougb the hills are

influx of new tea wealth. His n ew home is an adaptation of the traditional raised

fresh, the lowlands have been baking for a few weeks. For th e Dai, who make up

Akha home. For one, il is three times the size of tlle previous one. Two years ago

tlle bulk of the population of Xishuangbanna, and who are closely related to other

Lau Da processed tea in a small wok on the hearth. As demand for lea from his

Tai groups such as the Lao and Thais, the year's major celebration is the Water

family's gardens escalated, he built a new processing area to accommodate tlle 20-

Splashing Festival. This was once a delicate affair during which the Buddha images

25 kilos of fresh leaf that his family harvests daily during Spring. The transformation

in temples were bafuecl, and passers-by were sprinkled with a few drops of water,

of freshly picked leaves into 'raw' tea, or sheng cha as it is known , starts with pan-

but today it has degenerated in Jinghong into water battles using high pressure

frying tl1em on the day they are harvested to deactivate enzymes. The pan-fried

plastic guns and buckets. We will escape this, inasmuch as the windows of our old

leaves are then rolled to break their cell walls in order to r emove moisture content

four-wheel drive are watertight, and head for a very different kind of ceremony on

and shape tl1e final product. For most of tl1e families here, evening is the time for

tl1e tea mountain.

frying and rolling, and fue rolled leaves are then air-dried under sunshine or shade through the following day. Variations in the temperature and time used during the pan-frying, rolling and drying of the tea result in deviations to the phytochemical and sensory profiles of

An Akha woman on Bulangshan sorts freshly picked Pu'er tea that

the encl product. The application of heat and rolling leaves for sheng cha is sinillar

has beenjried and rolled.

lo the fixing process used wifu other green teas to preserve their phytochemical constituents. What sets Pu'er apart, however, is that this process ing does not deactivate the enzymes lo the same degree, and as a result, it undergoes oxidation and ferm entation differently from other teas. Like good wine, Pu'er continues lo age and , according to its connoisseurs, improves in taste. And, as in the wine business, naturally aged, fermented Pu'er commands high prices. In January 2007, at auction at Guangzhou's Fang Cun Market, bidding reached 300,000 RMB (about £30,000/$44,000 at current rates) for a single bing (pressed cake) from the 1940s. Natural ageing has had an important effect on Pu'er as a tea that is traded, as we will soon see when we begin to follow its long historical journey north to Tibet. Over time, the dried leaves darken from pale green to brown, and fue liquor in the cup turns from a pale golden yellow to dark brown and orange-red. Or, as one tea connoisseur puts it, 'the colour of pork liver, with a bit of red in its blackness and with bright lustre'. This colour change is being driven by catechins undergoing oxidation to form the high molecular compounds bisflavanol, theaflavi:n and thearubigin. More recently, since the 1970s, in order to mimic such naturally aged

sheng cha, a second and now more widespread way of processing Pu'er has been developed. This uses microbial techniques, such as heap-ferm e nting leaves for several hours or even days after fuey have been pan-fried and rolled. The microbial fermentation of Pu'er produces statins, a class of fermentation-derived drugs, which have received attention for lowering cholesterol in humans by inhibiting fue enzyme HMG-CoA reductase. Leaves may furfuer be inoculated with selected microorganisms (such as yeasts,Aspergillus niger,Aspergillus gloucu,

Rhizopus, Saccharomyces and Bacterium) before being dried. The result is shu cha or

I 27

Some hours later we are in one of a string of Bulang villages below the ridge line of

legendary ancestral figure. Here, in the agro-forest to which we have become

Jingmaishan. Preparations are under way for tomorrow's mountain-top ceremony

accustomed, with tea trees interspersed with many other species, an altar has been

that will propitiate the community's ancestors and the land spirits who blessed the

erected. Six carved wooden prayer poles, decorated with banana stems and leaves,

Bulang with tea trees. Today, however, it is the turn of the nearby Dai village of

support a mat made of loosely woven bamboo sticks in a grid pattern. Banana and

Meng Ben. In the late afternoon, the grounds of the temple, its gilded stupa glowing

palm leaves cover this and are on the ground below. Villagers, singly and in small

in the gently fading sunlight, fill with men and boys, carrying long, thin bamboo

groups, arrive at the sacred clearing with offerings of food and candles, some also

poles. It comes as a surprise to see that at the end held low is attached a cylinder

carrying musical instruments. All, dressed in their customary ceremonial clothes

trailing a fuse. These are home-made rockets, and the surprise is that they are

in a wide-ranging palate of briJliant colours and organic dark indigos, take up

about to be lit here, way to the west of Laos and northeast Thailand, where the

places which surround the altar. The leader of the several villages arrives, dressed

annual Rocket Festival is a well-known event. There, uncertain rainfall and frequent

in white, with a white cloth turban, accompanied by his spiritual advisor, and

droughts have led to ceremonies to invoke rain, of which the most dramatic is the

approaches the altar. An already-slaughtered chicken is presented, together with

launching oflocally-made rockets. The practice was first recorded in the 13th

other food-stuffs. Until some years ago, a buffalo was sacrificed, but perhaps the

century, at Angkor, by Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan. Each year, 'injront of the

Buddhist component in the Bulang's syncretic belief system now holds more sway.

royal palace, a great plaiform is erected . .. opposite this, some 120 feet rises a lofty

The leader lights a candle as a sacred flame, the sign for the surrounding villagers

scaffold, put together of light pieces of wood . . . Every night from three to six of these structures arise. Rockets and firecrackers are placed on top of these ... The rockets are

which is that the ancestral founder, Pa Ai Leng, had the wisdom to bequeath them

to light their own. His spiritual advisor reads a text in the Dai script, the gist of

fired, and the crackers touched off. The rockets can be seen at a distance of thirteen

tea trees, which will support the Bulang forever. The speeches are followed by a

kilometres.' The same happens today in the Boon Bung Fai festival in northeast

fluid dance around the altar, accompanied by gongs and drums, very much in the

Thailand, propitiating Indra, the Hindu god of the sky, and here, too, on a smaller

Dai, and Lao, style. Finally, everyone crowds around the altar to present a ritual

scale.

offering of a small handful of glutinous rice.

or is the contemporary Chinese interest in rainmaking, in which clouds are

seeded with silver iodide, so very different. Indeed, the Yunnan government has been doing it this year to combat the drought that has afflicted much of the province.

On our return to the village, we meet three tea buyers from Hong Kong accompanied

The next morning, we join the throng of Bulang villagers climbing the forest path

hour journey. They are hardly unusual; during the harvest, tea-picking villages in

to the level top of the peak known as Pa Ai Leng mountain, named after the Bulang's

Xishuangbanna receive a constant stream of visitors aiming to buy at source. Tea

by a guide who has driven them here directly from the airport at Jinghong, a four-

A grouping of several mountain-dwelling minorities encountered on the French 186668 expedition up the Mekong, taken from an original watercolour by Louis Delaporte.

28

I

Workers at a tea-packing and shipping company of the 19th century.

busin essmen from across China make the journey to remote mountain communities

We sit witl1 Li Yingchan g as his son-in-law Huang Dingfu prepares tea. He tells us

like th ese in search of excellen ce based on landrace, terroir and processing. In

that Pu'er is categorised based on variations in tl1e harvest season, location, type of

particular, they are willing to pay a premium for tea that is grown without the use of

cultivation system, processing, and vintage. And of course, he extols the virtues of

ch emi cal inputs. This in turn has stimulated tea-mountain farmers to maintain a

Yiwu tea, which one shipper, critiquing the tea from these mountains, described as

competitive edge by improving tea processing, reviving lost practices and developing

tasting 'a little bitter with a strong aroma that includes notes of honey plum and orchid'. This mountain (in r eality a group or rounded peaks that reach 2,000 metres)

more complex ecological knowl edge about tea production.

has a reputation that goes back to the Qing dynas ty. During tl1is period, large Tea mountains such as Bulangshan and Jingmaishan, south and west of the Mekong,

numbers of Han merchants arrived and settled to do tea business, displacing the

are relative n ewcomers to China's long-established tea industry. By the Qing dynasty,

Bulang who had tended tll eir tea trees for centuries before that. The district is also

tea propaganda favoured the production north and east of the Mekong - the Six

famous for its many old trees, and Li Yingchang tells us that tlle tallest is 23 metres

Famous Tea Mountains ofYoule, Yibang, Yiwu, Manzhuan, Gedeng, and Mangzhi.

in h eight, which seems surprising, given that the tallest generally are between 15

The quality of tea from these mountains was promoted as being so superior that it

and 18 metres. Spring is the most valued harvest season , when new buds and leaves

was served to the Emperor - what became known as tribute tea - but their fame

emerge from the tea plant. The rainy season is the least valued harves t Lime as the

was in part a result of their historical accessibility. The mountains to the southwest

high water retention in the leaves is considered to interfere with tJ1 e taste profiles.

of the Mekong River were more difficult to reach, and, although production was

Tea is harvested through tl1e fall season w1til the end of October or early November.

substantial by the turn of the twentieth century, began to gain recognition for their quality only in the latter part of th e century. The 'famous mountain ' con cept was

Some 30 kilometres to the north as the crow flies is anotller of tll e Six Famous

revitalised after the establishment of tJ1 e People's Republic of China in 1949 when

Tea Mountains, Yibang (tea tasting notes: a little bitter at first, changing rapidly to

the state developed Lea factories, research institutes and nominated n ew districts

sweet, with an orchid fragrance) . This too has the particular topography of gently

for tJ1 eir desirable attributes . Our first visit is to the town ofYiwu, east of the

eroded and forest-clad peaks, all the more distinct in the early morning as we look

capital, Jinghong. The main street, as we drive up from the n earest town , Menlun,

down on it from the ridge-top villa ge ofYibang, a sea of clouds covering the valley

is as nondescript as in most small towns, but turning off to th e right we reach the

bottoms. It is the next day, and w e have driven here from Yiwu and spent the night.

old settlement, its gently crumbling buildings unmistakably Han, most of them

The journey took two hours (no direct flight for us), the last section a very rough

apparently nineteenth century Qing in style.

and steep trail, muddy in th e shade of tall trees. The name of the mountain is a little strange, meaning 'wooden clapper', and the origin goes back to the Qing

At tl1 e rambling courtyard house of 75-year old Li Yingchang, who has been involved "vith the tea business since before the r evolution, when as a youn g boy h e picked leaves in tl1e sw·rounding tea gardens, we are introduced to the making of the characteristic round, flat Pu'er tea cakes. These are called bing, and resemble in shape and size a discus. In one of the rooms adjoining the co w·tyard where we sit, a group or workers are pressing the freshly-processed tea into these cakes in tl1e traditional way. The moulds are two squat cylinders of stone, each with a shallow

A Chinese tea plantationfrom the 19th century.

depression carved into one surface. A soft mass of leaves is wrapped in muslin, its edges twisted together into a loose knot, and placed in the depression in the lower half of tJ1e stone mould. The upper half is then placed on top and the man steps on top, rocking back and fortl1 witJ1 his feet to add to tJ1e pressure. After a few minutes, the bag is removed and the cloth unwrapped. The knot has created the characteristi c central depression in the bing, which is then wrapped in paper and labelled. Seven bing are then stacked togetJ1er enclosed in a bamboo wrnpper. This wTapper is thought to provide a breathable, semi-permeable seal that locks in aroma, blocks out moisture, but lets in just enough influence from exogenous variables to allow the tea to breathe and interact with various environmental factors for ageing. An experienced tea buyer can glean much from the wrapper as to the origins, terroir,

.

and processing of each cake, but the subtleties of tea tasting go deep. Master connoisseurs know that the height and age of the tree, type of culti var or landrace, slope of the growing area, microclimate, shade and sun exposure, soil, plucking time, associated plant species in the production system, and presence of streams all affect the quality of Pu'er.

I 29

dynasty. Legend had H U1al ilie famous mililary strategist and scholar Zhuge Liang,

give tea the characteristics of aged Pu'er and embellished the vintage. Na tm·ally,

nicknamed Crouching Dragon, whose feats inspired the historical no vel Romance

thi s co uldn' t last. As rumours or falsification and suspect quality control began to

of the Three Kingdoms (and more rece ntly the film Red Clijj), le ft behind six items,

emerge, the bubble bmst. No t everyone believes this was a disaster. Lau Da, our

including a stirrup, seed bag and Lhis.

Aldla friend in Bulangshan, Lakes a philosophical view of Lhe former high prices,

The popularity of tea worldwide has led to a very different growing method from

main lain quality and keep innovating. Although the name of his village was being

and sees Lhe new wariness of buye rs as benefitting him and other farmers who what we have seen so far. In fact, most Pu'er is sourced from monoculture

Lmscrupulously appropriated by other producers of inferior tea, today tea grown

plan ta lions, which of course lack the rich ecology of the Lea gardens of Tah Pah,

by him and his neighbow·s co nlinu es to command a premium price while many

Lau Da or those managed by single families in Jingmaishan, Yiwu and Yi bang.

farmers with monocultm·e tea have seen no buyers for montl1s.

Monoculture planlalions are designed for high produclivily and uniformity of product, rearing clonal varieties cultivated in compact rows and pruned Lo Labletop

It is now time for us to learn sornetlling of ilie preparation and appreciation of tea,

shrnbs for ease of harvesling. The tea planl is manipulated at an early age to

th e drink. Long after ow· visits to the tea mountains, we are in Heshun, a beautifully

develop into a bush rather than a tree by removing the central leader slem in order

preserved old Lown near Tengchong, way Lo Lhe northwest ofYiwu, and here we

to encourage development oflateral branches. In many instan ces, these systems

are introduced to the art of tea-making. In an old house by a lake, a young woman

require significant chemical input and were created by clear-culling forests tlrnt

sits al a polished table hewn from a solid, tl1ick trunk, in front of her an impressive

sustain biodiversity. Throughout the world, the desire for efflciency has distanced

array of equipment and utensils. Dressed in a white silk qipao (tl1e traditional

us from the sources of many foods we consume, and tea is no diffe rent. Since the

Chinese dress) trimmed wiili blue, she first breaks a piece of a bing with a stainless

1970s, Yunnan's traditional tea resources have been vulnerable to replacement by

steel tool designed specifically for U1is purpose.

monoculture plan ta lions and modern cultivars. This is an issue iliat concerns some of the producers, and we visit one planlalion at Huiming, close to Jingmaishan, witl1 Li Minguo, who runs the Tianzi Biodiversity Centre in Jinghong. She and her late husband Josef Magraf have worked with the new owners of the plantation to find ways of increasing the bio-diversity on the terraces, and she explains how they planted a variely of trees among the tea shrubs. Monoculture plantations often have their own in-house tea cullivar, which is distincl from the neighbouring plantations. And this practice has indeed generated thousands of tea cultivars globally, although it is not a patch on the genetic diversily of a tea agro-foresl. Tah Pah has 15 cultivars

in her half-hectare plot, yet a typical large plantation has but one or two clones in 625 hectares. The quality of tea from Yunnan's organic shade-grown Lea gardens began gaining

Pouring Pu'er tea through a gourd straine,: Up to a dozen pourings can be made, each

international recognition in 2002 when health concerns arose following accounts

one tasting subtly different from the others.

of the contamination of some commercially-grown tea with chemical residues. The Yurman tea market responded with efforts to distinguish its product from other teaproducing areas. Authenticity, origin, culture, ecology, health, and vintage were used Lo market compressed tea, like that which was historicaJly trnd e d to the Tibetan Plateau, under the name Pu'er. Increased demand for 'ecological tea' and marketing hype resulted in a boom that laste d five years. Tea farmers directly benefited; the annual tea income earned by some families increased over 100-fold between 20022007, when Yunnan's tea market hit its peak. During the Pu'er boom years, consumers could be seen pm·chasing compressed tea as if it were fine wine and storing il wiili similar concern. ll allracted newcomers. Traders, farmers and businessmen with no previous experience in Lea began to flood tlle market with poor quality and adulterated producl. Some tea grown in rnonocultuTe plantations promoted by government development efforts was even labelled as being sourced from ancient tea trees in forests. Hucksters misrepresented the origins of ilieir inferior product witll names of communities known for producing high-quality foresl tea. Industrial processors tapped into microbial technologies to 30

She sits tall with perfect posture as she pours boiling water from a kettle into a

The CLLltme of drinking tea is historically rich and complex, and has moved through

small porcelain vessel known as a gaiwan, into which she has already placed a

cycles, from simplicity to sophistication and back. The scholarly approach to tea,

spoonful of pale green leaves, about eight grams. The gaiwan has a lid, which she

emphasising elegance and restraint, reached its peak in ilie Song Dynasty (960-

uses to seal the vessel briefly, before pouring out the infusion in less than a minute,

1279), but the classic of tea literatw·e, which still underpins its connoissew·ship,

not into our cups, but over tiny, symbolic clay figures that surround the tea table.

was written two centuries earlier by Lu Yu. As tea drinking spread during the Tang

One of the figures is a peishu, a legendary creature that resemb les a toad and

Dynasty, a new literary genre was born, the chashu (or monograph on tea), marking

represents abundance . The pouring of tl1.e first infusion as a sacred offering is

a turning point in Lea history. Lu Yu's monumental work Cha Jing, The Classic of

common practice in the teahouses and homes ofYunnan. It is also serves to open

Tea, was the result of a lifetime of study. Refinement, as i11 Lhe tea ceremony we

the flavour and aromatic profiles of U1e tea leaves, preparing them for the subsequent

have just attended, is nevertl1eless matched by a more robust, rustic ethic that has an

pourings, of which there will be many.

equally long history. The dainty cups we have been using are for slow appreciation, but 'big bowl tea', which became popular in Beijing in the late Ming Dynasty,

ext water is brought to the boil once more, and the gaiwan is refilled, ilie leaves

represents the otller extreme - cheap tea downed in large quantities to quench

now wet and expanded. Thirty seconds later, she gracefully twirls the gaiwan lid

thirst. Tea of the common people is at least as important in Chinese history, tllough

in front of her nose and gently inhales tl1e aromatic compom1ds to check that the

attended by less literary celebration. And it was the mass consumption of tea iliat

tea is ready to serve. With great poise, she transfers the infusion from the gaiwan

made trading it such a major business. In particular, it was another unsophisticated,

to a small glass teapot, using U1e lid of tl1e gaiwan to sweep the tea leaves that are

pragmatic love of tea that gave rise to the 4,000 kilometre network of trails tlrnt

sticking to the edge of the vessel back inside, before putting tl1e lid back in place.

begin here, in tlle tea mountains, and lead north to ilie Tibet-Qinghai Plateau.

