The legendary Chamagudao, the Tea-Horse Road, winds through dizzying mountain passes, across famed rivers like the Mekong and the Yangtze and past monasteries and meadows in a circuitous route from Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces in western China to the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa. Actually a network of roads, trails and highways, rather than one distinct route, the Chamagudao once stretched for almost 1,400 miles (2350 km) - a conduit along which the historic trade between the mighty Chinese Empire and the nomadic Tibetans linked remote villages and ethnic groups. The Chinese military needed strong horses for their wars against Mongol invaders from the north, and the fiercely religious Tibetans desired tea both for sacred rituals and sustenance.
Once tea was introduced into Tibet around the 10th century, demand for it grew. Tea soon became fundamental for Tibetans, especially when combined with their other staple, yak butter. But with Tibet's extreme temperatures and altitudes, tea cultivation on a large scale was impossible. This set the stage for the tea-horse trade, which flourished from the 11th century, along the Chamagudao, and went on until the 1950s. Today, a homely caterpillar infected by a parasitic fungus has replaced the horse trade in Tibet. The yatsu gonbu is prized for its medicinal qualities. Now Tibetan nomads drive Land Cruisers and motorcycles instead of riding horses, thanks to the profits they make collecting and selling the miracle mushroom worth more than gold. So trade continues, even though relics of the tea-horse trade are becoming harder to find. Following the Chamagudao, this book is a rare and enchanting look into the changing world of Tibet - both ancient and modern, sacred and secular, the rarefied and the gritty - before the legends and mysteries of the Tea-Horse Road disappear into the Tibetan mist.