As an old trader along the Ancient Tea Horse Road once remarked to our team as we traveled through his village, “You all are lucky because you can read, you can write, and can tell a story that many will hear. I cannot read or write…I can only speak if there is somebody listening”.
Dandee Pinchu (tea trader, brigand, bodyguard, muleteer extraordinaire)
In his case, his words rest here in this text so his audience has multiplied and many have heard his voice and of his tales.
Heartfelt gratitude and thanks to the courageous Livros de Bordo who relentlessly ploughed on with publishing my Ancient Tea Horse Road into Portuguese and extended this great mountain route’s history to a wider audience. Language is kept accurate and the thoughts and subtle wisdom of a last generation of muleteers and traders is wonderfully intact.