With a graceful flexion of her wrists, she pom·s the tea into miniscule porcelain

Tibetan butter tea, unthinkable to the Chinese men of letters who gathered to sip

cups, placing each of these on an equally minute bamboo saucer in front of us.

and write poems, was tl1e reason for one of tile longest land trade routes in tl1e

Her eyes and attention remain focused on the tea and preparation tools.

world - tile journey that we will now take.

ever

smiling or looking away from the tea preparation, it seems Ulat she does not hear OLtr

conversation, even tl1ough we are sitting directly in front of her. Finally, a subtle

hint of content appears on her face when she takes a sip of tea. She has followed the gongfu cha dao ('way of tea brev'.i.ng witl1 great skill') method of preparing tea that was developed in the Tang Dynasty. The tea is yellow in colom, and the first sip has a hint of bitterness. But the smprise comes as the liquid travels back over the tongue, becoming almost sweet. There is something magical and difficult to explain about this transition between two seeming opposites in the taste spectrum. Under instruction, we taste tlrree more pourings and learn that for this sheng cha, the tl1ird is regarded by some as the peak, but that the tea will be good for about a dozen. However, we will not sit through th ese later pourings, because it is time for a more special experience - a 30-year naturally aged Pu'er . The vessel for making this tea is different. The gaiwan is replaced by a miniature brown cerami c teapot. At least, it looks to us like a miniatm·e version of tl1e teapots we are used to in the VVest, rOLmd, with handle and spout perhaps ours are just over-sized versions of the real thing. The water for this old tea needs to be at 100"C ratl1er than ilie 80°C normal for fresh sheng cha. The young woman first places a measure of tea inside the pot, closes the lid, and pours in some hot water. She explains that such a valuable tea has to be 'woken up', and for this the teapot must be made witl1 a small-pored clay that will hold the heat ins ide. She pours a second round of hot water over the closed teapot, then raises it to her nose, removing tl1e lid, and smelling the mellow fragrance. It is time to pour the first infusion, then tlle second, and tlle tllird. And indeed, it is mellow and smooth from its years in storage. The afl:ertaste is almost peppery, and completely wiU10ut tlle mildewy taste often acquired by Pu'er through fungal attack from improper storage. We can continue drinking this Lea for eighteen infusions. 31

Tea mountain landscape

Early morning clouds hang in the valleys below Yibang tea mmmtain, one of the traditional Six Famous Tea MoLmtains. In the distance on the left rises Mansa, another tea mountain in the group. 32 I

33

34

Tea picking

Tea-tree

An A.kha man from Baljalpashu village on Bulangshan tea mountain picks

From the same community, a young Akha woman climbs a ladder into the Fami ly's

leaves from his tea garden, an hour's walk from the settlement. An infrared

most t.reasLU'ed possession, a large, old tea tree. The leaves from old trees in agro-

sensor in the camera differentiates the many degrees of chlorophyll

forests are highly valued, not only for the maturity of their taste but also because

reflectivity of the surrounding trees in this richly bio-diverse habitat. Such

of U1e rarity of great age, which in U1e case of Lhis specimen is probably close to 300

diversity stimulates the tea plants to produce chemical compounds for

years judging by its girth. This year the family negotiated a price with a Taiwanese

defence, which in turn contribute to its taste and health-giving properties.

buyer, ten times that of the average for the mountain.

35

Panfrying tea

The first step in processing the freshly collected leaves is to pan-fry them. This halts oxidation and deactivates enzymes. In the home of Ligan, the Communist Party leader of this group of Akha villages on BuJangshan, his daughter is being taught the process by her mother. This requires the mass of leaves to be kept in constant motion to avoid burning. Still warm from the wok, the leaves are then r olled briskJy between the palms of the hands. This breaks the cell walls, releasing the trapped moisture and shaping them into strands. 137

Xin Banzhang. Gathering leaves

Lau Dah, recently retired as the village leader of Baljalpashu, gathers up leaves that have been spread out to dry for the day on mats on the teITace of his house, as his youngest son practices somersaults.

38 l

139

Sorting tea

Akha women sort dried tea leaves by picking out those that have yellowed by receiving too much heat during the pan-frying. These rejects will not be wasted; they are mixed with fodder for the village animals. 141

Making bamboo tea

A special village technique for storing and transporting tea leaves is to pack them into sections of bamboo culm. Heating the bamboo by turning it carefully in a fire removes moisture and also makes it easier to pack the tea more tightly. 42 1

143

44

I

Akha headdress I

Akhawoman

Of all the mountain-dwelling groups of mainland Southeast Asia, the Akha have notably preserved their traditional culture, many aspects of which are gathered into the 'Akha Way', or Akhazang. However, this is now rapidly disappearing, and one outward sign is the infrequency with which women wear the complex silver headdress. Whereas, once an Akha woman would hardly ever remove the base of the headdress, it now tends to be worn only for special ceremonial occasions, and is usually made of aluminum in any case. Here an elderly inhabitant of Baljalpashu village is engrossed in making repairs to hers.

Thirty years ago, all of the women in this Akha community on the BurmeseThai border wore silver headdresses, removing the metalwork only for sleep. Akha silversmith

The small metal hemispheres used in many of the different Akha women's headdresses were traditionally made by hammering silver coins into moulds like this one, carved into a buffalo horn. In some headdress designs, pairs of these hemispheres were annealed to make hollow silver balls. Nowadays, these have been replaced by machine-stamped aluminium.

46

I

Ya Jang makes tea

Zhanglang village

Ya Jang, a Bulang woman in her seventies, prepares a mug of tea with leaves picked from her own tall tree in her forest tea-garden.

Zhanglang village, a Bulang community in the mountains southwest of Menghai, south of the Mekong and close to the Myanmar border.

47

Bulang women

Bulang women in a household in Laomange village prepare the afternoon meal in the kitchen, which is part of the open-plan interior, raised on stilts above the sloping ground of the hillside. Bulang spiritual leader

The Dazang, or spiritual leader of the Bulang community at Laomange on Bulangshan. 48 1

so I

Villagers pray in the early morning

Monk adjusts his robe

The Bulang have adopted Buddhism from the lowland Dai people, although still retaining some animist traditions. Villagers from Zhanglang pray in the early morning in the community's temple-monastery.

At Laomange, a young Bulang man ordained as a monk adjusts his robe at the village's temple. Unusually, he has spent two years training at a Thai temple in Chiang Mai.

! SI

54 I

Tea tree ceremony I (previous spread left)

Tea tree ceremony 3

Bulang villagers, dressed for the occasion of the annual tea tree ceremony, light candles in front of the altar that is the focus of the event, on one of Jingmaishan's peaks.

The Dazang, spiritual leader of the Bulang, reads from a text in Dai script that has been prepared earlier.

Tea tree ceremony 2 (previous spread right)

The Bulang community leader lights a candle and begins the annual ceremony giving thanks to the ancestral founder figure Pa Ai Leng for the gift of tea trees.

Tea tree ceremony 4 The ceremony concludes with a communal dance that closely resembles the lam vong of Laos and its Thai and Khmer equivalents - a circle dance with sweeping yet delicate and precise movements of the hands and arms.

55

Tea tree ceremony 5

Towards the end of the ceremony, the whole community presses arow1d the altar to offer a small handful of glutinous rice. Tea picking I

Ritual tea picking in ceremonial clothes follows the ancestor rite. 56 I

57

Tea picking 2

Bulang women from Mang Jing village make a ri Lw1 l collection ofleaves in one of U1e mountain's agro-forest tea gardens. 58

59

(previous spread left) Dai villagers in Jingmaishan celebrate their new year with a rocket-launching festival echoing the more widespread events in northeastern Thailand. Men and boys gather in the grom1ds of Meng Ben's Buddhist temple with handmade rockets. Rocket Festival

(previous spread rig ht) Led by the temple's abbot, the procession ofrocketeers dances its way through Meng Ben's main street up to a nearby hill where th e rockets -vvill be lam1ched. Rocket Launching I

Rocket Launching l

At dusk, and to the sound of drumming, the rockets are laid on simple, sloping launching platforms and ignited, at some personal risk.

62 1

Dai New Year

After the rockets have all b een lam1ched (or have fizzled out ignominiously, or explode d) the entire village, including women an d children, dance in file arotmd the temple grounds, accompanied by musicians on Dai elephant-foot drums, carved from mango or ceiba trees. Bulang New Year

At Meng Hong village, a Bulang community, girls an d wom en dress and dance in typically Dai style. 65

Yiwu & Yibang tea mountains

75-year old Li Yingchang, a key figure in the tea business ofYiwu, drinks tea produced by his own household factory, served by his son-in-law Huang Dingfu. Since 1949 this courtyard house, actually 'no. 1' on the Tea Horse Road that begins here, has processed tea from Yiwu. Pu'er Bing

A 350gm, 17-cm diameter, bing of Pu'er tea pressed in 2009, from the Pure Pu'er tea estate on Jingmaishan. This disc shape is traditionally formed by pressing the freshly processed tea, wrapped in a cloth bag, between two stones that have a shallow circular depression. The knot tied in the cloth bag gives the central indentation on the reverse side. This variety is known as 'moonlight' tea, dried in darkness. 66

I

67

Pu'er Bing label

An identifying ticket, or neifei, is placed among the leaves and pressed into the bing. The texture of the cloth can be seen pressed into the leaves in close-up. Yiwu tea

Despite efforts to regularise tea production, processing and pressing takes place all over tea mountains like Yiwu, and at different levels of quality. Here, a family produces ch eaper brick tea for the lower end of the market. 68 1

Yibang I

An 80-year old inhabitant ofYibang village with some freshly-picked leaves

from her tea-garden. Hanging the skins of flying foxes in or just outside the house is a local custom. Archibald Colqhoun, a British engineer, explorer and one-time foreign correspondent for The Times of London, wrote in his account of an 1881-2 expedition through southern China,Across Chryse (1883), that Yibang was the 'most highly esteemed tea -growing district, whence the best so-called "Puerh" tea comes'. Yibang 2

A mother bathes her young son in front of the house on Yibang's single, ridge-top street. 10 I

71

Yibang 3

The small town still lacks a water system, and villagers continue to use a nearby spring, as they have for two centuries.

72

Tea estat e Terrace tea in rows following the contours of the lower slopes of Jingm aishan,

in the far southwest of Xishuangbanna, on the Pure Pu'er tea estate. The 23 ter1ms of pick ers live in hamlets dolted around the estate; here, m embers of Team #14,, all from the Altha ethnic minority and re-locate d her e , tend the shrubs. In an effor t to in1prove biodiversityi11 this monocullLu-e planlaUon, b·ees of a variety of species have been planted among the terraces, a process that aims to increase biodiversity. Rai.nforestation, as this is kno wn, is the term introduced by Dr Josef Margraf, who undertook these plantings. 74

75

76 I

Pure Pu'er factory I

Pure Pu'er factory 3

At the Pure Pu'er company's Huiming factory, trays of leaves are graded ready

Workers sort the processed leaves, their curled, thread-like shapes the result of rolling. Discoloured leaves are removed.

for processing either as fresh sheng cha, or as fast-fermented shu cha to approximate naturally aged sheng cha.

Banqiao tea house (following spread) Pure Pu'er factory 2

The just-processed tea, still moist and wrapped in a cloth bag, is hydraulically pressed into the traditional bing shape, as seen on the foreground shelves. The knot in the cloth bag about to be pressed makes the circular indentation on the reverse of the bing. Most Pu'er teas nowadays are pressed hydraulically.

Across China, tea culture ranges from rough and simple to delicate and refined. In an old village tea house in Yunnan, regulars gather daily just to take a warm, inexpensive, health-giving and mildly stimulating drink. One of the earliest Chinese medical texts, attributed to Shen Nong, says that 'tea tastes bitter. Drinking it, one can think quicker, sleep less, move lighter and see clearer.' 77

Tea making

Tea shop in Kunming

With full concentration, Zhou Lan, who has studied tea and its preparation for most of her life, potrrs a measm·e of Pu'er tea from a gaiwan (a porcelain lidded

Looking for new heights of elegance and refinement, a tea shop in the heart of Yunnan's capilal, Kunming, presents the teas from the Ptrre Pu'er estates, with tea tasting available to customers. Hermes, the French luxtITy products company, was commissioned to design the shop and entire range of packaging.

tea pot) into a clear glass, ready to serve guests at a tea house in an ancestral hall in Heshun, southwesl Yunnan. 80

J

81

Tn the steep sections of the trail, th e sound of hooves on polished rock is partic ular

exotic, and a more humble quest for en ergy, weilbeing and livelih ood. To under stand

and w e never r eally get used to it. Th e mules, their pack saddles fully laden , slide-

th e expansive corrunodification of tea is to comprehend r egional history, geography

and -claller up th e old stone steps as if about to slip and fall. But this is just our

and culture, and to r ecogni se tJ1 e powerful properties of the tea plant itself.

inexp e ri ence . Their footin g is sure r than it sounds, and from an age wh en they could carry a useful weight, they have been up and down this trail every few days.

Tea cu ltivation is dependent on en vironmental variables, but th e spread of tea

And gen erations before them . The mule teers keep their animals well-shod, and

drinking is boundless. The Ywman-Gui zhou Plateau is the exten sion of the Tibetan

centw·ies of carrying goods through th e mountains have smooth ed th e stones that

Plateau , so it was quite natw·al for c ullLU'al exchange to proliferate be tween centres

wer e set h er e long ago. The h a bit in a pac k train is for the anim als to tread in the

of Tibe t, Yunnan, and Si c hu an and tea drinking w as one of tllem . Th e tea-growing

steps of those in front, and on a fe w stones where the step is deep , th er e are now

mountains of Xishuangbanna are far r emoved as habitats from tlle snow-capped

hoof-shaped holes. Dun Zhu, who is leading the horses, explains that the pack

mountains, sub-alpin e conifer forest, and arid land of Tibet. Moreover , tlle distances

lTains ar e now much smaller sin ce they no longer carry tea, and the jow·n eys much

a re huge, and even by the most direct r o ute, for a packload of tea to r each Lhasa

shorter. A wiry 65-year old, h e has worked with horses all his life, and as the leader

from Sim ao involves more than 2,500 kilome tres. This equates to months of quite

of a caravan h e is known in Chinese as a Ma Guo Tou ('Head of Horses and Pots') ,

h ard travelling.

an old term that sets out th e priorities of life on the trail very clearly - first the horses, then the food . The second-in-command is known as Ar Guo Tou ('Number

Most historians believe that Tibe tans first en counter ed tea durin g the 7th centlll'y

Two Head of Pots'), a term be tter known to most Chinese these days as the name of

wh e n the Tubo Tibetan Kingdom conquer ed Dali, Lijiang, and oth er parts ofYwman.

a popular brand of w hite spirit.

