This is a trade route that exchanges tea from the Sichuan Yunnan region of China for Tibetan horses. It is a civilized trade route that dates back 200 years to the Silk Road, and a 21st century economic and cultural path that has been continuously developed. This road is the Tea Horse Ancient Road.
On April 3rd, the Silk Road series exhibition “Tea Horse Ancient Road – Eight Provincial Cultural Relics Joint Exhibition” met with a large audience at the Xite Exhibition Hall on the first floor of Ningbo Museum. This exhibition is currently the largest cultural relics tour joint exhibition with the theme of “Tea Horse Ancient Road” in China, showcasing a total of 338 precious cultural relics from eight provinces and regions in China.
This exhibition is jointly organized by nine museums, including Ningbo Museum, Sichuan Museum, Yunnan Provincial Museum, Tibet Museum, Qinghai Provincial Museum, Gansu Provincial Museum, Shaanxi History Museum, Inner Mongolia Museum, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Museum. Ningbo Museum serves as the closing station of this joint exhibition, presenting the customs and culture of the Tea Horse Ancient Road to the audience on the occasion of its 10th anniversary.
The Tea Horse Ancient Road is the only ancient post road in China that is still in use today. It originated from the tea horse trade in the ancient western frontier, formed in the Qin and Han dynasties, flourished in the Tang and Song dynasties, and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It takes the Yunnan Tibet Railway, Sichuan Tibet Railway, Qinghai Tibet Railway and Yunnan Guangxi Railway as the main line, connecting the ancient land Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road, forming a complete transportation network in the central Asian plateau. It crosses the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, crosses the the Himalayas, extends into Bhutan, Nepal, India, and reaches the coast of the Red Sea in West Asia, West Africa, and the Arab countries in Central Asia.
The exhibition of “Tea Horse Ancient Road” is divided into five parts: “Half Moon Zone • Early Civilization”, “Accessing Land and Sea • Han Tang Ancient Road”, “Tea Horse Exchange • Tea Breeze Prevalence”, “Prosperity of Trade • Ethnic Integration”, “Walking Horse Yunnan Tibet • Ancient Road Picking Treasures”, with historical time as the vein, showcasing the close relationship between tea and ancient Chinese social life, depicting the Tea Horse Ancient Road and the Land Silk Road The magnificent scenery of the grassland silk road connecting each other. In the exhibition, we can see the prosperity of the Tang Tibetan ancient road on the painted figurines of the Hu people, the spread of the Song Dynasty tea culture in the lotus shaped calender of the Western Xia Dynasty, and the traces of ethnic integration and foreign exchanges on the gilded bronze pot with a dragon mouth and a dragon handle full of foreign characteristics.
Observing the trajectory of the Tea Horse Ancient Road on the map, it runs eastward through Guangdong and Guangxi, directly to the Southern Ocean, and southward through the towering mountains of Yunnan, reaching Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and the surrounding areas of the Indian Ocean in South and Southeast Asia. It connects East and West, China and the world through continuous internal and external transportation. Nowadays, the sound of horse hooves that once resounded through this corridor is gradually fading away, but the footprints and memories of thousands of years are still vivid. The Tea Horse Ancient Road is an important geographical hub in history and is now becoming a thriving and vibrant emerging economic and cultural center on the Eurasian continent.。
As the closing station and the 10th anniversary exhibition of the opening of the Ningbo Museum, the “Tea Horse Ancient Road – Eight Provincial Cultural Relics Joint Exhibition” is a special exhibition that cannot be missed. The people transport the “source of life” of Tibetans. The exhibits from the Tibet Museum on display this time will be the last to participate in the tour, and it is also a rare opportunity to appreciate the treasures of the Tibetan plateau at your doorstep.
The exhibition showcases many cultural relics related to tea, making the audience feel as if they have witnessed an ordinary piece of tea, carrying the sweet alcohol fermented from the sunshine, rain, and dew of Sichuan and Yunnan. They pass through the shoulders of the porter, the burden of mules, horses, and yaks, and struggle all the way, climbing to the snowy plateau, and finally meeting the butter. Tea played an important role in ancient Chinese social life, and it also witnessed ethnic integration. In order to allow everyone to explore the cultural essence, the Ningbo Museum is about to launch corresponding youth exploration and experience activities, as well as lectures and cultural salons related to the “Tea Horse Ancient Road”.