Expedition Update - Departures

The concept of a ‘departure' has all changed since Sebastian’s arrival into our little orbit. Now a departure isn’t simply an exciting...

Jeff Fuchs

Oct 5, 20231 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 - Departure and the Cherub

The final destination along the Tea Horse Road, both for our own expedition and for the great journeys of the past, was Kalimpong, in...

Jeff Fuchs

Apr 2, 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 Road Chronicles - Choices, No Choices, and some Courage

Ascending up to the Sho La Pass in northwestern Yunnan in May there would always be a chance of weather issues, but it would still be a...

Jeff Fuchs

Mar 7, 20212 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Tea and Bloodlines

On foot our team of four puttered and wandered west (often faintly lost) through the Nyanqen Tanghla mountains in Tibet towards Lhasa....

Jeff Fuchs

Feb 27, 20211 min read

The Tea Horse Road Chronicles - Remnants

Within the tidy remnants of a former ‘Tea and Horse Trade Office’ in Mingshan County, near Ya’an in Sichuan, Jamyan and I wandered for 25...

Jeff Fuchs

Feb 19, 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 Chronicles - Fields vs Forests

Blankets and ridges of green stimulant leaf lie in rows near Puerh. Here the leaf is entirely industry. Gorgeous industry, but still...

Jeff Fuchs

Feb 9, 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 - 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 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 Chronicles - The Fry

Dakpa and I had been rolling around tea forests, tea houses, and tea characters for months at this point along portions and strands of...

Jeff Fuchs

Dec 27, 20201 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles, Part 5 - The Load (Gyap'kè)

A continuation of some of the embedded moments - both large and small - of our 7.5 month expedition to chart and document the Tea Horse...

Jeff Fuchs

Dec 11, 20201 min read

Tea Horse Road Chronicles, Part 4, The Ebb

Tea Horse Road Chronicles Part 4. Continuing with an homage and tribute to spaces, moments, and sparks in the memory palace of time spent...

Jeff Fuchs

Dec 8, 20202 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