If Tibe tans began tea consumpti o n at thi s tim e, it was strictly among tlle elite and

r e m ained inaccessible for th e m ajori ty of society. This w as a p eriod w hen Yunn an Ge nerations of caravan leader s h ave steer ed their charges through challen ging

w as part of tJ1 e

lan dscapes for hundreds of kilom e tres to bring tea lo Tibe t (and also to Burma,

Chin ese empire in ilie mid-1 3th cenllll'y, after the Mongol conqu est. Prior to ilie

anzhou Kingdom , well before it w as acquired as a province of the

Nepal and India) . The task was strenuous and th e terrain tmforgiving. So, why have

Mo ngol invasion , Yunnan w as m ore closely linked with Soutlleasl Asia , bldia and

lives and landscapes been dedicated lo the distribution of this plant? How did tea

Tibe t tha n it w as to tl1e Chin ese Empire. During the Tibe tan rule of Yunnan , a

achieve such status ? Its journey on the Tea Horse Road is a narrative of politics,

military route was forg ed to conn ect the Tibe tan Kingdom witJ1 th ese occupied

economics, c ulture, and h ealth . lL is about aggrandising empire, a desire for the

areas, and came to be known as th e So uthw est Silk Road (Xinan Sichou-zhilu) and al so as the Cha M a Dao (Tea Horse Road ). Th e in clusion of 'h orse' (Ma) in tl1e

n a m e did not r efer to th e anim als carryin g tl1e tea, but ratller to a trad e that w as a t least partly in the r everse direction from Tibet, that of sturdy breeds su ch as the

Nangchen, wanted by the Imperi al Arm y in its defence of the nortJ1 ern fronti ers. As we will see in Chapter Four, th e exchru1ge of tea for horses becam e formali sed during tlle Song dynasty in th e Uth century.

Muleteers drinking rice wine during a halt at a village in Yunnan, 193 7.

We can more deeply under stand th e Tibe tan adoption of tea as a vi tal food to m aintain wellbeing by explorin g th e Tibe tan system of m edicine. Tibe tan m edi cin e h as deep roots in the Buddhist philosophy taught by the Buddha in his mrulifestation as U1e Medicine Buddha . It was brought to Tibe t with Buddhism and w as adapted to th e ha bitat and culture through the adoption oflocal h ealin g practices and natural r esottrces. Disease in Tibe tan m edicin e is seen as r es ulting from botJ1 m ental and physiological processes. Al the m e ntal level, ignorance of th e mind leads to ilie tllree mental poisons of desire, hatred, and close-mindedness. Th ese in turn res ult in an imbalance of the tl1ree humoms (nyes-pa), whic h cau se disease. Teachings of th e Buddha seek to overcome illnesses arising from ignoran ce o r th e mind. In tllis r egard, tJ1e Buddha is seen as a physician for his scientific teachings. Physiologically, disease in Tibe tan m edicine is caused by an imbalance in the inter actions of the three humolll's, seven physical e ner gies, and three kinds of excrem ent (impurities) th a t con stitute tJ1e htunru1 body. lmbalru1ce m ay be caused by a wi de of range of varia bles s uch as improper die t and be havioral p attern s, lack of slee p, excessive inter course, excess of bitter, so ur, or sweet tastin g food and drink, em p ty s tomach , blood loss, strenuous w ork , exposure to a strong cold wind, an ger , we t ground, ea tin g stal e food, greasy ty pes of food , e vil forces and a ch an ge in season s.

84 1

Nutritional essence (dangs-ma), or essential food and beverage intake, is regarded

millennia, it enabled trnde in a wide vari ety ofprodu

. i>n.>c'io

metals and lone ,

most highly of all the seven substances that comprise th e human body, as it is this

tea, shell , jade, silk, elephant tusks, h orse . hide . wool. furs. lumber. textile . he rb .

substance, after aU, that is U1e source of the otilers makin g up U1e body (blood, flesh,

medicine, animals, incen se, dyes, butle r, pice . frui t. nu . cloth. carpe . tobacco.

fat, bon e, marrow, and en ergy). Thus, th e careful selection of food is c ru cial for

wild life products, salt, gold, silver, copper, tin. lead . rolton . grain. opium. po

maintaining weUbeing and preventing illness. As Tibetans encow1tered tea through

pans, swords, rifles, matches, buttons, and mirror all foUJ1d their \\a~ alon° thi

and

cultural exchange , and in cr easingly began using it, th ey discovered its properties

route. Each commodity carried with it cuJtmal value . ta le and practice . The Road

of strengthen ing the body's blood, muscle, fat, bone, marrow and r egenerative

was also a migratory route for monks, pilgrims, armie and even entire romm unitie

fluid and cr eating energy. The consumption of tea, in synergy with other traditional

with th e earliest such r ecord being fow1d in tl1e Han en voy Zban° Qian· accoUJ1t of

foods, was, according to Tibetan medicin e, able to create a perfect balance in the

exploration in the western regions in th e late 2nd cenlmy BCE. Fral!:mentary texts

body. Given that the indigenous Tibetan territory had hundreds of end emi c

prior to th e Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) r efe r Lo exchan ge bel"\Yeen China and India

medicinal plants of its own , it might seem strange to r ely for daily subsisten ce on a

through forests, rivers and mountains from Sichuan and Yunnan aero

Burma and

leaf that was so inaccessible. The reason was that tea did indeed provid e tile

Assam. Some historians claim that sections of the Road ha ve an eYen m ore ancient

Tibetan di e t with a pe rfect balance. It did not contain th e potency of m a ny

history, based on archaeo logical evidence of tombs that dale Lo 4,000-5.000 years.

indigenous plants that wou ld disrupt th e harmonious balance of the body iJ

These are found in Ywman , Sichuan, and Tibet, and bear a striking re e m blance to

consmned daily and frequ e ntly. At times when tea was unavailable beca use of a

each oth e r despite tl1e distances separating them.

lack of r esources to trade in return, Tibela11s had no r eco m se but to u se these particular local plants in its place. But tiley still desired Lea, because it had a special ability to boost en ergy tlrnt they found difficult to substitute.

This is not a single road , but rather an extensive n e twork followin g se veral bran ches, each of which came to prominence at dHierenl limes. For Pu'er tea, th e hub w as Simao, where trails from Lhe various tea monntains converged, and from here

The entire n etwork of tJ1e Southwest Silk Road linked cultures and natmaJ resources

bran ch es fanned out, sub-dividing into others. Om main focus is th e one that heads

between Ym1nan, Sichuan, Tibe t, SouU1east Asia, India and

nort:11 through Dali and Lijiang into Tibe t, then on to Nepal and India . There was

epal. Caravans also

tra velled from Yunnan to the Chinese provinces of Guan gxi and Guizhou in the east.

also a route leading south west into and across Burma, via Lincang, Baoshan and

Historian Shen Xu notes how the Southwest Silk Road was crucial in facilitating

Tengchong, and a sub-branch into th e Bmmese Shan Slates from Menghai, to Ken g

interactions between China and its foreign n eighboms. Over the co1u-se of two

Tnng and th en into nortil e rn Thailand. Another went tilrou gh Knnmin g and nortlleast towards Beijing and oilier provin ces of China, wh ile to tlle southeasl one bran ch headed to Vietnam tl1rough Jianshui in Honghe Prefecture, and anotile r entered Laos via Mengla and Mohan, passed through Luang Prabang and entered Thailand near Chiang Khong. As silk played a ve ry minor rol e along iliese routes, tlle term Soutilwesl Silk Road is sometiling of a misnomer, and even tilough the trade route was in existence be fore th e Tibetans began drinking tea, tea and horses came to be so important that it is in creasingly referred to as tile Cha Ma Dao (Tea Horse Road).

A caravanjlying the Qing}lag at Pu'er (Simao), Yunnan late 19th century.

Popularly it is the Cha Ma Cu Dao , or Ancient Tea Horse Road, but th e addition or this fotu-til word is relati vely recent, onl y from ilie 1930s; when tile road was in use, it w as far from being considered ancient! Other terms occasionally used were the Tibetan Drelam (Mule Road) , and Gyalam (Wide Road). Jn 1895, tile leader of a Government of India exp edition to Yunnan , Major Davi es, reported that the annual tea production heading out of Simao totalled 15,000 mul e loads, about 900 tons. He also described how tlle 'disc-shaped cakes some eight inches in diameter and one

inch thick, weighing about 12 ozs. ' w er e 'put together in packets of seven, placed one on top of the othe1; and done up with strips of the outer bark of bamboo.' This semipermeable packaging also helped to give Pu'er tea some of its special qualities. Along tll e journey in horse caravans, the comp ressed sheng cha interacted with rain, microorganisms, and other environmental variabl es and continued to ferm ent and oxidise . This naturally fermented tlavom profile eventually becam e so valued tilat the mod ern shu cha process was devised to mimic it. Yunnan's importance on th e Road came not just from th e quality of its Pu 'er tea with its maturing prope rti es, but also rrom its central geographic loca tion and tl1e diversity of ils natural resources. Historian Bin Yang highlights the !:rans-regional 85

importance ofYunnan in commodity and cultural exchange in historical times and

six to ten days southwest of Ssu-mao and about the same distance northwest of the

its significant role in shaping neighbouring societies. Historian Ann Maxwell Hill

Me-khong on both sides of a left bank affluent of that river: lt is six days' journey

further emphasises how Lhe Ywrnanese came to dominate Lhe long distance trade

from Ssu-mao to I-bang [Ybangl, the chief of the tea-hills. The road was said to cross

on the Road in products procured from China, as its muleteers and pack trains

two steep hills during the first clay and two steep hills during the second day; the

were skilled at crossing sparsely populated mountainous areas. Familiarity with

third clay the road is downhill/or the most part to Meng-wang T'u-ssii which is very

the natural barriers of mountain ranges and river gorges gave the Yunnanese a

malarious; on the fourth day there is a further descent to the Man-nao rive,~· on the

competitive advantage. The principal branch that headed north on its course to

fifth day the road is up and down hillfor the whole distance; and on the sixth day

Lhasa includes over 50 river crossings, 75 mountain passes, and the two highest

there is a steady ascent to I-bang. From I-bang to Yu-l is three days ' journey, and to

plateaus in China, the Qinghai-Tibet and the Yunnan-Guizhou. Many of its well-

l-wu [Yiwu] two days'. From Man-nai to Cheng-tung is two days', andjrom Cheng-

used sections gradually acquired a paving of stones.

tung to Mo-bei three days' journey. A day's journey may be taken as 18 to 22 miles. Yu-leformei·ly belonged to the I-bang district, but became the property of a Yao chief

On what used to be the most famous tea mountains, such as Yiwu and Yi bang,

who gave it with his daughter when she married aformer Hsjian-wei Ssai whose

the trail is stone-paved from Lhe slarl. ln facl, as early as Lhe Qin, Han and Three

private property the hill now is ... 'From Simao, the Road runs north to Dali,

Kingdom periods, according to researcher David Jupp, 'paved stone roads were

along the relatively straight valleys that lead through Jingdong, Hujie, Nanjian

consolidated and maintained as part of China 's Postal Road system'. In the more

and the old walled town of Weishan. An alternate route more to the west crossed

hazardous terrain to the north, 'challenging, steep and dangerous mountain ranges

the Mekong lo Lincang, then Fengqing and across the Mekong again to Lushi,

required the development of innovative road building technology known as "Plank

then Weishan.

Roads" by which ravines and steep sided gorges were traversed using trestles fixed into the rock face.'

Wilh greater public involvement in the tea trade, a new league of caravan men emerged who ran portions of the Tea Horse Road, picking up commodities at one

We can get some sense of Lhe challenges of Lransporling the Lea on this section, even

trading post and dropping them at another. Pack trains oflen consisted of 50 Lo 100

in the relatively benign landscape of the south, from the account written in 1888 by

animals led by to to 20 muleteers. A clay's travel began early, paused for about

FSA Bourne, Her Majesty's Consular Agenl al Chongqing: '77ie tea hills are situated

three hours in the middle of the day, according Lo Lhe British engineer and explorer Archibald Colqhoun, writing in 1883, and totalled approximately eight hours, during which tim e U1e caravan would have covered about 30 kilometres, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the terrain. Those running a particular sel of stages were well versed in the local topography: each track along a river's edge or the ridge of a mountain, and even the slippery rocks in a stream. As altitudes escalated, more acclimatised teams often picked up the journey. Mules and ponies carried their packs on a specially designed wooden frame, resting on blankets, in which there is a central gap so that no weight resls djrectly on the animal's spine - a design

A mule caravan near Pu'er (Simao), 1910.

which is still made and used today. The standard load was a dozen of the seven-bing stacks, wrapped in barn boo, on each side of the saddle, mahlng a total of just over

50 kilos. The tackle had another distinctive feature to cope with the heavy load and rough terrain: the crupper securing the saddle to the base of the tail was (and still is) strung with bobbin-like wooden wheels to roll comfortably. Pack saddles were removed Lo swin1 across streams and to allow th e animals to graze, and ilie teams either camped under the stars at night near their packs to protect fueir goods, or stayed in inns or homes along the Road, particularly when they had to purchase local rights to graze their animals. Raiding and banditry associated with trade were a constant danger, with groups of bandits controlling diITerent sections of the Road, in a kind of parallel counter-economy. They demanded tribute from passing caravans, and even held hostages for ransom on occasions when wealthy merchants were travelling. Dali and Kunming (Yunnanfu as it used to be known), the political and trading centres ofYunnan, became the home bases of fue mule caravans that were organised into guilds. Dali was probably also the home of the earliest group of

86

merchanls and middlemen as well as the acclaimed annual spring trade fair.

of Is lam along major Lrad e routes. The mosque e tabli hed at trading posts as

Tengchong in Baoshan Prefecture and Jianshui in Honghe Prefecture were the

Islam spread, furth er fostered U1 e developm ent of ~luslim communities, while U1 e

other bases for active merchanl groups, the former handling Lrade to Bmma, and

trade routes were useful for Uie Muslim practice of the Hajj pilgrimage to 1ecca .

