Shangri-La, Par La Route Du Thé Et Des Chevaux (Book)

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Shangri-La, par La Route du Thé et du Cheval / Shangri-La, by The Tea and Horse Road (Book) by Michael Yamashita, Elizabeth Bibb. Condition as new. National geographic. 2012. 272 ​​pages. French language. Format 31.50 cm x 29.70 cm x 1.50 cm.

The legendary “Tea and Horse Road” is a network of mule trails that for more than 1000 years linked the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan, in western China, to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet: stretching over 2350 km, it wound across the windswept and snow-eroded plateau, forded the icy waters of the Yangtze, Mekong and Salween and skirted dizzying precipices leading to passes over 5000 m in altitude before descending to the holy city.

Connecting the most isolated monasteries, villages and ethnic groups, this road developed from the 10th century to satisfy a historic trade exchange between the powerful Chinese empire and the Tibetan people. The Chinese army needed Tibetan horses, renowned for their robustness and sure-footedness, to repel the Mongol invaders from the north, while the Tibetans could no longer do without tea: introduced to Tibet in the 7th century, tea had become a basic necessity for the population, who consumed it mixed with salt and yak butter.

The tea-for-horse trade peaked in the 13th century, when China traded millions of kilos of tea for some 25,000 horses a year, but the trade continued along the tea route until 1950, thanks to the self-sacrifice of the tea porters who risked their lives to transport bricks of black tea on the backs of men, yaks, or mules to Lhasa. Today, the Tea and Horse Route seems like a relic of a bygone era.

As Michael Yamashita takes us along the tea route trail, he offers a rare and intimate look at the evolution of Tibet, both ancient and modern, religious and touristic, refined and realistic, before the legends and mysteries of the Tea and Horse Route faded into the Tibetan mist.

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