Tibetan Tea Road: Trade and Transport of Sichuan Frontier Tea from the Early Qing Dynasty to the Republican China Period (1700-1950)

Abstract

Counties located between the west edge of the Sichuan Basin and the east edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, such as Ya’an, Mingshan, Tianquan, Yingjing, Qionglai, Guanxian, Chongqing and Pingwu, are important producing areas of tea sold to Tibet. Since tea-horse trade was refocused from northwestern China to Sichuan in the Song dynasty, the output of Sichuan frontier tea kept rising. However, due to the steep and remote roads between Sichuan and Tibet, and the galloping Dadu River, Sichuan frontier tea trade was always confined to Yazhiou, Lizhou, Diaomen and Yanzhou. After the Xilu Battle in Year 39 of Qing Emperor Kangxi’s reign (1700), the Qing government put the area in the east of the Yalong River under its direct control. In particular, the Luding Bridge completed in 1702 provided a passage from Ya’an to Dajianlu, and Dajianlu began to flourish since then as an important distributing center of Sichuan frontier tea trade. From the occupation of Dajianlu by the Qing army in 1700 to the opening of the Ya’an-Kangding Highway in 1950, the Tibetan tea road running from Ya’an via Dajianlu to Tibet existed for 250 years.