Ji anshui Lh e trade to Vietnam . Dali's Spring fair and smaller market fairs attracted

By U1e time the British and Fren ch arrived at the border ofYwman, they found Hui

merchants and middlemen from Uuoughout Ywman and swT01mding areas. Known

Muslim muleleers already weU established in th e caraYan trade. A surveyor from

as U1e Sanyue Jie, or Festival of the Third Month, because of its posilion in Lhe

British Burm a observed in the late 19U1 cenlw·y,' !any of the muleteers are i'vlussel-

Chinese calendar, the annual event started by the Bai as early as the Tang Dynasty,

mans,fine, strongly built, with that air of defiance which the ,Hahomedan race wears

generally ran for three days, with a bustling exchange of tea, horses, mountain furs,

more or less.' They traded as far north as Zhongdian and Deqin (th en known as

m edicines and hides. It still continues, bul wider a mantle of tourism, and the horse

A-t'Lmlze) in norlhwes tern Yunnan, from where th e produ ce was sold to Tibetan

races now allract tl1oroughbreds from stables in Beijing and Ulroughoul the country.

traders who carried il to norU1 to their hom elands, on Lhe n ex l major leg of the journey, ac ross tl1e hi gh passes and U1rough gorges Lo th e plalea u - U1 e subject of

The road runs nortl1 from Dali passing small market Lowns to the architectural jewel

our next chapter. At U1e same time, Tibetans also annually travelled soutll, sometimes

or Lijiang, anoU1er major cross roads of the tea-horse trade. Her e, at the base of U1e

as far as Simao, to buy and transport lea themselves. Generally, this tea was of an

impressive year-round snow capped Yulong Xuesha n (Jade Dragon Snow Mo untain)

inferior qu a lity, wh ich came to be known by the same name given by the people of

is the cultural cradle of Lhe Naxi ( akhi) people, a Bmmo-Naxi-Lolo socio-linguistic

Xishuangbanna to Tibetans - guzong. These travels recalled ili e earliest, 7ili-century

sub-group wiiliin the Tibeto-Bw·man group of the Sino-Tibelan ramily. Today

in c ursions that probi:lbly helped initiate this tea trade.

approximately 300,000 Naxis live at the jLmcture of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces and the Tibet Aulonomous Region. Naxi kings semi-independently ruled Lhe territory unW 1723 when it was nationalised by China. The Naxi's slrong hislorical, cultura l, and po litical ties wiili Tibet have translated into shar ed agri cultma l practices, rituals, and food habits. As with U1e Tibelan region, the Naxi territory is too cold for tea growing, yel like tl1e Tibetans, U1 e Naxi adop ted the practice of drinking butter Lea. They Urn s also join ed Lhe ranks of

Rider on horseback depicted on a Naxi shaman's ritual card, 19th century.

caravans thal delivered tea Lo the highlands of Tibet and sometimes on to India. The Naxi kin g ran his own caravans, and hi s men, following U1 e noted si lver tradition of the Naxi, are sometimes remembered for carrying three pieces of sil verwar e on their jomney: a silver bracelet for protecti on , silver chop sticks for meals, and a silver bowl ... for butter tea. The silverware also aid ed in cliscerning toxic substances from non-toxic ones. Alon g the journey, th e caravan m en would fill Lheir bowl s with stream water. If U1 e silver turned black, they knew not to drink. The cmrent tow·ist boom Lhat h as overtaken Lhe town is linked Lo its declaration as a 'C hinese Na tional Treasw·e' in 1986 and the granting or status as a World Heritage Sile by UNESCO in 1997. Today, this ancient post on the Tea Horse Road is fill ed with Han Chinese merchants selling fa ctory-produced trinkets such as

ax:i dolls and U1e

lik e, replacing the local m erchants who once traded mountain goods. In between U1 e town's narrow canals, Lhe grilty warehouses once slacked with tea bales destined for Tibet have becom e high-end Lea boutiqu es, packa ged to evo ke exoticism and enti ce tow·i sls. The Muslim Hui, descendants of Mongol, Tmkic, and other Central Asian groups who cam e with Kublai Khan's armies durin g Uie Yuan Dynasty, emerged as one of tll e mosl active tradin g groups. They settled in and arOLmd Weishan, Dali, Te nchong and Lijian g and came Lo dominate trade in th ese centres with Kublai Khan 's appointment of Sayyid Ajall as governor of Yunnan in 1274. Sayyid Ajall promoted th e developm ent of trade, and soon Muslim mu le caravans (Huihui mabang) came to dominale U1e trade to India and So uth east Asia from Ywman. Historians note a strong associa tion between Muslims and commerce and attribule this to Lh e spread

87

Y angtse River

Approaching Lljiang from the south, the ror1rl pr1ssed close to the first bend of the Yangtse River. Flowing south from the Hengchrnn Range, the river m eets the Hailuo CliIT at Shigu, which forces it to change direction to the northeast. 88

~, I

90

Yiwu

Tea Traders' Club

1\vo women from the Yao minority group pass by the first house (a small tea factory)

The Qing-style old tea traders' club in Simao is one of the last survivin g relics of

on the old stone road in Yiwu, the principal township on Yiwu mountain , one of

the days when the town was the so uthern hub of the Tea Horse Road. It is now

Xishuang banna's original 'Six Famous Tea Mountains' north of the Mekong River.

maintained by the local government, partly as a museum. Pack saddles like these

This is the beginning of one of the several tributary Tea Horse roads that converge

continue to be used in more remote areas, although the still-thriving tea business

on Simao.

now relies on trucks and a recently built expressway.

Bridge over the Mekong

92

I

The Mekong gorge

Already schedule d for replacement by the new Mangjiedu Bridge a kilometre

A lone mule and owner take the new high road, still un der construction, along the

upstream (a L 220 me tres, one of China's highest), this bridge of the same nam e

Mekong gorge in Fengqing County. One of China's many hydr o-electric schem es

across the Mekong 250 kilometres northwest of Simao was the last to carry a branch

will raise Lh e water level by almost 200 metres by 2012, and in preparation, a new

of the Tea Horse Road that went through Fcn gqin g and Lushi.

h ighway will replace th e Oooded old stone r oad. 93

Shi Dong Si

Shi Don g Si ('Stone Hall Temple'), a Taoist temple in the hills between Yu xin and Fengqing, and its resident priest, a r enowned practitioner of kungfu. The Shunning br anch of the Tea Horse Road passed by h er e. 94 1

Lushi I (previous spread)

Lushi 3 (opposite)

Now relatively isolated in th e hills north of the Mekong in Fengqing County, the

A 72-yeaT old inhabitant livin g on the steep cobbled street that carried the Tea

town of Lushi was an important trading post on a western branch of th e road.

Horse Road through the centre of town. A significant proportion of th e population

Fow1ded in 1302, its position n ear the junction of the Hei Hui River with th e Mekong

are from the Yi ethnic gro up, and th e town's origina l name, A Lu, m ean s simply

was stra tegic. When th e Qinglong Bridge was built in 1761 , an increasin g nlllllber

'small town' in the Yi lan g uage.

of caravans took this route. Lushi 4 (following spread)

98

Lushi 2 (above)

The morn ing market in Lushi, a reflection of the days when m er chants from as far

Mules and ponies remain an essential m eans oflocal transport tJ1roughout much

as Sichuan and Guizhou established shops and g uilds in the town. Lushi was the

of the cow1tryside along the Tea Horse Road, although tJ1eir number s are steadily

most important town on what was known as th e Shunning Tea Road (Shunning was

declining as China's infrastructure develops.

the county nam e until it was changed to Fengqing in 1954).

Weishan

The wall ed city ofWeishan, built in its present form in 1390, lies some 300 kilometres nor th of Simao, and was a major slop on the Tea Horse Road and the last major settlem ent before the Longqingg uan Pass that carried tl1e route norfu to Dall. Wh en the Kingdom of Nanzhou was founded in 732 CE by wliting six prin cipalities in the area aro und Erhai, its first capita] was h ere in Weishan. The Xin ggon g tower is at th e ce ntre of the grid of narrow lan es. Teashop

Simple Lea-shops like this, wh er e friends m eet to talk or play gam es over a pot of tea that is regularly re-fill ed, spread out onto the lanes of We is han , w hich are kept free of vehi cular traffic. 102 1

Weishan

At a tea shop in the heart of the old town, a group of friends gather to listen to a duet on two traditional Chinese insu·uments: the flute-like hulusi and the two-stringed arhu. The large character in calligraphy on the wall is 'tea'.

104

105

106

Shoemaker

At the foot of the Xinggong tower, a shoemaker cuts patterns for the traditional, Han-style men's cloth shoes in black with white soles. The town is noted for its many traditional workshops. Saddlemaker

Lin Zhi, a third-generation horse saddJe and tackle maker in Weishan. The traditional pack saddJe that he is finishing has not changed in design for centm·ies and features a cenlTal gap to avoid putting pressure on the horse's spine. The shop was opened by his grandfather in 1925. 107

Noodlemaking Zhang, the Muslim owner of a noodle shop that has been establi.shed in the old

Lown for 50 years, hangs the freshly made long strips on bamboo poles to dry. Mattressmakers Another traditional manfacture, long disappeared from Chinese cities, is cotton mattresses. Here, a Muslim family workshop produces them in the original

style, using cotton which is fluffed up using the bow-li.ke device. The bowstring is plucked rapidly so that it vibrates agafost the cotton to fluff up the fibres .

The mosque of Dong Lian Hua

Saturday afternoon prayers at the mosque of Dong Lian Hua ('East of the Lotus Flowers'), a Muslim village just north ofWeishan, that ran many of the pack trains (mabang) in this area. Descendants of the Mongol invaders who conquered Yunnan in the middle of the 13th century, the Hui Muslims, maintained a strong affinity for horse caravans. Indeed, the most common surname in the area is Ma, meaning horse. Dong Lian Hua

80-year old Zhang Xue Xian, at prayer in his home, is one of the last surviving

ma guo tou from Dong Lian Hua. Formerly, the staunchly Muslim village ran most of the section of the trail between Weishan and Dali. 110

i

111

Dali I

Fuxing Lu, th e main street of the old city, maintains its traditional architecture - an essential asset for a tow n that n ow lives mainly on tourism. Gr ass still grows on the roofs in s wnmer. The tovvn's layout in a squ ar e grid, s urrounded by a sb::-kilome tre wall, was established in 1383 during the Min g dynasty, and has been preserved, with varying degrees of rebuilding and restoration. 112 I

I 113

Dali 2

Dali 3

Looking north from the centre ofDali towards its north gate. Dali's strategic

At the centre ofDali old town (Dali Gu Chang), a well-known 1950s movie Five Golden Flowers that was filmed here is shown nightly at the Wu Hua Lou tower. The costmne of the actress is typical of the Bai ethnic group that still make up the bulk of the population. It was the amalgamation of six Bai principalities (zhao) from aro1md the lake , that created the 8th century Kingdom of Nanzhou, and the capital was moved here from Weishan.

location near the southern end of Er Lake, at the foot of the Canshang range running north-south, ensured its dominant trading position on the Tea Horse Road and its political power. It was the capital of two successive independent kingdoms, Nanzhou and Dali, for five centuries, until it was overrun during the Mongol invasion in 1253.

115

116 I

Dali market

At Dali's weekly market, local tea from the slopes of Cangshan, which rises above the town to the west, is traded in the street. Most local people are knowledgeable and discerning about the well-regarded variety. 117

D ali teahouse I

Dali teahouse 2

An old statue of Guanyin (the Chinese Avalokitesvara in Buddhist belief) looks

Guests at the tea house relax around an outdoor table in the early evening as Pu'er tea is prepared for them. There are old tea trees growing in the courtyard, although their leaves are not of a high enough quality to use.

on as a member of staff at the Cha Chan Dao tea house prepares a table for customers in the central courtyard, in Dali old town. 118

I 119

Dali races

Tibetan horsemen show oIT their skills on Dali's new racetrack, the focus of activities during the annual Festival of the Third Month (San;yue lie). This festival and open-air market for local Bai people has been held for more than a thousand years. Horses remain a central part, but whereas formerly local animals were traded, the event now attracts horses, breeders and jockeys from as far as Tibet and Qinghai.

120 I

121

Lake Erhai

ort.h from D11li, the r oad, easily visible from the Cangshan mow1Lains Lo the west, skirts the western shores of Erhai (Er Lake) and continues towards Shaxi and Lijiang. A kilometre north of the city, it passes the three pagodas of the Tang dynasty Chongsheng Temple, visible at the lower right. 122 1

123

Cormorant fishing

Cormorant fishing on Erhai has been practised in China for at least a thousand years and this is the only place where Phalacrocorax carbosinensisis is fully domesticated. The birds are kept motivated by being rewarded with fish after each catch - but never to the point of being satisfied. A cord is tied arow1d its lower neck dming fishing to prevent it swallowing the fish lodged in its esophagus, and it disgorges its catch when back on board the boat. Cormorant fishing remains part of the Bai economy around the long but shallow lake, but is in decline. The number of fishing families fell from 72 in 1985 to 27 in 1995, and continues to drop. This fisherman, Yang Yizhu, has 30 years experience, and still makes most of his living fishing in this traditional way. 125

Shizhong temple

Shizhong temple on Shibaoshan ('Stone Treasure Hills'), above Shaxi, is famo us for ils grottoes, excavated between the Tang and Song dynasties, contemporary with the beginnings of the Tea Horse Road that passes here on its way north the Lijiang.

126 l

127

Lijiang

Lijiang old town at night, with the moon setting close to the 'Looking to the Past' pavilion. The history of Lijiang, now a World Heritage site, goe back 800 years and is intimately connected with the Tea Horse Road, on which it was a major trading posl.

129

Lijiang market

Lijiang market, in the south of the old town, is the last preserve of a traditional way of life for the local Naxi population, as mass tourism threatens to overwhelm the town. At the left, a man walks with a gyr falcon. Hawking has long been popular with Naxi m en, as Joseph Rock noted in has accounts oflife in Lijiang in the 1920s. 131

The four-wheel drive negotiates the unpaved road that switchbacks down the steep

Hengduan Mountains separating the Three Parallel Rivers, as they are known. To

slope. As usual, the drop on one side is very exposed and the driver hugs the upslope.

the west is the upper Salween, known in China as tl1e Nujiang. To the east is the

We go as far as we can, maybe a hundred metres above the level of the river, and

Yangtse, or Jinsha. The Mekong, here called the Lancang, rages past us al several

stop. From here we must go on foot. Below us are staggered rows of flat man-made

metres a second, an opaque ochre colour.

terraces, each divided into rectangles by low ridges of clay a few centimetres high. The terraces are supported on the clownslope by timber poles, and the slope h ere is

The well is a tall stone cylinder next to the river, high enough to resist flooding

at least 45 degrees; the tiers, up to eight of them in places, snake arow1d the bend

during tlle rainy season. And diagonally across, on the other bank, is another. From

in the river a few hundred metres distant, and there are more on the opposite bank.

here, the brine is raised and poured into the shallow salt pans on the terraces. This

If it were not for the fact that we've been trying to reach this particular bend on the

is late September, and this side of the river is not being worked. To learn more we

upper Mekong for months, we would be hard pressed to know what these rickety-

must cross to the right bank, where women from the village of Jia Da have already

looking structures were for. Here on the left bank they are deserted, and, although

started to prepare their terraces after the summer's rainy season pause.

far away on the other bank we can see tiny figures moving over the terraces, they are too small to provide any additional clues.

An hour later, having walked across the bridge downstream, we are in the cool space under a salt terrace. A pond of clear water holds brine tlrnt has been pmnpecl

This is salt, and where we are, on a bend in the upper Mekong near the small toW11

up from the well, and one of the women is filling a pair of buckets that she carries

ofYanjing, is unique. There is nowhere in the world like this, and there are very few

balanced at each encl of a yoke. Just above us, stalactites of salt hang from the lightly

instances when you can say such a thing. Here where the torrential river executes

timbered underside of the pan. The women climb and empty their loads of brine

a sharp bend in its deep gorge, old wells sunk at the water's edge tap into a brine

into these shallow pans, until the entire surface of the terrace is a mirror, reflecting

aquifer. intense sunlight and the local winds channelled by the river bend make

tl1e mountains beyond and tlle sky. In fact, a reddish mirror, because one of the

ideal conditions for evaporating the brine. All that is not ideal is the lack of flat land.

peculiarities of this ancient salt-producing area is that the salt is coloured from the

We climb below the first terrace on a steep path that runs between the timbers;

earth. This side of the river is reddish, the opposite side yellowish. Traditionally,

below us the ground drops straight into the river. The Mekong gorge at this point

the reddish salt is considered fit only for livestock, and the price is lower. But with

plunges ahnost 5,000 metres in ten kilometres from the north-south ranges of the

serious competition from commercial salt - now more readily available with the recent road-building programme in the region - the lower price for livestock salt is helping to protect the village economy. Jia Da village has been trading in salt for over a thousand years. The monumental Tibetan epic of King Gesar, no less, mentions tl1e Qiangling War between Gesar and the Naxi King Qingba. It was waged here, and the cause was the salt. It is a reminder that the Tea Horse Road, which passed through this spot, was a trade route shared by other commodities. Some 800 kilometres north of the tea mountains of Xishuangbanna as the crow flies, the

The Yanjing salt pans, looking downriver from the west bank, with the tiered

geography has changed drastically. Not only is this higher, more rugged country,

structures on both sides.

but the economy and the traded goods have also altered. Culturally, too, we have crossed a major divide, for the bulk of the population around the principal town of Zhongdian is ethnically Tibetan. Staying in a nearby agro-pastoralist village, Reshuitang, we can see also tllat we have entered a very different tea cultm·e from that further south. Here there is a tradition of brewing salted butler tea, bod ja, which most Tibetans conslll11e in prodigious quantities and throughout the day. Early in tlle morning, in most households the thudding sound begins of the plunger inside the mdong ma, the cylindrical wooden vessel to make tea. In the house where we are guests, light from the stove gently illmninates the intricately painted wooden panels encasing the room. The panels seem to telJ a story, rich with Tibetan Budclliist nature symbols in warm yellows, earthen reds, deep blues, and brilliant greens. An altar serves as a focal point of the room, and of daily ritual activity. Seven copper bowls of fresh mountain water, two bowls of

tsampa (roasted barley powder, Hordeum vutgare), recently lit candles, and burning incense are placed on the altar as offerings. One of the copper bowls of water represents an offering of tea. It is obvious that the use of tea is intimately woven into daily ritual, health, and livelihoods. 134 [

The house, like all in the village, is large, massive and flat-roofed, and is surrounded

Zhongdian, just up the road , is known to Tibetan a GyaJU1ru1g, but ince 2001 has

by fields of barley, wheat and potato. Tibetan prayer fla gs flap in clusters nearby.

had a makeover by the authorities wiU1 U1e aim of putting it more firml y on the

Sprigs of duba Quniper) burn in incense altars outside each home to cleanse the

tourist map. Re-nanting it Shangri-La , de pile no obnou connection Lo the fi ctional

day and communicate with ancestral spirits. At 3,340 m etres above sea level in the

valley of harmony and p eace described in Jan1e Hilton· 1955 noYel Lo t Horizons,

early Spring, the robust stew-like butter tea will, according to our 86-year old

was a shrewd marketing coup. The Tea Ho rse Road. on which Zhongdian was an

hostess, keep our bodies warm and balanced, our minds en ergetic, ow· joints 'oiled'

important caravan stop, is also these da ys pressed into enice to promote tow·ism .

and our skin moistw·ised. And as her son says while preparing the tea , 'When you

For our hostess in Reshuitang, however, Lh e n en- pizza and hot-pot re tauran ts, and

leave your home to visit outside you don't need to bring your house with y ou. As a

general influx of foodstuffs from the rest of China r epre ent a deterioration in diet.

traveller you can eat anywhere, you can drink butter tea anywhere. This is the code for travelling guests.'

