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    Mustang – Part 2 – Route of Khampas
    Jeff Fuchs
    • Jul 5, 2017
    • 4 min

    Mustang – Part 2 – Route of Khampas

    “A land of little and a route of much” is how I often view this present journey and it is how I’ve viewed many of Himalayan trade routes I’ve travelled. Our present route here in Mustang has taken us past an abandoned stone building that acted as the equivalent of a postal office and it now just shudders in the wind with its memories. The Khampas of eastern Tibet are part of Mustang’s history, having fought continued pitched battles during the Chinese occupation. The feared a
    Jeff Fuchs
    • Sep 1, 2012
    • 1 min

    Salt Road Talk at Shanghai’s Capital M

    Speaking on September 6th at ‘M on the Bund’ in Shanghai about another of Asia’s timeless commodities, ‘salt’ and our first (and the first ever) expedition in 2011 to retrace the nomadic salt road (‘Tsa’lam’). Our journey ultimately sourced  the sacred Salt Lakes of Maduo at 4,300 metres, and took us around the fierce beauty of the sacred Amne Maqin mountain range. Images, tales, and some brilliant food stirred up by Chef Hamish using salt as a base. For more information, ple
    Beijing International Society Presents : Jeff Fuchs – The Ancient Himalaya Salt Route
    Jeff Fuchs
    • Aug 31, 2011
    • 1 min

    Beijing International Society Presents : Jeff Fuchs – The Ancient Himalaya Salt Route

    Jeff Fuchs will speak at Beijing International Society speaking about the lost nomadic route of salt: “In Search of White Gold – The Ancient Himalaya Salt Route”, September, 8, 2011 here Tsa'lam - Nomadic Route of Salt Eternal Commodity, Finite Route #WildChinaExploreroftheYear2011 #Trek #HimalayanSaltRoute #Sustainableexploration #HimalayanTrade #HimalayanResource #Qinghai #Explore #Amdo #Salt #Tibettrade #Tsa #Tsalam #Tibet #JeffFuchs #NomadicRouteofSalt
    The Fight and the Turn Right – Amne Machin
    Jeff Fuchs
    • May 31, 2011
    • 6 min

    The Fight and the Turn Right – Amne Machin

    So often it is the elders who remember tales through their time spent recounting orally the comings and goings of the past. Here Amne Machin is a backdrop of life. Breakfast often brings realizations – some stimulated by the first thoughts of the day and others brought to life from without. Tucking into bowl after bowl of milk tea this morning comes with a nugget of information imparted almost casually, which reminds me very clearly of what is key to this journey. It has to d
    Yak ‘Beauty’ and a Switch – Mountains’ Tales
    Jeff Fuchs
    • May 29, 2011
    • 7 min

    Yak ‘Beauty’ and a Switch – Mountains’ Tales

    We awake with a shudder to mountain cold and the realization that something has changed overnight regarding our ‘team’. Clear air with a hint of blue in the sky as dawn gives way to day waits…. while by the fire a strange figure coaxes more heat from the coals. Our canine friend is stretching out his little limbs to rid them of cold. The larger mastiffs have all disappeared – home I guess. It is the figure near the fire that holds me as I emerge from our tent. Where is our gu
    Amne Machin White and A Travelling Circus
    Jeff Fuchs
    • May 27, 2011
    • 6 min

    Amne Machin White and A Travelling Circus

    Our two yak stand still in the blowing white snow; around them there is nothing to suggest a specific time-period and looking at their ice-encrusted wool I imagine a time long ago when gas-spewing, noise machines on wheels hadn’t yet taken over – where movement on land required the foot or hoof. Here, now, in this blowing snow beneath a mountain it is remarkably easy to imagine this time. Amne Machin is just over on our right behind veils of snow and wind. The yak stand befor
    Amne Machin – A Rush of White and a Kora
    Jeff Fuchs
    • May 23, 2011
    • 5 min

