Jeff Fuchs at TINARS

So, you think you have a long commute to work? Since 756 AD, muleteers known as Lados have navigated the 2,350 kilometers of Tea Horse Road to trade tea from China to India. At the launch of his new book, The Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers, celebrated photojournalist Jeff Fuchs will deliver a multimedia presentation featuring stunning photographs of both the Lados and a landscape that has been undisturbed for thousands of years. — A This Is Not A Reading Series event presented by Pages Books & Magazines, Penguin Group (Canada) and EYE WEEKLY.

Gladstone Hotel Gallery, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto
Tuesday, June 10 at 8:00 p.m. (doors 7:30 p.m.) free

The Ancient Tea Horse Road: Travels with the Last of the Himalayan Muleteers chronicles Jeff Fuchs' attempts to be the first westerner to traverse all 2,350 kilometers of the Tea Horse Road, one of the ancient world's legendary trade routes. Since 750 AD, muleteers known as Lados have navigated this perilous path to trade tea from China to Tibet, and Nepal to India. Fuchs spent seven grueling months battling frostbite, snow-blindness and hunger as he negotiated seventy-eight peaks, two of the world's highest plateaus and crossed the mighty Mekong, Salween and Jinsha Rivers. The Ancient Tea Horse Road documents his remarkable journey with a combination of stunning photographs and eloquent prose, and provides a glimpse of the Lados' rugged, hermetic lifestyle as well as a natural environment that has rested undisturbed for thousands of years.

Jeff Fuchs has lived in Asia for the past five years. His vibrant stories have appeared in World Geographic, The Earth, The China Post, New Ideas, Outdoor Exploration and New Traveler. Fuchs has appeared on Chinese television in the documentary Follow Me, which explored his photographic work and articles, including a recent project in which he lived with nomads for a month at an elevation of 5,000 meters. His work has taken him to the Arctic, South America and the Himalayas. Fuchs' current project is the culmination of three years of planning, combining his love of tea with the study of mountain culture.