Lobsang - A nomad's 'simple' views

A morning of brittle cold that brought the eyes to a standstill in Darlag, southern Amdo. Lobsang watches while his two sons source ice...

Jeff Fuchs

Oct 10, 20221 min read

Omu, The Strong

Arriving to a new camp and homestead, Omu sets about going through an unending list of ‘musts’. One of the musts is securing tent ‘fly’...

Jeff Fuchs

Sep 4, 20211 min read

Leaf Journeys, Leaf Ageing, and the Heights

It was upon the months' long journeys along the Tea Horse Road that the big-leafed 'assamica' material and eternal panacea, tea, would...

Jeff Fuchs

Aug 3, 20211 min read

A Pass, The 'Feel', and Karma's Chai

The mind wanders back to a pass, a blizzard, and that wonderful thing that exists still: instinct. On a day of few words along a portion...

Jeff Fuchs

Apr 27, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Part Goat and a Little Part Human

Over the course of years since meeting Dorjè I’ve written and pondered much about him. “Part goat and a little part human” was how he was...

Jeff Fuchs

Mar 9, 20212 min read

Tea Horse Chronicles - The Bend

It was here at the ‘first bend of the Yangtze’, at Shigu, in Yunnan province that the Mongolian armies of the Yuan Dynasty crossed the...

Jeff Fuchs

Feb 21, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Other Tales and Sight

Not all stories of the Tea Horse Road were ones of grand expanses, snow caps, or buzzing tea sessions. A friend from the Yi minority...

Jeff Fuchs

Feb 11, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Empress of Cloth

Ponzera, or Benzilan as it is now known, is a small valley town in northwestern Yunnan that lies alongside a headwater stream of the...

Jeff Fuchs

Feb 3, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Way Out, and Out Again

Yeshi and I shared tea with this old memory palace of time. Goat milk and butter were used instead of yak variations. The tea was deadly...

Jeff Fuchs

Jan 28, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - There Are No Straight Lines Through the Mountains

Not heeding the warnings of Sonam Gelek; I should have known better at this stage of our journey than to plunge onwards without his...

Jeff Fuchs

Jan 26, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Chronicles - Blessings and Warnings

It was from this patch of grassland near Napa Lake, just north of my home in Dukezong (old town of 'Shangrila') that our expedition...

Jeff Fuchs

Jan 23, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Chronicles - Tea's Value

“Tea is our everything. I don’t know where it comes from but we take it every day in the morning, afternoon, and night. Our children...

Jeff Fuchs

Jan 14, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Chronicles - The Hostess, The Keeper

A nomadic hostess (nemo) offers up a smile to our sun and grime battered crew near Ala Jagung, Tibet. The smile that comes from living so...

Jeff Fuchs

Jan 7, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Jokhang Boys

After 52 days of trekking from my then home in Zhongdian (aka: Shangrila/Jiantang/Gyalthang) in northwestern Yunnan, a small celebration...

Jeff Fuchs

Jan 5, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - A Gathering of Women

Nomadic women of Ganze gather on a grassland to take part in a horse festival. It was through and over such high grasslands that the Tea...

Jeff Fuchs

Jan 2, 20211 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - The Crossing

Poignant in this years' end and the arrival of a new time and space. A last vestige of travel across the glacier-fed waterways of the...

Jeff Fuchs

Dec 29, 20201 min read

Tea Horse Chronicles - 'The Dorjè'

Immersed in a hotspring that is tucked within a mountain cave, sitting beside the venerable and irrepressible Dorjè Kandro. Just days...

Jeff Fuchs

Dec 28, 20201 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Lhakpa

Always, it seems that it was the mountain mornings and its still clear cold that would offer up moments and characters along our journey....

Jeff Fuchs

Dec 21, 20201 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Shar Gong La (The Eastern Gate Pass)

Upon the Tea Horse Road’s pathways (and there were many), traders, pilgrims, and muleteers alike would refer to the ‘middle route’ as...

Jeff Fuchs

Dec 15, 20201 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Part 1

The coming weeks' posts will delve back into the memory palace of moments from our 7.5 month expedition along the Tea Horse Road, to...

Jeff Fuchs

Dec 1, 20202 min read