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The Tea Horse Road Guide Part 2 THE TEA HORSE ROAD GUIDE PART 2 LIJIANG TO MEILI SNOW MOUNTAIN WRITTEN BY MICHAEL FREEMAN COURTESY OF LUX* 2 LIJIANG TO MEILI SNOW MOUNTAIN INTRODUCTION 3 INTRODUCTION Between the 7th century and the middle of the 20th, one of the longest trade route, because in return for tea, which Tibetans came quickly to trade routes in the Ancient World, more than 3,000 kilometres, carried crave, the Tang dynasty wanted horses for the Imperial Army. The route tea from its homeland in the deep south of Yunnan to Tibet. It was added came under strict control, as the trading of tea for war horses became to by a route from a second source, the tea mountains of Sichuan, and the an arm of Tang foreign policy in its dealing with a neighbour that had combined network of stone roads and mountain trails became known as risen from a loose collection of tribal societies to a military power on the the Tea Horse Road, Cha Ma Dao. This was much more than a simple empire’s northwestern border. The Tea Horse Road, marked in red, began in the tea mountains of Caravan on Xishuangbanna and worked its way north through Yunnan to the Tibetan a cliff-cut trail Plateau, later joined by a second route from Sichuan Lead horse in a tea caravan 4 LIJIANG TO MEILI SNOW MOUNTAIN THE TEA HORSE ROAD the tea west to join the Yunnan route As the trade developed, it became a and continue to Lhasa. saga of epic proportions, combining These are the broad strokes, but a true odyssey of a journey, long and the Tea Horse Road was a network, difficult, with exchanges between in some stretches coalescing into one, very different cultures. There were in others a mesh of narrow trails, two main routes, which joined at particularly crossing the gorges and the eastern Tibetan market town of the Hengduan Range onto the Tibetan Mangkham (Markam). The longer, and plateau. There were secondary routes, original, began in the tea mountains of such as up the Nujiang gorge, and Xishuangbanna close to the Burmese across upper Myanmar. It continued, in border, most of it converging first on all its complexity, until the middle of the the town that gave the name to the 20th century, halted first by the events Horse caravan on a Qing bridge tea, Pu’er. From this gathering point, leading up to the 1949 creation of the caravans set off north. The main route People’s Republic of China, and then further north, in Tibetan territory, caravan sprang after them.” Sounding went through Weishan, first capital of simply by lorries. Horse caravans still muleteers were known as lado, meaning the caravan’s gong (actually the lid of the kingdom of Nanzhao, then Dali its work the remote trails, but not carrying ‘Hand of Stone’. A certain amount of the large cooking pot) was more than successor capital, along the western tea, and their numbers fall as China’s tradition attended these caravans, and ceremonial. Like a car horn in Indian shores of Lake Erhai, on to Shaxi and transport infrastructure develops. the lead horses were quite colourfully traffic, it was essential for avoiding Heqing, then the Great Bend of the decorated and often carried the team’s accidents, to warn others on the trail Yangtse and on to the caravanserais THE HORSE CARAVANS flag. Russian-born Peter Goullart, who ahead, particularly an oncoming of Lijiang. North again through Tiger The caravans varied in size, but could made the journey several times in the caravan. Pride made the lead horses Leaping Gorge to Zhongdian (renamed have as many as 50 to 100 ponies and 1940s to reach Lijiang, described the charge ahead to push their rivals off in 2001 as Shangri-La), then past Meili mules, tended by up to 20 muleteers. morning departure of a caravan: “To the trail. Goullart told of one such Snow Mountain and along the upper The leader was known picturesquely the sounding of the gong, the leading encounter that “by the time they were Mekong (Lancang) River. The second as the Ma Guo Tou, meaning ’Head horse, gaily bedecked in red ribbons, disentangled by cursing caravan men, source of a different tea was western of Horses and [cooking] Pots’, and pompoms and small mirrors on its the scene looked like a battlefield”. Sichuan, and caravans, aided by human his second-in-command Er Guo Tou forehead, was led out….and, having Read more about Goullart on p 9. porters over Erlong Mountain, carried (‘Number Two Head of Pots’), while looked back to see that everything was ready, started walking down PU’ER TEA the road at a brisk pace. At once he Among the six types of tea (the others CARRYING TEA chafing as the load