Tea Horse Road: China's Ancient Trade Road to Tibet

In the seventh century, during the Chinese Tang Dynasty, Tibetans began drinking fermented black tea, a valuable addition to their restricted diet of meat and milk. Beginning as an aristocratic delicacy, it quickly became a staple, but it had to be imported, first from southern Yunnan, with a secondary route from Ya'an in Sichuan. The Chinese on the other hand, had a need for war horses and the sturdy Tibetan horses were ideal. As a result a two-way trade route arose during the Song Dynasty and became known as the Cha Ma Dao, the Tea-Horse Road, a 2,300 kilometre journey from southern Yunnan to Lhasa at its core.