michael freeman

PHOTOGRAPHER

the TEA HORSE ROAD

One of the longest trade routes in the ancient world, from Yunnan and Sichuan to Tibet, the Tea Horse Road, known in Chinese as the Cha Ma Gu Dao started when the Tibetans discovered a taste and a need for tea. The tea of choice was Pu’er from the southwest of Yunnan, near the Burmese border, and it had to travel by pack train. In return, the Chinese wanted war horses to protect their northern frontier. The trade, along more than 3,000 km of trails, lasted until the middle of the 20th century.

1

Tea Horse Road is an amazing introduction to one of the world’s most beautiful and diverse regions. This 4 year long project was a joint effort between photographer Michael Freeman and ethnobotanist Selena Ahmed.

Freeman, who makes great photography seem easy, spent two years on the route getting to know the places and people of the old route through his lens.

Ahmed’s writing, which comes from four years of doctoral research, allows the reader to understand the route as a whole while appreciating the unique role each individual town or ethnic group played within this fascinating trade network.

“Photography is storytelling, and does what it does best when it engages with the world.

“Tea-Horse Trade Route”

This passage way refers to the route taken by horse and tea traders between the hinterland of China and Tibet, and as far as India and west Asia.

The Ancient Tea Route was a network of mule caravan paths winding through the mountains of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. It is also referred to as the Southern Silk Road and Tea and Horse Road.

Thousands of years ago, the Ancient Tea Route was a trade link from Yunnan, one of the first tea-producing regions. From there it linked to India then Burma, to Tibet, and to central China, and finally, Sichuan Province.

This acient route formed in AD 6th century, and ended at the end of Qing dynasty (1644-1911). It became the only one route that the horse caravans were on this route again to transport the military goods from India to mainland of China to supporting the Anti-Japanese War until the victory eventually arrived.

Winnowing barley- Michael FreemanWinnowing barley in September at Tholing in Tibet’s far western Ngari Province.

Pilgrims making tea on the trail- Michael FreemanTibetan pilgrims to Mount Kailash, western Tibet, brew a pot of tea, to be drunk in the traditional manner with yak butter and salt, and have a picnic on the sacred circuit around the mountain.

Old woman on trail to Chuku Gompa- Michael FreemanA Tibetan woman, exhausted by the climb, waits to recover before continuing towards the Drolma La, the highest point on the kora around Mt Kailash, near Chuku Gompa.

MAJOR ROUTES:Route 1: Departure the Tea-planting area of Ya’an (near Chengdu) to Kahngding, vis southern route leading to Lhasa and then onward to Nepal, India

Route 2: Departure from Middle part of Yunnan via Lijiang, Zhongdian, Deqin onto Tibetan plateau to Lhasa, along Himalaya range into India continental

Yibang

Yi Bang, a hilltop Han/Yi village on the Tea-Horse route (Cha Ma Gu Dao), in the hills above Xiangming, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. Yibang mountain was one of the original ‘Six Great Tea Mountains’, and began producing tea for distribution in 1723. Archibald Colqhoun, a British engineer, explorer and one-time foreign correspondent for the London Times, wrote in his account of an 1881-2 expedition through southern China, Across Chryse (1883), that Yibang was the ‘most highly esteemed tea-growing district, whence the best so-called “Puerh” tea comes’.

Bulang woman

A 70-something year old Bulang woman , Ya Jang, making tea in her house - the leaves collected from her tall old tea tree in the forest nearby. In Zhanglang, a Bulang village in the hills west of Menghai, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan.

2 3