She notes yo unger generations in ilie village having heal th condition not pre,iou ly seen and not r ecognised by her traditional diagnosis of disease. 'Thi i because they

have moved away from our traditional butler tea diet,' sh e tells us. He breaks a piece of pressed Pu'er brick and drops it into the black earthenware tea pot on the stove. When the brew turns a deep brown, he pours the infusion into

The h ealth benefits of the compon ents of bod ja and tsampa have been Yalidated

the cylindrical churn with a handful of fresh yak butter and a large pinch of sa lt.

by laboratory studies. Yak butter contains approximately 80% fat of which 2.5 % is

Wben h e has finished churn in g it, he serves the bod ja with tsampa, each in its

classified as conjugated linoleic acids. These compound s improve bon e mineral-

own bowl, with no utensils. Guest of high social rank, particularly males and elder

isation activity and have pharmacologically been shown to have anti-car cin ogenic

women, are offered tea in elaborate wooden bowls with ornate silver inl ay. Each

and anti-diabetic properties. Tea ha s antioxidants Lo combat oxidative stress

time we drink, o ur host refills our bowls until, following hi s example, we drain all

associated with high altitude. Salt is a dietary mineral crucial for humru1 life for its

but a small amount and add the barley powder, moulding it into dough. The meal is

role in regulating wa ter balance . It is valued locally to cow1ter-balance the diuretic

satisfying and visceral. We find ourselves repeating this ritual twice more for lunch

properties of tea. Barley is a rich source of fibre, vitamins and minerals (magnesium,

and high-tea. Our hostess a lso enjoys bod ja and tsampa for dinner and is insistent

phosphorus, potassium, selen ium, lutein and zeaxanthin) .

on doing so. She is following tradition and an understanding of nutrition that has been developed and passed down for centuri es as an environmental adaptation to U1e local extreme altitude.

For centuries, Shangri-La was the region's centre for tea and other trade, as well as for cultw·al exchange between Tibetan, Naxi, Lisu, Yi, Hui, Han and other sociolinguistic groups. Stone paths transect U1e old town centre where trade burgeoned and caravan men and pilgrims con grega ted. Tea caravan s coming from Lijiang, Dali, and other towns south recharged and sometimes reloaded goods onto stronger mules, po11ies or yaks Jed by men more acclimatised for the journey north to Lhasa. Caravans grazed ilieir animals for a fee in ilie hi gh pasttu-es of villages bordering the town centre. Today, villagers from nearby and from ilie remote valley towns of ilie Shika a nd Halm Gangri mountain ranges still bring natural products to the

Tea shop with bags of brick lea, Lhasa, c. 1928.

daily market. This usually includes rounds of'butter, yak cheese, walnuts, linseed oil, fungi, and medicinal plants. Villagers also journey to Shangri-La looking for employment in construction and transport, as they once d id looking for work on or in support of the tea caravans. The town also attracted the pious. Monks and pilgrims flocked north of the town to Geelan Songzanlin Monastery, a mirror-image of the Potala in Lhasa. It was built on the orders of ilie 5th Dalai Lama in the late 1600s. More recently, it captivates Chinese and international tourists. Historically, monks from h ere were responsible for ilie local tea trade and its distribution. Households were asked to leave rounds of yak butter outside their home on designated nights during the year. In the morning they would find the butler r eplaced by tuocha, nest-shaped compressed Pu'er, as monks w ent from household to household making the exchange. Many inhabitants ofReshuitang also actively participated in tea trading. They led or joined ca ravans from Shangri-La norU1wards, sometimes as far as Lhasa. They were skilled at negotiating the high mountain passes such as Shar Gong La, Nup Gong La, and Tro La (La is Tibetan for pass, a word that from here on dominates IJS

all disc ussions of the trails that make up the Tea Horse Road). We drink tea with

go rge, and at tl1e small settlement ofFei Lai Si we have a commanding view of

one of the few living traders in Lh e area who made lhe journey north. He tells of

Yunnan's highest peak, Kawakarpo. This elegant, 6,740-m etre peak is one of the

his days escaping avalan ch es and lands lid es in his quest for a li ve lihood and, he

most sacred mountains for Tibe tans, who believe it to be Lll e abode of ilie Buddhist

admits, adventw·e.

deity Padma 'Byung Gnas, Padmasambhava, or Lonpon Rinpoche, the 'Precious Master'. We meet a group of pilgrims on their way from Deqin Lo make a ritual

Aller Lhe 1960s, the tea trade in Reshuitang began to shift with political, economic,

circmnambulation of Llle mountain tllal will take Lllem a monU1 . These beliefs have

and social change. Today lhe exchange of tea sometimes takes on w1familiar forms,

until now played an important part in preserving large areas of tl1e mountains from

though still rooted in commodity trading. During our visit to Res huitang, we met a

deve lopm ent, as according to loca l Tibetan practice humans are prohibited from

trader from southern Yunnan who had come to barter bags of the lowest-grade tea

accessing Lllem. This includes U1e summit, and local outrage has followed tlle few

for Lh e village's unwanted dogs. She exchanged each bag of tea, with a market price

attempts at climbing it. In this way, Lh e avalanche, which killed all 17 members of

of 20 y uan, for each unwanted dog in the commw1ity. Th ese dogs were destined for

th e Sino-Japanese expedition in 1991 , was seen as divin e re tribution.

r estaurants in Shangri-La where th ey would be sold for 400 y uan and then marked up to 600-800. We looked on as six vill age dogs w ere shoved into U1 e back of a

VVe ba cktrack to Deqin, and exchange our Land Cruiser for horses, albeit for just a

pedal-van. These were apparently U1e community's 1matlractive, badly behaved and

day. There is a section of the Tea Horse Road that still remains in r egular use, due

unintelli gent dogs, or those that people cou ld no longer feed. The tea trader's

lo the complex local topography. A lo w pass imm ediately north of the town allows a

golden teeth gleamed in the afte rnoon sun as sh e smiled and pedalled away with a

s horLc uL Lo a string of villages in tributary valleys to th e Mekong, and the trail, just

van fu II of barking dogs.

a few hours on foot or on horse ba ck, is actually more convenient than the road. Or at least, it has been, tllough road-widening and surfacing wi ll soon change tllis.

orth from Zhongdian, tl1e trail s converge on the passes that c ross tl1e two watersh eds separating the Three Parall e l Rivers: the Yangtse, Mekong and Nujiang. Some of fuese passes, like fue 4,800-metre Sho La, are cha ll e nging, closed by snow

nowe r. This part of the I-len gduan Hange , witl1 its spectacular r elief, has one of tlle

during the win ter months. We Loo make our way north on mountain roads, but

world 's most varied biophysical e nvironments, with seven recognised and distinct

these ones recently graded and improved, to the town ofDeqin. Beyo nd here , the

mi cro-climates. This, coupled ,'Vi.Lll cultural practices of sacred ecology has fostered

road doubles back and works westward for about 10 kilome LTes to the Mekong

rich biodiversity. The landscape ranges from monlane tree Rhododendron cloud

17ie gorge of the Nujiang above Fugong, looking west to the watershed between this valley and that of the upper Trrawacldy.

136

l n Spring, this is surely one of Lh e most pleasant parts of Lh e Tea Horse Road , as our small but sturdy horses negotiate tl1e stone steps pa st azaleas and camellia in

forests, Lo alpine areas, and arid vegetation at the highest elevations. Among some

rocky gorge, one could well imagine the scenes so vividly described by Litton, the filthy

or th e treasured flora and fauna are rare m e dicinal plants and fungi , including

villages where every man's hand is against his neighbour; the poverty, the hunger,

snow lotus, snow te a, matsutake , caterpillar fungus (Cordyceps sinensis , known as

the cross-bows, and the poisoned arrows, the sing le-rope bridges across the torrent,

yartsa g ompo in Tibetan, chong cao in Mandarin) , black-ne cke d cr an es, snow and

and the diet of wild honey that proved at last so nauseating to the weary travellers '.

cloude d leopards, Asiatic bears, and th e r e d panda. Yunnan as a whole has more than 13,000 plant species, and th e biodiversity of this northwestern are a (known as

What h e called the 'single-rope brid ges' are liu suo, or rope slides, and this is one

the Mountains of Southwest China Hotspot) competes with thal of southwest Yunnan

of the last places on earth to find th em still in use. A r ope (now a steel h awser) is

(the Indo-Burma Hotspot) that we saw in Chapter 1. While a tropical climate has

stre tch ed across the gorge, slopin g from one side lo ilie other. Trave llers carry

fo ster ed species richness furth er south, the physical ge ography of north west

the ir own ta ckl e, which consists of a pulley wh eel and a hook below. Looping a

Yunnan , cr eated by tectonic plate mo vem ents, seems e qually to have e ncow·aged

short len gth ofrope underneatll tll em as a kind of seat, they put tll e ends or the

an explosion of speciation, with more than 2,500 flowering sp ecies. For the Chinese,

rope over the hook and . . . just le l go, flying over the gorge a t spe eds of up to 30

it h as eight famous species: aza lea, camellia , magnolia, primrose, orchid , rou gh

kilom e tres per hour. A second rope or cable, sloping in the opposite direction,

gentian and Hinrnlayan poppy, and for 19th and 20th-century Western plant-hunters

provid es the way back. Durin g the Tea Horse Road era, even ilie animals h ad to be

like Frank Kingdon-Ward, George Forrest and Joseph Roc k it w as a m ecca.

coaxed into doing this, with effort. Th e fear of the horses was justifie d. Occasionally a rope would break under the w eight and movement of the anima l as it struggled,

Two more days on horse back upri ver from h ere are th e Yanjing sall-pans described

and it w ould immediately be lost. Joining a group of Lisu schoolchildren returnin g

al U1e beginnin g of th e chapter, and as we talk to 82-year old Jiang Ju, a ve teran

home a cross the river from tlle day's classes, our pulley wh eel hums as we gaU1er

of th e trail, h e describes to us h ow this w as part of his route, carryin g forage and

s peed and the cliIT edge fall s away. Glancing down at the surging wa ter s far below

grain to exchange for salt. In the mountains and on the Tibe tan plate au beyond,

our feet, we'r e reminded tllat tllere were no e asy ways of travelling tllese section s

thi s min er al was a valuable r esource in short supply. Too mu ch or too little salt is

of the Road .

associated with th e health h azard s of high blood pressure, muscle cramps and cardiovascular diseases, and it w as both traded for tea and adde d to tea by the Tibe tan s. A fe udal system existe d with land controlled by the religious and aristocratic elite, and several tinles a year the landlords would send their h or ses and

Hauling a mule across a rope cable (Jiu suo ), Yunnan c. 1900.

mule teer s to tea production centres such as Dali and Lincang to collect tea to transport to Lhasa. Our hosts w ere amon g tl1ese m en . They tell us how they used lo enj oy travellin g soutl1 to see w h er e the tea plant originate d, but th a t sin ce the end of th e feudal system , they h ave no t seen a growing te a plant. While th e m ain purpose of the trade was to bring lea to Lhasa, other commodities also ben efite d. Locals would often trade grass u sed for horse fodder in exchange for tuocha. Other families traded butter, charcoal and crops. Some w orked for short-term labour and wer e paid in tea. In fa ct, tea was boU1 a trade item and a form of curren cy, officially recognised as su ch in overland tra de. 'ft was a precious commodity,' one of our hosts observes. Seven horse-loads of charcoal were equivalent to a half load of tea. Wh en U1 e hor ses r e turned from Lh asa , many families trade d th e ir cr ops in exch an ge for salt from the n earby wells. In Deqin, one cup of salt w as equal to one cup of grain, but if tl1e salt tra velle d furth er south, ils value in cr eased, to as much as one part sall to nine parts grain . Only 30 kilom e tres w est from h ere , close to the Mekong, runs the parallel river, U1e Nujian g, known as the Salwee n lower down wh en it enters Burma. Even less naviga bl e th an th e Mekong, it too pr ovided another route up onto th e plateau, but was gen er ally considered more diffi cult and dangerous. To avoid passes Uke the Sh o La, which crosses j usl lo the n orth of Mount Kawakarpo, caravans did what m odern traffi c has to do, nam e ly start at the bottom of the gorge, n ear Baoshan, and work their w ay up. Al one point, tll e cliff is sheer , and ilie Ro a d, a m e tre wide, is c ut into the r ock fa ce . Inhabite d prin cipally by the

u and Li s u e thnic groups,

tll e a rea was considered primitive by th e Chinese. By Western er s also, as e viden ced in this description by the British explore r Archibald Rose in 1912: 'Looking up that 137

Uppe.- Mekong

A late evening storm builds over the Mekong gorge near Fei Lai Si. 138 1

I 139

·"= · -..··'~"·. : 1 . t r ·J ~

Shangri-La (previous spread)

Zhongdian, called by its Tibetan population Gyalthang, and officially re-named in 2001 as Shangri-La, after James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizons, lies al 3,200 metres and was the last trading post before the road entered the gorges and passes through the Hengduan Mountains up to the plateau. The giant prayerwheel was built in 2002 in the grounds of the old town's central Guishan te mple, as much a tribute to the town's marke ting success as lo Buddhist piety. Horse caravan

A small pack train climbs past a Tibetan shrine on the way to Deqin on the trail that was built for Lea. Ponies and mules are still used thrnughout the r egion between settlements that lack roads, transporting all kinds of goods, although no longer tea.

142

143

Nobu Qili, veteran (previous spread, left)

Nobu Qili, an 81-year old veteran of the Tea Horse Road, from Tangpeicun village, near Zhongdian. The felt hats worn by most lados bears more than a passing resemblance to the stetson. It was an American, Fred Schroeder, who in 1913 gave his own hat to Thubten Choekyi, the ninth Panchen Lama. This began the vogue which continues to this day, though the Tibetan 'stetsons' are made of local felt. Qili Nuojie , veteran (previous spread, right)

72-year old Qili Nuojie, another retired lado, as muleteers are called in Tibetan, from the same village. Zhi Shi Dun Zhu, veteran

Zhi Shi Dun Zhu, a 75-year old veteran of the road, concentrates on weaving a large basket, a particular skill he has developed since he retired. Jiang Jiu, veteran

Jiang Jiu, an 82-year old veteran, reminiscing in his house in Adong, describing how the Pu'er toucha tea cakes were stacked for loading onto the horses. He began walking the Tea Horse Road at 21, and in addition to tea carried forage and grain to Yanjing to exchange for salt, which was then taken to Weixi to exchange for rice needed in Deqin. His years on the trail were interrupted briefly when he was recruited for the Liberation Army, where he was issued with a Lee-Enfield rifle but only 50 rounds of ammunition. When his ammunition was finished, he returned to the village, but most of the fifteen or so other young men with him were killed in the fighting.

