Earliest tea as evidence for one branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau

Houyuan Lu,Luo Wang,Caiming Shen,Dorian Q Fuller,Huiyun Rao,Yimin Yang,Naiqin Wu,Can Wang,Baiqing Xu,Deke Xu,Xingguo Li,Hongliang Lu,Wuzhan Yang,Tao Tong,Jianping Zhang,Xiaoyan Yang,Shubo Jin

doi:10.1038/srep18955

Abstract

Phytoliths and biomolecular components extracted from ancient plant remains from Chang’an (Xi’an, the city where the Silk Road begins) and Ngari (Ali) in western Tibet, China, show that the tea was grown 2100 years ago to cater for the drinking habits of the Western Han Dynasty (207BCE-9CE), and then carried toward central Asia by ca.200CE, several hundred years earlier than previously recorded. The earliest physical evidence of tea from both the Chang’an and Ngari regions suggests that a branch of the Silk Road across the Tibetan Plateau, was established by the second to third century CE.

Highlights

Tea (Camellia sinensis L.) is one of the most popular nonalcoholic beverages, consumed by over two-thirds of the world’s population for its refreshing taste, aroma, medicinal, and mildly stimulating qualities[1]
The Han Yangling Mausoleum (34° 26′ 37.99′′ N, 108°56′ 26.84′′ E, 415 m asl) is located to the north of Xi’an, on a loess platform along the north bank of the Weihe River. It was built for the Jing Emperor Liu Qi (188– 141 BCE), the fourth emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, and his wife (Fig. S1a)
We examined the biomolecular components in samples DK15-1 (Han Yangling sample) and XZ-1 (Gurgyam sample) alongside standard reference material (SRM), using ultra-performance liquid chromatography/ high resolution mass spectrometry (UPLC/MS) to isolate traces of theanine and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) to identify traces of caffeine[23,24,25]

Summary

Introduction

Tea (Camellia sinensis L.) is one of the most popular nonalcoholic beverages, consumed by over two-thirds of the world’s population for its refreshing taste, aroma, medicinal, and mildly stimulating qualities[1]. It has long been hypothesized that tea, silks and porcelain were key commodities exported from the ancient Chinese capital, Chang’an, to central Asia and beyond by caravans following several transport routes constituting the network commonly referred to as the Silk Road[6,7,8,9,10], in use by the second century BCE. Our study reveals that tea was drunk by Han Dynasty emperors as early as 2100 yr BP and had been introduced into the Tibetan Plateau by 1800 yr BP. This indicates that one branch of the Silk Road passed through western Tibet at that time

Methods

Results

Conclusion