Ting Ma

Ting Ma

November 28, 2025

Ancient Tea-Horse Road, Communication exchange and integration, Ethnic relations.

The Ancient Tea-Horse Road is a comprehensive channel network that has traveled through the Hengduan Mountains in southwestern China since the Tang and Song dynasties, with tea horse trade as its core, connecting Yunnan, Sichuan, Xizang, and radiating to South Asia and Southeast Asia. It goes beyond a single economic function and has become a practical example of multi-ethnic communication, exchange, and integration in history. This article is based on the theoretical perspective of "communication, exchange, and integration" to re-examine the historical significance and value of the Ancient Tea-Horse Road. Research has shown that at the economic level, the ancient road constructed a symbiotic regional economic system with "tea-horse exchange" as the core and diverse commodities as supplements, laying a solid foundation for material exchanges; At the cultural level, as a dynamic corridor for cultural dissemination and mutual learning, it has given birth to a tea horse cultural community that integrates language, religion, and art, completing deep level spiritual exchanges; At the social level, ancient roads have facilitated deep interweaving of blood, geography, and social connections through population migration, intermarriage between ethnic groups, the rise of towns, and innovation in social organizations, achieving social integration. In the end, the Ancient Tea-Horse Road, with its historical practice spanning thousands of years, proved its eternal value as a historical link between "national unity" and "Chinese national community consciousness". The summary of its historical experience not only deepens our understanding of the internal driving force behind the formation of the "diverse and integrated" pattern of the Chinese nation, but also provides rich historical insights for forging a sense of community among the Chinese nation in a broader region and at a deeper level in the new era.

© 2025, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license