146

i

Tibetan housebuilding

Communal house-building in Hanpi, a Tibelan village close lo Zh ongdian. The massive houses in this region have adobe walls up to 50 centimetres thick, and women carry baskels of earth up ramps and ladders to where the men use tamping tools to ram it into a trough enclosed by wooden formwork, the wa ll rising layer by layer. April sees work beginning on the customary large Tibetan houses, and because of U1eir size, village members help each other in a labow·sharing arrangement 149

Tibetan monastery

A pilgrim s lands at tlw entrance Lo Lh e Tibe tan te mpl e in Hanµi. Tibe tans follow

Mahayana tluddhism (the 'Gr eat Vehicle') rathe r than Lhe more con servative Theravada fiurlrlh is m pra c tised in Xishuangbanna in U1e souU1

or th e

provim·e.

Chien, veteran

At Adong, another retired Lado li·om the road. Ch ie n, now 7t years old, lives with hi s extended family in a large , lwo-s lore)' Ti he Lan house in the upper village.

150

151

Horse caravan I

At a trail stop, a caravan arrives ,it a compound. A chained Tibetan mastifT, which all dwellings have, performs guard duty with customary e nthusiasm and aggression. Horse caravan 2

Tibetan lados guide their horses past a row of mani stones on the trail between Deq iJ1 and Adong.

amed after th e second ·word in the mantra of Ava lokilesvara,

Om 1\1/ani Padme Hum ('Hail the jewel in the lotus), they are carved with thi.s widely

used Tibetan Buddhist prayer. and often as.sembled, as here, into waJJs along trails. The team pass the wall on the left side, according to custom. 151 I

(following spl'ead leJl)

Xidang

Yalong River Gorge

1,400 metres directly below Fci Lai. Si, the Ron gzong footbridge crosses the ~lekong

The Yalong Riv er Gorge, ol' which th e explorer .Joseph Roek wrote in The

Ri ve r al Xida11 g. One trail or the Tea I lorse Koad crossed here on ils way over the

National Geographic in 1929 'Where Muti /(onka rears its eternally snowcapped crown 19,000.feet into the sky, the Yalungjlows 12,000.feet below... ', adding 'For cenlul'ies it m ay remain a closed land, save tu such priviledgedfew as care tu crawl like ants thl'uugh its canyons qf tropical heat and up its glaciers and passes in blinding snowstorms, carrying their.food with them '.

p llSS

skirling Moun ! T(awakarµo.

Mount Kawakarpo Al fi ,740 melres, Mount l\awakarpo is Ll1e highest peak ort11e .Vlei li Xueshan

(Beautiful Snow Moun lain), a s ub-range orabo ul 20 peaks in lh e He11gdua11 Ran ge. The s111all 1own or l?ei Lai Si on the opposite bank or the Mekong gorge

Shi Yi Luo Bridge

(following spread right)

offers a famous pristine vie w. and in an effort Lo exploil lllis, local authorili es in

Pack horses cross Lhe Shi Yi Luo bridge across the Yalong River sou th of 7,000

2009 builL a lllree-melre wall along the road to block Lile view to passers-by

metre Gonggash an. Ponies and mules are used regularly here t.o supporl small-

unwilling to pay a fee to enter a viewing platform.

scale mining operations in the mountains. I I 55

157

Moon rock

Moonrock, a natural arch on the mountain ridge west of the Nujiang gorge, so-called becaus e of its circular appearance and the illusion, depending on the light, that the moon is rising. These frequently cloud-shrouded mountains were known by American pilots in t11e Second World War as the 'hump' as they airlifted arms to Kunming from northern Burma. 158

159

Nujlang Bridge

Horses crossing the Nujiang gorge n ear Fugong over a narrow suspension bridge.

160

161

Cable slide I

At one time th e onJy w ay for m ost people of crossing fast and dangerous rivers, cable slides are slill in use by the Lisu minority across th e gorge of the l\" ujiang, th e 'Angry River '. Re turning h ome from school , this boy and his younger sister adjust the ir tackle before launching them selves on the s hort, fas l rid e to th e ,,,,est bank. The tackl e consists of a pulley wheel wi th a dou ble hook be low, onto which are looped a rope harness. Cable slide l (follow ing spread)

Still known by their traditional n ame tiu suo, or rope slide, s teel h awser s have r ep laced the less secw·e locally made ropes, and are a nchored in pairs, sloping in opposite directions across U1e river. Depencljn g on the w eight of the person, th e trans it speed ca n exceed 30 kilometres an hour, and makes fo r an exciting ride - or fl ight - as in Lhis traveller's eye view.

162 I

Cableslide 3

Nujiang Bridge

A Lisu woman approaching the end of the slide r eaches out to Lake hold of the ca ble and pull herself to the end.

Small bridges now replace most of the slides alon g the 300 kilome tres of th e Nujiang gorge.

168

Nujiang Korth of Gongshan, villagers wade to co.llect edi.ble water pl,mts where a stream Hovvs over a series of terraces on its way Lo Lhe Nujiang. Bingzhonglou 8ingzhon gluo, th e last town in th e gorge before Tibet. T he community's life r evolves around its single street. Here, a relucla nl h og is dragged back Lo its

pe n after a brief escape. 169

Peach Blossom Island

An incised m eander in the Nujiang just h elow th e town of Bingzh on gluo h as

created an isolate d promontory, known locally as Peach Blossom Island. 110 I

I 171

Cliff trail

Upriver from Wuli village, close to the Tibetan border, the vertical limestone cliffs mad e it n ecessary for muleteers to cut the path directly into the rock. The upper Nujiang here is blue during the winter months from meltwater. 173

The Yanjing Salt Pans I

The Tea Horse Road accommoda ted other goods, and one of the most important was salt. On a bend in the Mekong 70 kilometres upriver from Xidan g are the unique Yanjing salt pans. In the early morning, as the sun clears the mountains to the east of the deep Mekong gorge, women from the salt-mining communities carry bucketloads of the brine up from the tanks and empty them into the pans, on average each measuring about 20 square metres. The sun and strong winds in this part of the gorge evaporate the water during the day and by aflernuun Lhe sall can be raked out.

174

.

I

175

The Yanjing Salt Pans 2

The nearly 3,000 pans, built from wood and clay, r ise on boU1 sides of the river and are worked throughout the year except for the rainy season, from June to September, when evaporation is too slow and the river level rises. The peal season, when evaporation is strongest, is in Spring, from March to May. For at least 1,QOO years as recorded and probably longer, salt has been extracted her e from both sides of the gorge. The oldest known reference to this salt production is the Tibetan Epic ofKing Cesar, believed to have been put together between the 7th and 9th centuries CE during the Tubo Dynasty, which mentions the Qiangling War over salt be tween King Gesar and the Naxi King Qingba. Geological variations between the left and r ight banks of the river create different colours of salt. The cast bank produces white salt sold for hwnan consumption, while the west bank, with the the heaviest prorluction , produces a reddish salt locally called Peach Salt or Pink Salt, that sells for less and is consiclerecl fit for livestock only. 176

177

The Yanjing Salt Pans 3

Brine is drm·vn from wells close to the water's edge (novvadays with electric pumps) and hauled by hand up the slopes to storage tanks in the s hade be low Lerraces of man-made flat pans. The Ya njing Salt Pans 4

Competition from commercia l refined sail has rece nlly pul Lile economics or Lhese unique salt pans at risk because of improved road transport, and this has hit the white sa lt production har der. Red 'livestock' salt sells for only 1 Rl\fB per kilo and so remain s competitive. 179

The cries of the riders are Lhi11 and high by Lhe Lime Lh ey rea ch

LLS

across the broad

The distant herd passes out or sight behind a blutJ. \•Ve take advantage of the light,

valley, as the horsemen struggle to bring some order to the h erd which is r eluctant

strong and richly-coloured in the late aft.ernoon al U, is a ltilud e of 3,500 m etres, to

to begin U1 e lon g climb. Oulriders close in to disco urc1 ge st,·c1ggle rs, c1nd are h elpe d

photograph the neru·by tente d nomad camp. Half an how· later, the yak caravan

by the big dogs, who trot briskly, barking and making O('casional fei11ts lowanls the

skylines at well over 4,000 metres ru1Cl dis appears finally from view. We get b ack in

hooves. From I his dislance of balf a kilome tre, the maj ority of Lh e heavy-coaled

our vehicle and drive on Lo s pend Lhe night. in Daofu.

a nimals look lo be pure-bred yak, high and massive in the shoulders like bison, rather thm1 lhe half-caltie dzo more common to these parts. They are all full laden.

Functionin g as a Tea Horse Road even be fore U1 e Yurman route up from Si mao. lhe

most with pack frames, a couple of stronger animals dragging heavie r loads on a

routes we st from Ya'an, n eaJ' Chcngdu in the province of Sichuan, cross a dilier enl

pair of long trailing p oles in the manner of Comanch e travois.

kind of lopugraphy and ca rry il tea Lhal, while s imilar in seve ral respects lo Lhe Pu'er from Ywman, has a different flavour profile. Tb.e first recorded planting of tea in

The c,iravan works ils way in a half-orderly fashion diagonally up Lhe treeless

China was h e re , on Mengdingshan, wh e n

,1 Masler,\'u Li Zhen is said

Lo ha ve

northeaslern slope , h eading east in th e direclion or I >anb,1. Or so we g uess, because

plan Led seven Lea bush es during Urn r e ign or Emp eror Xuan of Han (53-50 BCE).

there is no w ay "\Ye can r each them from here, s luck in our four-wheel drive on the

The a uspicious tea from the five mi st-s hrouded p ea ks of th e mountain was s ent a s

single r oad Ulat follows the Xianliui River on Lhe olh er side. Th er e is no vehicle

imperial tribute to Ulc capital. Th.is is Ule same broad-le af assamica vru·ic ty as in

bridge n ear here, and no rea son for one eilher, as no roads cross the mountains Lo

the so uth ern Yun nan tea mounlains and , as there, it also grows w ild. The besl of

I.he north. T he highway ·we are on, between Kangding Lo Ganzi, in western Sichuan,

th e tea !,'Town in Ulis part of Sichuan was, a nd still is, hig hly regarded. Li Shizen , in

has c ut the old jomncy from 12 days to less than 10 hours, but standing h ere by the

his 16Ul centtu')' Bencao Gangmu. ('Compendium of Maleria Medica') noted that the

s ide or U1c ve hicl e, black nomad Le n ls on e ith e r s id e of us, we are made aeulely

Lea from h ere is 'warm and able to take charge of disease'.

aware that the road simply connecls U1e Lwo Lowns, and a handful of s maller ones along the way. The high grassland s on e ilh e l' s ide are a nolher world, an olde r

However , the other n otable characteristic that links tl1c Yunnan ru1d Sid man tea

world, navigated h y Lh e Kh a mpa numc1d s who rtmge witl1 thei r animals, whil e we

carl'ied on Lhe Tea Horse Road is Lha l Lh ey we re boU1 pt·f'sse d lo make Lhe m eas ie r

ru·e con lined helpless ly lo a paved ca useway. But of course. not even Lhe .Kham pa

lo lransporl. Wl,ile Lhe lea trend s in China's main cullurc1l cenlres chan ged from

can roam complelely freely, as fen cing begins Lo appear arotrnd pastures and ne w

pressed Lo loose Lea durin g Lhe Song Dynas ly, Lea produclion in Sichuan co nlinue d

build.ings, and as range rights are leased to individual households.

to focus on compressed te a. "11en the tea-hor se !Tade started, Ymman was still the independent Kingdom of Nanzhao, and thus it wa s Sid man tlrnt emerged as Ule primary so urce of Lea to procure h orses. As we will see, with the establishm ent of th e sta te lea m onopoly in Sic hu,rn in ·1074, Lea produ('Lion hega n Lo c ha nge from a hi gh -qualily lo a relatively crud e produ cl in order to m eel dem a nd. Hislorian PaLtl J Smith wriles, '.. . wilhin a decade of the monopoly 's establishment, Sichuan 's

localised high-quality tea industry had been transformed into a bu.lk producer of The small enclosed garden on Mengdingshan where /!Vu Li Zhen is said to have planted seven tea bushes.

Low-quality tea.for long-d istance slate-run mark.els. ' Tea was first received in Tibet by Buddhis t lamas and c1risloerals, before eventually becoming a drink of lh e common peopl e. T h e eco norni s l F'u Zhufu writes '... tea

became a new commodity during the Tang Dy1zastJ: As it was easJ' to transport, abou.t 90 per cent of the traders travelling jar and wide were tea merchants. ' It ,vas at this Lime Lhat Ya'an became a major rnarkeL for lrade . Its climatic conditions h elpe d creale a Le a with a m ellow aroma and s ligbUy bitter and astringent Lasle, and U1is ,vas mostly destin ed for the Tibet,m-inhabited areas of Siehuan, Tibe t, Qin g hai , Ga ns u, Xinjian g, and as far away as l\epal and Bhutan. Ya'an lea wc1s classifi ed depending on its final d estination . Tea sold to Kham , Tibet, an d part of Qinghai was calle d 'southern border Le a' , while that destined for Son gpru1 and Lixian ""'' as known as 'western border tea.' inland tea was sent to China's interior. Brewing meUlods of tea var_y gr eatly among Tibelan co mmunities, but. mos l churn bl'ewed Lea with butter. ln barley growing areas, they add tsampa (r oasted b,irley tlour). Some commm1it:ics add milk, eggs, ru1d walnuts to butter tea in addition to tb e tsampa, while olhers add red be ans. T bcr c ru·e also T ibelan cummunilies Lhal cook Lea ,villi ox bon e, and others Lhat process il wi lh white alkali and soda. Tea produced for TiheLan communities ofien conLaincd a fi xed prop ortion of stalks - 15 percent in !81.

the case of Khmn brick tea. The us ual rat ional e for thi s is Lhilt the}· p rese rve lh e

r·ela l ionships ,,ith non-llan peoples, and U1cir otlicials were kn ow n for keep ing

s tre ngth of the plan! mate ri a l during boiling , bul il wa s .,]so., w.1y of bulking U1 e

detailed r ecor ds of indigenous practices, territorial claim s , and local leade rs . Sch olar

produc t s o as to inc rea se the total quantity bein g tra ded for horses. Traditionally,

J ohn fl ower n otes how m aps drawn by s uc h om c ia ls in 1739 reve al the way the

U1e Lea ute ns ils usPd vari ed nrrordin g to s ocinl class social class, and th e ch oice of

landscape was perceived, as 'administratiue is lands in a u;eb of mountain passes,

kettl es of cfa y, iron, or hril ss ,111d bow ls of wood. s il ver, or ce ra mi c were in d icaLi ve.

rivers, bridges, roads and temples e:rtending westward into Tibet'. Th e sta le broke red

The wealthy otlen use d tea pots an d teacu ps tha t -w er e gilded "ith silver , pearl , and

its p owe r through notab les w h o m ediated be l" een the im pe ria l state illld loc,11

ivory in lradiLion al auspicious design s .

socie ty in their rol e as te mple leade rs (huishou), while te m ples. had in Ii matt" links wiU1 U1c conunwlily, also en te red the trade .

