A pottery demonstration with Living Roots guests in rural Assam

Ancient Trade Routes

Salt, silk and the southern Silk Road.

The caravans that crossed from Yunnan to Bengal moved through these hills long before borders. Stilwell, Ledo, the Hump — the corridors that the twentieth century rediscovered were already old.

A pottery demonstration with Living Roots guests in rural Assam

Upper Assam · Patkai range

The Southern Silk Road — Through the Patkai

Han dynasty onward

Long before the Stilwell Road, salt and silk crossed these passes on the backs of mules. The Patkai was not a frontier — it was a corridor.

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