    Amne Machin – A Rush of White and a Kora

    Amye Maqen (Amne Machin, Anye Machin) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amne_Machin), the stout, the muscular, and for much of time, the utterly hidden from the outside world…our first glimpse of it is of a snow capped wonder that appears far closer than it is. There seem to be as many ways of spelling it as their are potential descriptives. Neither wind blown sand nor a haze can obscure its brilliant bulk. It seems to hang from the sky as we come in from the northwest towards th
    Departure under the white
    Jeff Fuchs
    • May 13, 2011
    • 1 min

    Departure under the white

    #HimalayanSaltRoute #Nomad #HimalayanTrade #ancientsaltroad #Nomads #Qinghai #Amdo #sacredmountains #Golok #Himalayansalt #MichaelKleinwort #Salt #circumambulation #Expedition #Himalayas #JeffFuchs #Golog #tibetantraderoute #AmneMachin
    The Jewel of the Heights
    Jeff Fuchs
    • May 12, 2011
    • 4 min

    The Jewel of the Heights

    Jeff coddles some white gold At first it is a glimmer, nothing more than a reflection that I think might be there. Shimmering heat already ripples in the morning air blurring my sightlines.  Michael’s eyes are creased studying the same spectre that I see…he is making a humming sound as if to speak and my veins are chocked with blood. Tsa (salt) and its ancient home are close and that sense is within both of us. Tsam Tso - Salt Lake, at last We are about 40 kilometres west of
    Ghosts and ‘Ka’ (Snow)
    Jeff Fuchs
    • May 11, 2011
    • 5 min

    Ghosts and ‘Ka’ (Snow)

    We are hunting a ghost, ghosts in fact it seems. The Salt Route that hasn’t been documented, this Tsalam that I have dreamt about and that we now seek is becoming akin to chasing vapours, or trying to track windblown sand. My western notion of a ‘route’, the idea of one single ‘route’ being the Salt Road has been annihilated. I should have known better than to assume any one path, road or route can be omnipotent upon the mighty Tibetan Plateau. The essence (which I’ve tempora
    The Sun and Wind in Golok
    Jeff Fuchs
    • May 4, 2011
    • 4 min

    The Sun and Wind in Golok

    Pilgrims at the Tashi Monastery Sun (neema in Tibetan) blasts into the day as we wake to a reckless blue sky and a wind that hums. Snow capped peaks shimmer on the horizon and wind whips smoke and sand into mini-tornadoes. All of Mother Nature’s elements are on display today in a show of force, and Michael and I both feel this bodes well for the journey. The city of Maqen (3700 metres) scatters for cover from winds that rip down the main street daring any to test it. Eyes bur
    Preparations…and Expectations of the Salt Road Expedition
    Jeff Fuchs
    • Apr 29, 2011
    • 2 min

    Preparations…and Expectations of the Salt Road Expedition

    Mountain Warmth Time is always the great and constant editor and time winds down to the actual departure date of the Salt Road (Tsalam) journey. One can prepare gear, the body and the mind but that first blast of wind in the face from the heights in a blink obliterates everything but the ‘now’. The landscapes we will enter on this journey have their own stories and their own fierce abilities…but I inevitably imagine entire caravans passing through these lands being ushered by
    Tsalam – The Ancient Salt Route
    Jeff Fuchs
    • Apr 9, 2011
    • 2 min

    Tsalam – The Ancient Salt Route

    The Route of White Gold When: May, 2011 Who: Jeff Fuchs, Michael Kleinwort Where: Southern Qinghai (Amdo) One of the ancient world’s great and unheralded trade routes was the eastern Himalayas’ Tsalam, or Salt Road. Known to many Tibetans as “The route of white gold”, much of its desiccated remains rest at close to 4 km in the sky upon the eastern Himalayan Plateau. Traversing some of the planet’s most remote and daunting terrain, the Tsalam passed through the snowy homeland

    JF

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