Th e centre of th e Sich uan prod uc tion n , a s Llw Tan g declin ed , Ya' a n was fre quently contTotle d by invading armies of U1e Ti be tan Tubo Empir e to th e west and U1e

Buddhist mon/;;s.fn11n 1wig hbou.ring 11w1wsLeries, one i11 Taiping, eight kilom etres up

J\m1zhao Kingdom to the south. The Son g reas serted control in 1070 w hen it became

the IVurth Tload, and one in Sanyichang, the road's mid point, twenty kilometres from

an importa nt tJ·ade o uLpos Lfor Chin ese Lea in e xchange for Ti be ta n horses, and the

Ya 'an. On the farthest reaches of the North Road, bridges were built f rom contributiom

J\orthern Song Dyn asty strove to esta blish a tea monopoly. T his m on opoly becam e o ne of Lh e largest inle rve nlions of the Chin ese s Lale in th e pri vate econo my, a1LI1o ugh

from local elite.fwnilies, whose ru.unes were usually recorded cLure in Sichuan and the Kham area s o f Qinghai Prov ince. They reconnected in Qarmlo in Tibet and again diverged in n orthern and southern routes to Lhasa. The earliest p,1ths of the Road linking Sichuan and Tibe t arc som e times called Lhe Shu-Du PaU1, after 'Shu' for Sidman l'ur ' I)u ' lor Ind i,1. An hi s tori ca l reco rd doc ume nte d in Lainchw1g .\angsa's account uf th e Sichuan -Tibel Road describes Lh e co mple x journey: 'The path extends about 2,350 kilometres, having

about 5 6 relay stations along it ... The trail passes over 15 rope bridges and 10 iron cable bridges, climbs uv,'r 78 mrwntains with eleven elevated to over 2, 700 m etres and twenty-seven elevated tu over 1,650 metres. To travel.from one end to another w ill take at least three months. ' West. from Kanding, U1e te!'l'ain rises and changf's to high grassland - Lhe land of Ill!' T(h a rnpa h orsem en and nomads - and with th e c han ge of a ltit uclf' , yaks took over m ore of Lhe burde n of carryin g goods. Peter Uuu IIart wrut.e that 'Yak~ can,wl

stand warm weather at all and, therefore, thei,· operation is cor1/ined to altitudes over ten th ousand/eel and they are a t their best when theJ' graze on the alpine meadows above twelve lhousandfeet.' But also, t11ey a re Jess tra ctable than horses and mules: '... there was nothing ordel'l.r about the yaks, and they ne·uer proceeded in a single :file ... Sometimes lhe.r slowed clown, sometimes the.r rushed ahead, jostling and pushing eacli othe,: They did no/ seem to know or care where the.r were going, 11:ying to squeeze between tl.t•u rncks 01· belwfen two trees although there might be plenty of space around.' IB4

The key town of U1e grasslands is Litang. At 4,680 metres, this is one of U1e highest

export tea. Author Mm·Lha Avery of The Tea Road: China and Russia Nleet Across the

large communities on the planet, and is the historic centre of Kham, one of the

Steppe no1es. '.;Js the market.fol' Lea irtcl'eased, so did lea merchants' prqfits. ]\1erchants

lhree strongholds orTibetun cillttffe. Tibetans were di stributed in Lhree muin ill'e,ts

e:i,panded their netu,orlrs, capitalised on econo,nies qfscale, and soonfound the.Y

defined by dialect: Amdo, Kham, and Li-Tsang. Kham covers the ,u·ea where the

were dealing in one qf thefi!'st mass commodities in history 11w mass consumer

Tibetan Plateau m ee ts the llcngduan :\fountains, and encompasses r oughly today's

market encouraged the grouJth qf banking systems thatjtmcled overseas trade. ' A

Qamdo in TibeL, Ganze Prefocture in Sichuan, Yushu PrereCLure in Qinghai Provin ce

pe rmanent market developed in Litang, where rncrehanL~ a nd chiers would trade

and De qin Prefecture in Yunnan. Traditionally, a horse racing and r eligious festival

with passing caravm1s. Th ey exchanged tea, salt, cloth , gold, caterpillar limgus

is annually h eld in Lhe grasslands of Li tang durin g the s ixth month of th e Tibetan

(Col'dyceps sinensis), musk, furs, and oth e r loca l products.

calendar. An immense flow of caravans, p eople, and goods enters the grasslands, across which are scattered thousands or white Ti be Lan LenLalion.

another u!Limately successful siege, but by the end the Chi.n.e se had lost 37,133 men and the .Japanese 13,600. Tengchong was redu ced to rubble , yet jus t fi ve

Tengchong was the last trading town in Yurman before caravans crossed the border

kilumelres around a hill from the town , the 600-year old large village of Hes hun

into Shan LerriLory in Burma, and iLs earliesL Lrade records are from the 9th cenlury,

miraculously escaped Uie fighting, and remains today a well-managed histori cal

describing trader s referred to as the hotan, between Yunnan, Burma, and Assam.

site, wiili mainly Qing-dynasty buildings, bridges and ilie Stone Road, much as

TI was nea r here that in 1277, Kublai Khan's troops defeated Uie Burmese in the first

parts ofTengchong used lo be .

of Lhree battles, and adv,mced on Burma itself to conquer U1e Pagan empire. The battle was wrillen up by :Vlarco Polo, who als o tra ve ll ed Lhe Road through here a

One of many contemporary teashops in Nangoon's Bogyoke Market.

1'lze routes (in red on a map of 1878) between Tengchong and Bhamo surveyed by 8ritish explorers in the 1850s.

1.1.11

The main deslinaLion inside Hurma v1ras Bhamo, the last port before the upper

Yunnan formed the only feasible JmJd route. The caravans that had for centuries

limit of navigalion for large b oats on lh e Trr.1waddy. Known lo Lhe Chinese ,is

travelled Lh ese routes were now puL Lo work c,ll'rying supplies eastward. Peter Goullart,

Xi ngkai, or New l\farkel, ii was Lhe end oflhe trail for most caravans. Even well

who mmrnged an lndus tTial Co-operative in Lijiang, saw it all happen from his base.

inlo U1e 201h ce ntury this was the town's major activity. Beatrix Metford, writing in

Ln his book Forgotten J(ingdom, be wrote that for the route t'rom Kalimpong to

1.955 describe d it as follows: 'The Chinese shops seemed to ea/a mainlyfor the mule

Lijiang, 'Lhasa was the clearing centre and, being born merchants, members qf the

camvans, and could supply eve,ything the muleteer needed. H em.,~1- wooden mule

Tibetan govern-ment, great and small lamas, abbots of lamaseries and lesser lights did

saddles, u_;ooden bells with wooden clappers, cruppers with litlle wooden reels to prevent friction and sores, thongs of raw hide, bridles ofplaited hide, many ornamented with red pompoms and streamers, beads and pieces of mirror glass.'

not hesitate when the golden moment so auspiciously presented itself . . Rve,ything was indented, contracted or bought outright that could be convenientlJ' carried by yak or mule. Sewing-machines, textiles, cases of the best cigarettes, both British and American,

Goods w ere loaded onto boa ls bound for Rangoon, as others were offioaded for

whiskie~ and gins offamous brands, dyes and chemicals, kerosene oil in ti11.S, toilet and

lhe journey back to Yrmnan (includ.ing even iron railings and grilles from England,

canned goods and a thousand and one varieties of small articles started flowing in an unending stream by rail and truckft·om Calcutta to J(alimpong, to be hastily repacked and di.~patclzed b)' caravan to Llw.rn'. AlmosL every wee k, long caravans arrived in

sh ipped as ba ll ast and s till iJ1 place in lleshun) . There ·wer e also land routes across Burma. The Shweli Hiver route led down lo

Lijiang, and Goullarl eslirnaLed that 'some 8,000 mules and horses and prubabl;y

Lashio and Mandalay. A western route lead from ~:lyitkyina to Imphal, while

20,000 J'aks were used during "Operation Caravan".'

another reach ed the same des tination by c ross ing Lile river lower, al Tagaung and then up the Chlndwm River. The road Lhal eventually became the rnosl rarnous was

One culinary odclily roll owed U1 e Tea Ho rse Road into Ilurrna and that was fermented

up to Myitkyina and Lhen to Ledo in Assam. This, in the Second V\lorld vVar, was

Lea leaves. A particular tradition of U1e Bulm1g we visited in the southern mountains

re built at great cost by Alli ed Forces in the r everse direction, begiJrning at I,edo,

in Chapter One is to pack fres hly picked leaves into bamboo culms bored out as

as a supply rouLe

ror China. The firs t convoys on this, the Ledo Road (also known

as the Stillwell Road), finall y reached Kunming in Februm·y 1945. 1:ly 1937 Japanese

containers and bury these for a few months, dtll'ing which time the tea ferments naLLU'ally to a distinctive so w· taste, and is eaten raLher than drunk. This withering

forces co mrrnrnded all essential comnnmications i11 U1e east of China, and with

of the leaves cncom·ages the formation of the theatlaviJ1s and thearubigins - a pre-

the invasion or Ilurm.i in 1942, the west of the country was all but cut off from

cm·sor to modern-day black tea production - and also a microbial fermentation

essential supplies. ~ow began Lhe last brie r momenLs or glory ror th e Tea Horse

process, whi ch is di stin ct. In racl , the practice is beco ming rnre r on the mountains

Road, for U1c sections connecting northeastern India, Tibet, \~eslern Sichu,m and

a s newer generations of Bulang become exposed Lo m ore widely marketed foods from U1e I Ian and Uai cultures. However, on the Hurmese s ide of the border, in Shan State, fermented tea leaves have becom e a significant industry. Jn addition Lo exposure to tea-d.rink.ing from Yunnan and also from the Britis h way of preparing black tea ;,vith mil k and sugar , Burmese throughout th e country developed a s trong likin g for these rermented leaves a s a s nack mixed with variou s spices. Known as

The lead mule ()fa 19th crntwy )'unnanese caravan, identifiable by the feathers. 171e pack saddle and taclile remains identical toda,;:

lephet take, U1is qualifies as a nationally defmi:ng dish for the Burmese. Sir George James Scott, a 19th century colonial adm.inistrntor who embraced Burmese culture fully, wrote in his engaging The Burman: His Life and Notions of th e 'anti-soporific

le'phet ... as regular a crown to a Burmese dinner as cheese is Lo an English one, and wilh the same idea, proba/JlJ' erroneous in both cases, that it promotes digestion. Jt is almost e.rclusivelx produced in Taungbaing, in the Shan country, by a hill-tribe called Rumai, better known by the Burmese name of Palaungs.' Tea, of com·sc, spread al'Ound the world, but the British became particularly devoted. ln 1660, English diarist Smnuel Pepys wrote 'did send for a Cupp of Tee (a China

drink) of which I never drank before', and two years later, when Charles TT was betrothed Lo Ca the rin e or Hra ganza , I he bride-to-be aske d for a cup of tea 1'Yhen she arrived by ship al Portsmouth. Al th e Lime this was s uch a rare re quest LhaL it was rmavailable and she was offered ale instead. Two years later, U1e first recorded shipment of tea from China arrived in England, from U1e East India Company, which wilh lhe Uutch East India Company a cquired Lile d istribution monopoly. The main route was not through BlU'ma, but by ship frnm China's sea p orls, the tea so urced principall y from Fujian. [L was loaded on Lo m agnificent tea clippers such as I he Cutty Saric, which regularly ra ced e,ich other around the Cape to Britain. 242

And it was in Britain that the institution of afternoon tea "vas invented, in 1840, by

were form/Ill y id e nli fied as LIH' assamira \ ariet) of tea. This, indeed, is Lh e same

Anna, the seventJ1 Duchess of .Bedford. By the mid-nineteenlh cenlury, Lhe Lime of

variety as that fow1d in southern Yunnan. although the names are politically c harged

dinner had mig rnled

in China, and the Chinese prefer to refer to the two Yarieties as small leaf a nd large

Lo

late in the evening, leavin g a long gap from lun ch. Th e

Duchess began having her butle r s erve tea, brea d and bulter, and c.1kes at live

leilf ratller than sinensis and assamica. The inghpo haYe a long history of using

o'clock to quell tJ1e pangs or hunger. As a prominent m ember or society her habit

Lhe tea plant for drink and as a pick.Jed food, in much tlle ilme "ay as do th e

became fashionable, and an excuse for small social gatherings. To this day, between

Burmese m1Cl the Bulang g roups in ) unnan. The exi tence ofniJd tea permits Inilia

fom and five in the afternoon is considered the 'right' time for tea. '11iere are few

Lo join the contentious debate of th e exact origin of tea. and some believe that

hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as

Assam is in fa ct the birtJ1place of the tea plant and that Buddhist monks introd uced

afternoon tea', ,~Tote Henry James.

il Lo China with the spread of Buddhism.

The distribution of the tea varieties, sinensis and assamica, is also a political story

The British pl a nted both varieties, even br inging over Chinese farm labourers for

that followed n1·ilish relalion ships with China and Tndia. At the peak of the East

the small leaf sinensis. However, this variety, adapted for cooler em'irons, fared

India Company's trade, it is estimated that nine mi Ilion cups of tea ·w ere bein g

p oorly in Ass am, and was introduced more s ucccssfull) in the higher-altitude

consumed annually in Brilajn , but when it lost the monopoly to tea trade with China,

Darjeeling and the Nilgiri Hills, le,iVing lhe Assam plantations to assamica. By tJ1e

th e Hritish turne d to clei!ring immense forest tracts in Tndia for tea plantations to

1870s, lndia became a major force in tea cullivation and is today r ecognised as tJ1e

fulfiU EtU'Opean demand. Unaware of Lhe wild Lea growing in north eastern Tndia

world's leading producer of black tea, which constitutes over 70% of the commercial

and its use by indigeno us gro ups, they introduced the s mall leaf varie ty (sinensis),

tea cons wne d worldwide. Most of Assam's Lea grows in the lowlands, a t altitudes

sourced from eastern China. Then, in 1823, the Scottish tea planter Robert Bruce

near sea level. Tn contras t, Darj eeling and Nilg iri teas grow al hi gh altitudes, which

observe d indigenous communities in Assam - tJ1e Singhpo - prep,ll'ing tea from a

contribut e to their mor e delicate con cen tration of na vonr.

local plant resembling Camellia sinensis. He sent samples to the Calcutta Botanic Gardens, bul they refused to confirm that they wer e a tea variety, and it was not

Mechanised processing develope d in India to keep up with the huge demand a nd

until hi s brother Charles Alexander Bruce s ubmilled sa mples in 1843 that th ey

prnvi dc a consistent product. ln a large tea factory in Darjeeling, ""e see black Leas being graded in a very dilTere nl m a nne r th a n in th e s mall I.ea factories in Yunnan. The grading of b.lack Lea in Tndia is bilsecl on a scale of four grades categorised by the s ize a nd appe arance of the te a leaf, namely whole leaf, broken leaf, frunun gs, a nd

'I

I

dust. Whole le af te as are gene rally con sider ed the besl quality tea s. Leaf grades

\

with larger leaves arc classified a s Pekoe or Orange Pekoe (a mispronunciation of

'

'·

a Fujian term for Chinese 'white hair' tea). llowever, w hil e every effort in Yunnan is made 1.0 kee p leaves wh ole, in Darjeelin g the leaves a re inte nti onally crush ed hy a roller. The r ational e is th at s uch processin g increases th e surface area in conlacl witJ1 hot water to yie ld a product tha t infuses faster a nd r eleases greater chemical 77ie grave of Charles Ale:i:ander Bruce at Pertabghur Tea Estate, near Tezpur, Assam.

.,.,:!;~, , . . .~·

.. ..·~f\;.:l1

, ":,.17. ," . ~ ;.. , ~

! -: ..

~

co mpounds, Ila vow· and aroma. Tea s from lndia to a large extent s atisfy the world's monocultw·es of tas te. Unlike teas from the old te a gru·den s of Yunnan, valued for tJ1e variability of taste from each mountain and from season to sea son, tJ1e teas of India ar e often blende d skiUfully to achie ve a standardised res ult. As in Yunnlln, tea has several harvests, dependin g on the geographical ar ea. T he spring season in the tea gardens of Assam falls from March to .\'lay, followed by the s ummer hm·vesl from J Lme to September, and the win ter harvest from Oc tober lo December. The cooler environ s of Da rjeelin g call for a later spring harvest, startin g in April , with ii summ er harvest during \fa y and June . Te a picked during tJ1c monsoon season thrnugh September has a !ugh moisture content, W,c lhe rainy-season tea ofYunnan, ru1d is con sidered sub-par. Certain tea produ cts m ay contain up to 15 or 20 differ ent teas, to be brru1ded as 'breakfas t teas' or 'afie rnoon teils'. Some might consider that su ch practices are as rem ote in drinkin g practice from China as is Tibeta n hulle r lea, but both amply illus t.rate lea's g rea t adaptability and broad popularity.

24 3

Sinbyugyun

Old pagodas dot the landscape of ri ce fields near Sinbyugyun, a small town on the Irrawaddy near Pagan .

••

244

245

Banqiao tea shop

A 140-year old tea house in Banqiao, a small town on the Southern Silk Road and Tea Horse Road, near Baoshan. Run by the Wan family, th e price of a pot of green Pu'er tea is just half a yuan, and the tea house actually makes more money from selling boiling water to r esidents. 247

Horse caravan

A pack Lrain of horses approach es the 600-year old town of Heshun, near Tengchong, bringing tim ber from the town ofYingjing.

