Context: China’s Ambassador to India posted about the historic Tea Horse Road which spanned more than 2,000 km, and connected China to India via Tibet.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Tea Horse Road.
Tea Horse Road/ Ancient Chama Road
- Origin: It can be traced back to the 618-907 CE during the rule of Tang Dynasty.
- Route: It was not a single road, but a network of paths that started from Southwest China and ended in the Indian Subcontinent.
- The main pathways passed through Chinese cities like Lijiang in Yunnan Province and Chengdu in Sichuan Province.
- Then it reached Lhasa in Tibet, from where it branched into India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
- Though it is not known as the Silk Road (China- Europe), the Tea horse road was a crucial commercial trade route for centuries.
Significance of the route in Trade
As per the writings of Buddhist Monk and traveler I-Tsing/ Yijing (635-713 CE):
- From China to India: Products like Sugar, Textiles and Rice Noodles were transported from Southwestern China to Tibet and India.
- From India to China: Horses, leather, Tibetan Gold, Saffron and medicine herbs.
- From the times of Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE) trade mainly focused on Tea from China and Horses from India.
- By 1912, the route gained significance as it became a tool for bringing new techniques and goods to the less developed mountainous regions of Yunnan (China) which helped in expanding the tea industry rapidly.
- During World War II, Japan gained control over the entire Chinese coastline and airspace. The road became crucial for transporting supplies to the frontline battlefield in China.
- Decline in significance: With establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the road witnessed decline in significance. This happened mainly because of Mao Zedong’s land reforms, after which porters mostly stopped the backbreaking work of carrying the loads.
- Contemporary significance: China has promoted tourism along the historic path and Lijiang became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997.