When tea was worth more than porcelain or silk, porters and pack animals inched up switchbacks to cross Tibet's 15,000-foot Zar Gama Pass as they followed the Tea Horse Road. Today travelers climb the terraced route by car or truck.
When tea was worth more than porcelain or silk, porters and pack animals inched up switchbacks to cross Tibet's 15,000-foot Zar Gama Pass as they followed the Tea Horse Road. Today travelers climb the terraced route by car or truck.
The Forgotten Road
Chinese tea and Tibetan horses were long traded on a legendary trail. Today remnants of the passageway reveal grand vistas—and a surprising new commerce.
This story appears in the May 2010 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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