248

249

Cai Shen Temple

Cai Shen Temple in Heshun is where muleteers offered prayer s befor e setting out for Burma. The temple, w hi ch has no resident priest, is tended by this lady, 97-yea r old Zhao Yuan An . Bending House

74-year old Li Kun Ba, ·w hose family for several generations has traded westwards w iU1 Burma, India and Tibet, in one of the co urtya rds of Urn family house in TTeshun - Ule 160-yea:r old Bending House, so called because its outer wa ll curves to follow one of the to,'VTl StTeets.

250 I

1

251

Crossing a stone bridge

A horse caravan crossing an early Qing Dynasty stone bridge, built in 1687, a few kilometres out of IIeshun on the Tea Horse Road leading to Burma.

252

Drinking tea

A tm·baned Shan woman drinking tea. Shwetkyina Pagoda

Re-gilding one of tile stupas al Shwelkyina Pagoda, near Bhamo, in Ru rma' s Kachin Slale. Known to tbe Cilincse as Xinkai (New Market), Bharno was th e upper safe limit of navigation on the Irrawaddy.

7.5.5

Novice nuns (opposite)

Novice nuns collecLing alms. Shin pyu (abo ve and leJt)

At two monasteries near Namhkan on Lhe Shweli River, where Lhe Road crosses into Bmma, March is Uie lime for shin py u , U1e Buddhisl ordination ceremony that all Bm·m ese males should make. The boys are first dressed in r esplendent silks and their faces made up, representing Prince Siddhartha's departure from lhe palace . LaLer, h eads shaven, they will exchange Lhese garments for simple monks' robes, and spend usually a few wee ks as novice m onks.

I 257

lrrawaddy ferry I

In the early hours, a Burmese monk joins passengers at Gaw Wein jetty, Mandalay, boarding the Ch inese-built public boat, the Pyi Gy i Dagon No. 4. _Ferries like th.is are still the only practical link for m ost commun.ities up and down the lrr awaddy. I rrawaddy ferry 2

A ferry prepares for loacling at sunrise on the MyiUuna waterfront. Between Bhamo downstream and here, the First Defile limits river traffic to small boats on the up per Irrawaddy.

I 259

Porters at Kyaukmyaung

Porte rs al Kyaukmyaung load sacks ol' rice, onions and otl1er foodstuffs onto the Mandalay-Bhamo public boat. Tea fom1erly made this journey from Ilhamo dow,1 to Rangoon. 260

Boarding the ferry

At every stop on the river, such as Kyaukmyaung and Htichainl, vendors and passenger s ali ke crowd on board as soon as the gangplanks are down. 262

I

7.63

Tea shop I

His cheeks smeared with thanaka paste (a widely used natural cosmetic and cooling agent in Bmma), a tea shop waiter in Bogyoke Market canies milk tea and pastries to a customer. The waiter behind him carries plastic bags filled with Chinese tea - served free to customers. Tea shop 2

One of many tea shops crowded together in Bogyoke Market, Rangoon. The tea is prepared in the Indian way, boiled wilh milk. 264

1265

Ferment ing t ea leaves

A Bulang wom an at Laom an ge village on Bulangshan tea m ountain in Xishuangbanna prepares fresllly picked tea leaves for fermentation by packing them into a bamboo culm th at will be buried for up to three m on th s. Prepannglephetthoke

On an lrrawaddy ferry boat, a Burmese w oman in the galley prepares lephet thok e: fermented tea leaves dressed with peanut oil, fish sauce and lime juice, and ser ved with condiments that include s ljced and fri ed garlic, pounded dried shrimp and r oasted sesame seeds, peanuts and mung beans. 266

Ywet Nu Pickled Tea Company

A worker offloadin g sacks of lephet at th e Yw e l Ku Pickled Tea Company, l\tfa n rlalay, t he largest wh olesaler in Burma. Each sack weighs 65 kilogr mnrn es . Delivery grading

Mya :Maw1g, lhe crm1er of Ywet Nu, p er sonally gr ades every d elive ry b y comparing samples. Th e lephet com es from Sh an State, an d th e company tw11s over 1,000 Lons a year. 269

270

Tea picking I

Tea picking l

Tea picb.ers em pl)•ing collecling baskels al Lhe Addabarie Tea Es LaLe, near Tezpw·. Assam, Tndia. This is one of 58 tea estates owned by ivfcLcod Russell India Limited, the world's Im·gcst tea growers.

Late season tea-picking, in December, at Addabarie. Women work the blocks row hy row, picking up Lo a handful before deftly lhrowing U1e leaves backward in Lo Urn basket.

271

Tea plantation

A terrace tea plantation near Coonoor, in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India, w here tea was first planted in 1840. Nilgiri tea is known for its strong flavour and intense aroma, and plays a promi.nenl parL in U1e conlemporary tea market, although quality varies hugely, from hand-sorted , full-leaf ver sions (one achieved a world r ecord price at auction in Las Vegas in 2006) to highvolume C'TC (Crush, Tear, Curl) production.

272

273

Wi ndamere Hotel, Darjeeling

Lady Tavistock

A Tibetan maid serves allemoon tea in the VVlndame re Hotel , Da1iccling, with t he us ual accompanim ents of" white-bread samlwi chcs (with crusts removed) , scon es and cake. In 1·he silting room beyond , w here tea is ta.ken, a notice admonish t>s g uests 'not to take oj]'t!zeirfootwear, or put their.feet on the

Lady Tavis tock, wife of the 14th Duke of Bedford, Lakes afternoon tea in Llw saloon of\.Vohurn Abbey, Bedfordhire, seven generation s after Anna, wife of the 7U1 llukc, invented this British lnstitulion in 184 1. As dinne r in fashionable socie ty becam e later and later, Lhe aJle rnoon Je n the Duch ess with a 's inking feeling ', and lo raise h er blood sugar level began to drink tea with small di sh es of food al 5 o'clock. Th e custom cau ght on through o ut British society.

fumiture, or lie supine on the hearth, or sleep behind the settee, lest unintended Qffence be given to others. ' 274

1

275

A cold April dus t storm howls across the Qinghai-Tibe tan Plateau. The lon g coats of

Alle r these two we eks, th e re is an ,mgr y r aised w e lt on the man's foreh ead from

the yaks ripple in th e gale , th e h e rds m e n lnmch forward, h eads and fa ces wrapped

tou ching the ground a hundred Lhousa nd times, but as his journey progresses this

to leave only a slit for the eyes, and the landscape is bathe d in a thi ck brownish grey.

will hru·d e n and s ubs ide. By early September b e will join, one body le ngth at a

Spring is still a few weeks away, and this is an inhospitable Lime for life. ALthe edge

Lime, Lh e road ,ilon g whi ch Lea was transp orted from Yunnan and Ya 'an, and which

of the highway that skirts the south ern sh ore of Qin ghai Lake, all but invisibl e from

we h ave been following. Th er e will be many other pilg rirn s, all b ound for the

h er e in the dry fog of dust, a Tibetan man , long hair flying, pruslrates himself full

Jokhang temple in the he art of Lhasa. As the Tea Horse Road is g radually turned

le ngth , arms stre tche d a.he ad. He the n ris es, s teps forward to wh e re his hands had

into highway and even cxpress·w ay, cru-rying LJucks from Lh e e ast and n ew sa loon

j us t touched the ground, raises his anns in prayer above his bead, and dives forw ard

cars belonging Lo Tibe t's burgeonin g middle c lass, as w ell as Han im migrants, this

Lo prostrate himself on ce more.

arduous ch ak (some pil1,•Tims p erish on the journey), m a intains at leas t on e oflhe old tra ditio ns of th e route.

Chak is the Tibetan term for a pros tration journey und e rta ke n by devou t pilgrims

to a sacred destinatio n or i11 a circuit around a s acred site s uch as a Le.m ple . Qinghai

Tea acquired a he ig hte ne d value in Tibet as China used it as a political tool for

I ,ak e is itself sa cr e d, but also Lhe largest lak e in Chin a and at 3,200 m etre s on e of

the procm'em enl of warhorses, form alliances, nego tiate trea ti es, secure border s

the largest of the world's high -altitude lakes. T he circumfer ence by r oad is almos t

and build an e mpire. Th e fi rst Tibel,Ul empire had em erged in the mid-7th century,

600 kilom etres, and 'T'ibetan pilgrims make the wh ole ci1·c uil, or kora, in this way,

at the Lim e or Lhe Tang 11) nasty in China , w heu Songtstin Campo m1illed the la11d

taking a s lon g as two m onths. Ex tre m e and arduou s thou gh this cir cwnnambulalion

of Bod on the Ilimalayan Pla te au. Tib etan power quickly ex te nd ed o ver a large area

is, il pale s in comparison w ith th e journey

east and south into Yunnan and west Lo Lada kh. Chinese i11nue nce slowly seeped

Oil

which this Tibe tan man is setting out:

0

to Lhas a, no less, a dis tan ce of n e arly 2,000 kilometres to the southwest. He tells

in to th e Tibetan Co urt, and on e of the defining events was the m arriage of the

us that h e expects it to Lake 200 days, a veni gin g 10 kilome tres a day. II.is yom1ger

Chinese Prin cess Wenche ng to Songlsa n Garn po, o!Te red by the l·'. rn peror Taizong in

brother is accompanying hirn , peda llin g a cycle cart carrying a banner !lag and

orde r lo secm e China's borde r wiLh Tilie t a 11d lo preve nt conflict. Th e Tibe tan king

loaded ,,ith te nt and provisions. Th e pair left the famous Ta'er m onaster y a fortni ght

had a lready ma de a s imil.a r lia ison wiU1 ~ep al by a ccepting a bride from that

a go, and last week passed the site of the old town of Dan Ge-er, establishe d by th e

kingdom. Th e Tang Co w-l prepared a magnificent dowry of Chinese tre asures for

Song government as a Cha M a I Ju Shi , or Tea Horse trading post. The slw-dy Qinghai

U1e Tib etan King, a nd Lhis ,1ccornµani ed th e p rincess on her jom'I!cy in a sevcral-

horses wer e much in demand for the Tmpe ri a l Arm y, and to control their trade it

kilometre-Iong caravan from present-day Xia n, th e dynastic capital, Lo Lhasa.

was forbidden to purchase the m with anything other than tea , which commodity the government controlle d tighUy.

Wh en U1e dow ry r eached TibeL, il was dis tri I.Ju led am ong th e ari stocra cy across the kingdom, in el uiling a bundle ortea. Whe ther it was on this occasion that the Tibeta n n obility lirs t Lasted Lea, or during th e Tibe tan co nquest of Lijiang and Da li in the an cient Nan zhao Kingdom is de bate d, but te a was a t first a luxury item unknown to the masses, and only gr adually becam e a di e tary s tap le . Andrew l-1!7. 182- 183, 278-279 Ta n ggula m ount ain range 26 Tan gp eic un vi llage 1-1--1 Tanjw· 232 t aoi st 94-95 Tashilh unpo monasler~ 312-Jl-l. J/6 Tavistock , Lady 27.J-275 33 1

tea

aini loboh (Akha Lea) 26 assamica 4 , 182, 243 bamboo Lea 42-4 3 bod Ja (bu tter tea) 31, 87, 134-135, 182, 200-201, 243,279,281 brick tea 68, 135, 183 ea ITeine 279 caLechin 26 CTC (Crush, Tear, Cud) 272-273 Fujian 242-243

gahvan 31, 80-81 hu jah nah pah w boh 26 lephet take (ferme nlf'd Lea) 242, 266-269 moonlight Lea 66-6 7 Pekoe 243 Pu'ertca 4 , 25, 27, 29, 67, 74-77, 80-81, 85, 119, 134-135, 182, 246-247, 28 1 sheng cha 27, 31, 76-77, 85 shu cha 27, 76-77, 85

sinensis 4, 243 Thea bohea 24 Thea sinensis 24 Thea v iridis 24 tuocha 135, 137, 147 Tea & TTorsc Tradin g OITice (Chamasi) 4, 183, 185, 279-280 Tea Ccnsorate 279 Tea Control Sla Li on 185, 279 Lea house 18N- 189, 310-311 Tea mountains

Xinjiang 182, 280

lhanaka (cosmetic paste) 264-265 The Tea Road 185 Tlu·ee Kingdom dynasty 86 Three Para ll el l\ivers 134. 136 Thubten Ch oekyi 144, 146 Tibetan Autonomous Region 87 Tianzi Biodiver sity CenlJ·e 26, 30

Xinkai (new markel) 242, 254-25 5

Tibe tan kingdom 4, 84. 85. 8 7, 135, 182-185, 240, 242, 280-281, 291, 294-295, 318-3 19 TihC'tan mediC'ine 84-85 Tibetan Plateau 30, 84, 137, 185

Xinlong 236-237 Xi shuai1gbanna 25, 27, 29, 74-75, 84, 87, 90, 134, 150, 246 Xi Yi monaster y 236-2) 7 Xuan, F.mporer 182 Xue Xiang 279 Ya'an (Yan Dao) 4, 182- 185.192-1 9), 195,224,278 Yadong 280 yak 4, 10-1 1, 135, 182, '184-185, 201-211, 214-217,

Tibet-Qinghai Plateau 31

278, 282-283, 3 11 ya k butter 135, 279

tourism 4

Yala Hiver 197

Times, The 70 Tro I,a Pass 135

Ya long Hiver 155-157, 236-237, 284-U5

tsampa (roasted barley flom) 134-135, 182, 284 Tridu SongLdan, T< ing 278 Tubo dynasty 84, 176-177, 183 Turned Allan Khai1 184 1urkic 87

Yalashan 186-187, 222-223 Yangling 248-249 Ya.ngtse (.linsha.) River 88-89, 134, 136 Yanjing Sall Pans 134, 137, 174-179 Yao (et hni c gro up) 26 , 90 Yarlong Tsangpo Rive r 292-293

U ighu1· Lribe 183 U~ESCO 87

Yai·zhong 280

U-Tsan g (dialect) 185

Ye La Pass 300-301

Utse templ e J 12

Yellow Ha t Sect (gelugpa) 184 Yi (cthnk group) 26, 98-99, 135 Yibang 24, 29, 70-73

Wang Anshi 279-280 Wang Shao 280 Ware Edgai·, Jolm 280 wa tchtowers 198-199 Water Splas hin g Festival 27 Wei Li Huan g , Ge n e ral 241

Ye Ba village 290-291

y in (Lea quota ticke t) 194 Yiwu 29-30, 66, 86, 90 Yuan dynasty 87 Yu Qu valley 284, 290-291 Yulong Xu esha.n 87

Bulangshan 29, 37, 54

Weishan 86, 87, 102-107, 110-11 I , 115

Emeishan 183, 190-191 Gedeng 29

Weix i 147 wellbeing 25-26

Jingmaishan 29, 52, 55, 66-67, 74-75 Mangzhi 29

WPn c hc n g, Princess 4, 222, 278

182- 183, 240-243, 280-281, 2N4-285 Ymman -G uizhou Plateau 26, 84, 86

VVinclamere Hotel 274

Yushu prefecture 185

Mansa 32-))

Wobmn Abbey 274-275

Yuxin 94-95

.tvianzhuan 29

Ywet

Ywman 4, 24-26. 28, 30, 77-81, 84-87, 110. 136-137,

Mengdingshai1

World He ri tage site 87, 129 Wu Hua Lou lo wer 115

Six Famous Tea .Mountains 29, 32-33, 90

Wu Li Zhen 182, 188-189

Zhanglang village 6-7, 46-47, 50-51 Zhan g Qian 85

Yi bang 29-30, 32-33, 66, 86 Yiwu 29, 66, 68-69, 86, 90 Youle 29

Wu Ya village 284, 286-2N7 Wuli village 172-173

Zhe Duo mountain 202-205 Zhe Duo River 196-197

u Pickled Tea Company 268-269

Xianhui Rive r '182, 204-205, 2 10-211

Zhongdian 87, 134-136, /40-142, 144, 146, 148-149

Xidang 154, 174-175 Xinan Sic/wa-zhilu 84-85 Xin Banzhang 38-39

Zhong Mengyang 25

Tea Tax Bureau (Glrn kasi) 4, 183, 279 Tea n·aders' Club 9 1

Xinduqiao t 86-187, 228-229

Zogang 280

Xinggong tower 102, 106

Ten gchoug 14-15, 30, 85, 87, 240-241, 248-249

Xining 296

Zo rnia 26-27 Zungha r Mongol 184

Lea plant 25, 137 tea-s hops 103, 104-105, llN-119, 264-265 tea !Tee 34-35, 52-56

·:,.,,..1, ·, -,..

Tezpw· 243, 270

Zhou Daguan 28 Zhuge Liang 30