26AW #19 TEA HORSE ROAD Introduction

Shaxi is a small city found in the middle of the open landscape of Yunnan’s countryside.

Maze-like houses are built, designed according to Feng Shui and illuminated by beautiful plays of light and shadow.
Delicate wood-carvings decorate the window frames and pillars, and pieces of marble with natural pattern reminiscent of Shanshui paintings are used as gates. On the wall poems are drawn with a light ink brush.

In an old temple remodeled as a tea house, a circle in the center of the courtyard conveys a strange sensation when standing in the middle. We learned later that the circle marks the point where qi circulates most harmoniously.

Shaxi was once a major relay and trading hub along the Tea Horse Road. Caravans traveling north from the tea-producing regions of the south would stop here before continuing into the steep Tibetan Plateau. This southern route of the Silk Road formed an exchange network with tea from Yunnan being sent to Tibet, and horses from Tibet being delivered to successive Chinese dynasties.

In Yunnan, artisans still practice traditional crafts including ceramics, stone carving and woodwork. The black pottery artisan we visited comes from a family that has practiced its own unique firing techniques for so long that no one knows when the tradition began. When we asked questions, they spoke very little about their methods or the origins of their lineage. It felt like it is simply something that has always existed for them, nothing to boast about.

Nothing there is made with insistence and nothing demands conclusion. Everything seems to melt naturally into the everyday life, creating a mysterious sense of comfort and familiarity.
Over long centuries, the culture born of the Tea Horse Road became embedded in daily life, carrying a singular sense of beauty and spirit.

Effortless, quiet, inward, refined.