sways on the rough was followed by the assistant leader, are white, yellow, green, black and Pu’er tea was typically pressed into a trails, the crupper that secures the less gaudily decorated, but also full oolong) Pu’er tea is special because of discus-shaped bing weighing 350gm, saddle to the base of the tail is strung of authority. Immediately the whole post-fermentation. and the standard load for a pony or with bobbin-like wooden wheels that roll mule was a dozen seven-bing stacks, across the horse’s back. each wrapped in bamboo leaf, on each side of the saddle, a total weight of just over 50 kilos. The wooden saddle, still made and used, is shaped to the barrel of the horse, and has 350-gram a central gap so that and smaller cakes from no weight rests directly on the animal’s different spine and for ventilation. To prevent harvests 6 LIJIANG TO MEILI SNOW MOUNTAIN INTRODUCTION 7 Other teas can also age, but for Pu’er also to reduce the astringency of young it is an essential part of the process. Pu’er, a process of forced fermentation Using the broad-leaved assamica (wo dui in Chinese) was developed variety of tea leaf (all the others in in the 1970s. Loose mao cha is piled China use the smaller sinensis leaves), up in a warm humid environment and it comes only from the south of covered with bamboo mats or cloth Yunnan. While its processing starts to keep it moist and allow micro- organisms to speed up fermentation. This can be for up to a few weeks before pressing in to cakes of what is then called shu cha (‘cooked’ tea). This is dark brown, has an earthy taste Akha Bulang Dai Hui when brewed that mimics aged sheng cha, and is much more affordable. Pu’er sparked the Tibetan demand for tea, remarkable in its intensity. On average, Tibetans consume 11 kg of tea leaf annually according to a 1995 study, and they drink it in a very particular, even peculiar, manner. Across history and nations, tea has been drunk in many ways, but possibly none so extreme as bod ja, Tibetan Butter Tea. The tea is first boiled for at Pressing cakes with stones Bai Yi Naxi Tibetan least an hour until thoroughly stewed, in the same way as most green teas, and then poured into a cylindrical version is that Tibet came into about, and the result has been 25 with withering and wok firing, it churn where it is mixed by a plunger contact with the tea plant during its ethnic minorities within Yunnan, continues to age slowly over the years with salt, and butter from the bri war with the southwest borderlands half of China’s total. Because the Tea and develops a complex flavour profile, (female of the yak), not uncommonly — what is now Yunnan — when Horse Road follows the grain of the woody and floral with notes varying rancid. Drunk in large quantities and Songtsän Gampo for the first time land south to north, it passes through from dried apricots or figs to camphor. an essential offering of hospitality to united Tibet into an effective most of these. On the southern border After firing, the leaves are rolled to guests, bod ja is finished off by kingdom, and began expansion. with Burma are several hill groups, break the cell walls to remove moisture mixing in powdered roasted barley, including the Akha (called Hani and and to shape them, and are then tsampa. For Tibetans, tea and its A CHAIN OF CULTURES Aini in Chinese), Bulang and Lahu, spread outdoors in sunlight to dry. As additions are essential nourishment in Yunnan has long been the but the main lowland group is the Dai, loose leaves, Pu’er called is mao cha a harsh, high-altitude environment that southwestern borderlands for China, around Jinghong and Simao. North or ‘rough tea,’ and is next pressed for creates high oxidative stress. This is and although the Han Dynasty made from here, centred on Dali, are the storage into cakes of various shapes, what ultimately made tea so important early attempts to control the region, Bai, and north again around Lijiang including the distinctive discus-shaped to them. first in 122 BC and later in 69 AD, are the Naxi. In the hills particularly bing. The market for naturally aged There are different versions of how they eventually gave up, and it wasn’t in the Lijiang area are Yi, in small Pu’er, known as sheng cha, is so strong the Tibetans were introduced to tea. until the Ming and Qing Dynasties communities although they are the that prices for cakes aged over 20 years In one, Princess Wencheng, a member that it came properly under Chinese largest ethnic minority in Yunnan as a have become astronomical — of the Tang dynasty court, took it with control.
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