Jeff FuchsSep 4, 20211 minOmu, The StrongArriving 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 FuchsAug 3, 20211 minLeaf Journeys, Leaf Ageing, and the HeightsIt was upon the months' long journeys along the Tea Horse Road that the big-leafed 'assamica' material and eternal panacea, tea, would...
Jeff FuchsApr 27, 20211 minA Pass, The 'Feel', and Karma's ChaiThe 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 FuchsMar 9, 20212 minTea Horse Road Chronicles - Part Goat and a Little Part HumanOver 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 FuchsFeb 21, 20211 minTea Horse Chronicles - The BendIt 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 FuchsFeb 11, 20211 minTea Horse Road Chronicles - Other Tales and SightNot 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 FuchsFeb 3, 20211 minTea Horse Road Chronicles - Empress of ClothPonzera, or Benzilan as it is now known, is a small valley town in northwestern Yunnan that lies alongside a headwater stream of the...
Jeff FuchsJan 28, 20211 minTea Horse Road Chronicles - Way Out, and Out AgainYeshi 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 FuchsJan 26, 20211 minTea 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 FuchsJan 23, 20211 minTea Horse Chronicles - Blessings and WarningsIt was from this patch of grassland near Napa Lake, just north of my home in Dukezong (old town of 'Shangrila') that our expedition...
Jeff FuchsJan 14, 20211 minTea 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 FuchsJan 7, 20211 minTea Horse Chronicles - The Hostess, The KeeperA 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 FuchsJan 5, 20211 minTea Horse Road Chronicles - Jokhang BoysAfter 52 days of trekking from my then home in Zhongdian (aka: Shangrila/Jiantang/Gyalthang) in northwestern Yunnan, a small celebration...
Jeff FuchsJan 2, 20211 minTea Horse Road Chronicles - A Gathering of WomenNomadic 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 FuchsDec 29, 20201 minTea Horse Road Chronicles - The CrossingPoignant 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 FuchsDec 28, 20201 minTea 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 FuchsDec 21, 20201 minTea Horse Road Chronicles - LhakpaAlways, it seems that it was the mountain mornings and its still clear cold that would offer up moments and characters along our journey....
Jeff FuchsDec 15, 20201 minTea 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 FuchsDec 1, 20202 minTea Horse Road Chronicles - Part 1The coming weeks' posts will delve back into the memory palace of moments from our 7.5 month expedition along the Tea Horse Road, to...