Study Of Yunnan Ancient Tea-Horse Road

In Nineteen Nineties, six scholars including Mu Jihong and Chen Baoya, investigated on foot on the routes from Yunnan, and Sichuan to Tibet. They proposed the term of Ancient Tea-Horse Road referring the Tea-Horse Market that emerged in Tang and Song dynasty. This ancient road mainly lied in Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan Province, by outreaching to Guangxi, Guizhou and Hunan Province. Internationally it linked the countries in Southeast and South Asia, including India, Nepal, Thailand, Burma, Laos and Vietnam. Taking the section in Yunnan for example, this paper reviewed the formulation of Tea-horse Road. With the update reference, this paper proposed there were seven routes of this Tea-horse road in Yunnan province. The impacts of this road on economy, politics and religion were made detailed analysis.The traffic conditions along the Tea-Horse Road were very bad. Horse were the mainly goods carrier. The merchant teams were rapidly increasing with the trade development. During the World Warâ…¡, the merchant teams contributed greatly by carrying the goods and materials. The spirits formulated in the merchant team set very good examples to further businessman. With the social development, the function of this road declined gradually. It was taken by modern roads and railways.This paper reviewed the developing process of the Tea-Horse Road in different phases. In Tang dynasty, the agriculture handcrafts and livestock industry in Yunnan province developed rapidly. These improvements stimulated the development of Tea-Horse Road. In Ming dynasty, due to the frequent wars, the horses were demanded much more. The Tea-Horse trade reached its peak in the history. The Tea-Horse road developed further in Qing dynasty. During the World Warâ…¡, the Japanese Army destroyed the main traffics in Yunnan province. The horse teams were employed again to carry goods and materials inside and outside. It contributed greatly to the victory of anti-Japanese war. Since from that period, the Tea-Horse road declined gradually and was taken place by the modern traffic finally.Yunnan Ancient Tea-Horse Road played very important roles in the history. It greatly imposed impacts on the development of politics, economy and culture in Yunnan province. It is a road of economy development, a road of religion spreading, a road of civilization dissemination and a road of ethnics' coalescence.Through the Yunnan Ancient Tea-Horse Road, the communication between Yunnan local culture and foreign culture was improved. After a serious of complex process of communication, Yunnan Culture was formulated with unique characteristic. Yunnan Ancient Tea-Horse Road improved the trade from Yunnan to the outsides, which greatly improved the economy development of Yunnan province. Yunnan Ancient Tea-Horse Road also brought the diversity of religion in Yunnan province. It helped the spread of some religions and the formulation of the present religion map with international characteristic.Yunnan Ancient Tea-Horse Road is rich in its cultural implication, and it is a valuable culture heritage. Many sections of this ancient road were replaced by modern road and railway. The tourism development of Yunnan Ancient Tea-Horse Road has been a hot point attracting attention from all the society. It is highly demanded that the conservation of Yunnan Ancient Tea-Horse Road should be put into the schedule with effective measures. Two important aspects of the conservation included the conservation of old sites of Yunnan Ancient Tea-Horse Road, and the conservation of historically famous city along the Yunnan Ancient Tea-Horse Road.