“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 learn to make it when they are young but we must help them get the taste right”.
Simple words from a nomad and father on the subject of that eternal fuel, tea. Taken at close to 5,000 metres near Shinzhugong, in western Sichuan’s Ganze area the words tell succinctly of the value of a desiccated leaf to a people who count few luxuries.
“With tea and our yak, we are complete”, he would say later.