For thousands of years an ancient road, traveled by both humans and horses, connected Southwest China’s Yunnan and Sichuan provinces with the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Called the Tea Horse Road, the rugged, unpaved road stretched for more than 4,000 kilometers, bringing together various Chinese ethnic cultures such as the Dai, Yi, Han, Bai, Naxi, and Tibetans, all who traveled along the historic road. |
It was during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when Tang princess Wen Cheng wed Tibetan king, Songtsan Gambo, that tea was first introduced to the Tibetans. Not only did they find it invigorating, but the hot tea also added warmth and supple- mented their meager diet that was near void of vegetables.Both Tibet and Mongolia were skilled in horsemanship and breeding strong, healthy horses, while the Chinese Tang emperor was in need of strong horses with which to supply his army with fast and reliable transportation. So, the Chinese traded supplies of tea with |
for horses that began the historic “Tea for Horse Caravan Route,” that began in China’s Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and extended to Lhasa, Tibet.At the height of trading, 200 to 300 yak caravans, along with horse caravans left Sichuan each day, setting off to Tibet and Mongolia. Tea, salt, and sugar was shipped to Tibet, while horses, cows, furs, musk, and other local products were shipped back to China.The route the Tea Horse Road followed was extremely danger- Eventually several other routes were devel- The town of Puerh in China’s Yunnan puerh tea above all others, using it to make their butter tea.Instead of following the Chinese way of tea drinking, the puerh tea to preserve the puerh tea while on its long Japanese during Today the ancient Tea Horse Road is at the forefront Over the years tens of thousands of horses and yaks |
Recently a Chinese expert was researching the Ancient Tea Horse Road and found a complete map of the road that was drawn more than one hundred and fifty years ago by a French missionary. The map shows the road running through a series of towering mountains, with rivers that flow in between, running from north to south. There were basically six main routes. They were:Route 1. Begins in Xishuangbanna and Simao, home of pu-erh tea via Kunming to other provinces in China into Beijing. Route 2. Begins in Puerh (via Simao, Jinhong, Menghai to Daluo) in Yunnan Province Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.Route 3. Begins in Puerh via Xiaguan, Lijiang, Zhongdian into Tibet, then from Lhasa Nepal and India.Route 4. Begins in Puerh via Jiangcheng in Yunnan into Vietnam, then from Vietnam into Tibet and Europe.Route 5. Begins in Puerh via Simao, Lanchang, Menglian in Yunnan into Burma. Route 6. Begins in Puerh via Mengla in Yunnan into Burma. Enjoy. |