Ancient Tea-Horse Road: Road Warriors
Hello, my name is Wang Yan and I’m a reporter with NewsChina. With our podcast, we aim to provide insight into the current trends of modern China allowing you to clearly see what’s happening today through a historical lens.
In the first installment of what will be a two-part feature, we’re going to talk about how an ancient horse trail in China’s mountainous southwest helped to develop the local economy by promoting border trade and promoted the cultural development of various ethnic groups in southwest China.
For more than 13-hundred years, this treacherous and winding path that meanders through the mountains and valleys of southwest China has been trod by human feet and horse hoofs helping to bridge the Chinese hinterland with the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Along this unpaved and rugged commercial passage, livestock and commodities flowed back and forth: tea, salt and sugar flowed into Tibet, while horses, furs and other local products flowed out. This ancient trade route, which first appeared during the Tang Dynasty, came to be known as the Tea Horse Road. And it lasted until the 1960s – yes, the 1960s – when highways were finally constructed in Tibet.
The Ancient Tea Horse Road was a network of trade routes linking the tea producing areas of Yunnan Province with the tea-consuming regions across China, and with Tibet in particular. From the 7th century, people in Sichuan and Yunnan traveled by foot or horseback leading teams of pack horses to exchange tea for horses with merchants in Tibet; thus the name, “tea horse road”. The road, which is actually a series of trails, can generally be divided into two major routes: the Sichuan-Tibet Tea Horse Road which originates in Sichuan Province around the city of Ya’an, and the Yunnan-Tibet Tea Horse Road which mainly stems from Pu’er and Xishuangbanna in southwestern Yunnan Province. And both routes lead to Lhasa.
Traversing almost the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with elevations ranging from 2,000 to 5,000 meters, the Ancient Tea Horse Road is not only the highest, but also the longest trade road in the world at more than 10,000 kilometers in length. Throughout its 13-hundred years, it has promoted the economic and cultural development of various ethnic groups in southwest China and born witness to the national integration and reunification of China. In 2013, the Ancient Tea Horse Road was added to the list of China’s national key cultural relics.
The Tea Horse Road originated from the traditional “tea-for-horses” trade between the ethnic Han and Tibetan peoples. The Han, China’s largest ethnicity, were keen to purchase the sturdy warhorses from Tibet, while Tibetans, living amid the Himalayan mountains at the so-called “top of the world”, became addicted to tea.
In high-altitude areas such as the Tibetan Plateau, it’s necessary to eat a diet of high-calorie foods, which is why tsampa, milk, butter, beef, and mutton have become staple foods of Tibetans. But too much fat is not easy to digest, and long ago, people there discovered that tea not only aids in the digestion of fat, but also prevents dryness and “inner fire” in the Traditional Chinese Medicine. That’s why tea has become an integral part of life in Tibet.
Folklore has it that tea took root in Tibet in the 7th century. In the year 641, Tang Emperor Taizong arranged for his 16-year-old daughter, Princess Wencheng（文成公主）, to marry Tibetan King Songstan Gampo（松赞干布）. As she was already familiar with the dietary habits of the king and his people, Princess Wencheng carried a variety of teas with her to help balance the fat and grease. After a few years, when there wasn’t much tea left, she mixed tea with milk to drink, and thus milk tea came into being. Later, she cooked tea together with butter and salt, and the unique Tibetan butter tea was born. Princess Wencheng introduced tea to the royals and the monks, and it soon seeped its way into the lives of the local population.
During the Song Dynasty, ranging from 960 to 1279, ethnic Han emperors of the Central Plains were frequently engaged in border skirmishes with enemies to the north and west. Although the Han people also bred horses, they were aware that the horses of their enemies were faster and sturdier. So, the Song began to purchase Tibetan horses with copper coins. It soon became apparent that the Tibetans were taking those copper coins and casting them into weapons, which only increased potential risks to border security. So, in year 983, the Song regime officially banned the use of copper coins for horse trading and began to use tea, cloth, and medicinal products instead. A special government agency was also set up to supervise horse trading.
The Sichuan-Tibet Tea Horse Road starting from Ya’an in Sichuan Province was very dangerous and risky. There were lots of precipitous mountains to climb and rapid rivers to cross. Under these circumstances, it was difficult for tall horses and mules to travel, and manual labor became the only means of transportation. Porters would carry bundles of tea bricks on their backs stacked in the shape of a mountain and weighing up to 150 kilograms. Under their feet was a narrow trail that could accommodate only one person next to a bottomless abyss that could devour them with one small misstep.
The tea and horse road was just like a relay game, and merchants from different regions were only responsible for a specific section. The road was not only specific to the trade of tea and horses: a variety of goods were traded including salt, household utensils, furs, medicines, to name just a few. Horses could be sold in places where roads were good, but where the mountain pass was narrow and steep cliffs threatened both man and beast, only lightweight furs and medicines could be traded.
The trip could take more than half a month, and porters could not unload their cargo anywhere along the way because they wouldn’t be able reload it without assistance from others. But don’t feel too sorry for them because, just as necessity is the mother of invention, these herculean humans invented a T-shaped tool that could be used to lean on when walking and support the tea bundles on their back when resting.
Well, that’s the end of our podcast. We want to thank you for listening and hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please tell a friend. For our writer Lü Weitao and Zhang Jin, translator Yang Guang, and copy editor Pu Ren, I’m Wang Yan. See you next time!