The 'Desert Gold' On The Silk Road: The Unresolved Bond Between Cistanche And Nomad Peoples

The vast yellow sand stretches across the Western Regions, while camel bells have traversed the vast desert for thousands of years. In the depths of deserts and Gobi such as Taklamakan, Badain Jaran, and Gurbantunggut, the Cistanche tubulosa, which parasitizes under the roots of Haloxylon ammodendron and Salix matsudana, has been rooted in the fertile soil of the Silk Road since the Qin and Han dynasties. With its unique nourishing value, it has earned the reputation of desert gold and desert ginseng. As a rare and iconic product along the southern and northern routes of the ancient Silk Road, the growth territory of Cistanche tubulosa coincides with the nomadic territories of ancient Xiongnu, Wusun, Uyghur, Mongolian, and other nomadic peoples for generations. From the life-saving food for nomadic ancestors to survive in the desert, to the health herbs passed down from generation to generation by grassland tribes, from the Western Regions tribute collected by the Central Plains dynasties every year, to the hard currency of the Silk Road trade, Cistanche tubulosa spans more than two thousand years and is deeply embedded in the history of food, medicine, folk customs, war, and economic and trade development of nomadic peoples, becoming a natural link connecting the Silk Road civilization, Central Plains agriculture, and Western Regions nomadic civilization. Following the sandstorms and ancient camel tracks of the Gobi Desert, and uncovering the layers of scriptures and folklore, one can understand the thousand-year-old bond between this desert fairy grass and the nomadic tribes that have been constantly shedding.

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Desert symbiosis: natural endowment creates a native connection between nomadic and Cistanche tubulosa

Cistanche tubulosa is a typical desert parasitic plant that cannot survive independently. It grows by absorbing nutrients from the roots of sand-fixing shrubs such as Haloxylon ammodendron and Salix matsudana. The harsh growth environment limits its distribution only in the southern Xinjiang Basin, Inner Mongolia Alashan, and Hexi Corridor desert areas in China. However, this vast Gobi desert has been the core living area for nomadic tribes in the north who have been chasing water plants and living in the desert for thousands of years. The desert environment, characterized by drought, low rainfall, significant temperature differences between day and night, and rampant sandstorms, has not only honed the survival habits of nomadic tribes who migrate by water and grass, but also nurtured the unique medicinal properties of Cistanche tubulosa, which is warm but not dry, and nourishing but not steep. The coupling of natural geography has laid the innate foundation for the coexistence of the two.

Nomadic ethnic groups make a living through nomadic migration all year round, living without a fixed place, eating and sleeping outdoors, and working in an environment of high cold, sandstorms, and high-intensity running. They generally suffer from physical problems such as deficiency of essence and blood, cold waist and knees, physical weakness, intestinal dryness, and constipation. Deserts lack fruits, vegetables, and nourishing ingredients, and Cistanche tubulosa has become a natural food supplement resource gifted by nature. After the melting of snow in the desert in April and May every year, the dormant Cistanche tubulosa breaks through the soil, and its purple-red fleshy stems emerge from the yellow sand, becoming a seasonal product for herdsmen to harvest in spring. The Mongolian and Uyghur herders who have lived in Hotan, Alxa, and Bayannur for generations have developed a set of natural harvesting guidelines: only harvest mature plants, preserve roots and surrounding Haloxylon ammodendron vegetation, backfill with sand after harvesting, and ensure the annual breeding of Cistanche tubulosa. This ecological code, derived from the wisdom of nomadic survival, has been passed down for thousands of years, objectively protecting the desert ecology of Haloxylon ammodendron and the wild population of Cistanche tubulosa.

Harvest of Cistanche tubulosa 

In the cognitive system of herdsmen, Haloxylon ammodendron is a high-quality forage for camels. Cistanche tubulosa grows on Haloxylon ammodendron, and camels feed through the forest of Haloxylon ammodendron, unintentionally helping the seeds of Cistanche tubulosa to land and parasitize, forming a closed-loop ecological chain of Haloxylon ammodendron, Cistanche tubulosa, camels, and nomads. When herdsmen graze and drive camels through deserts, they rely on their accumulated experience over generations to search for Cistanche tubulosa by following the growth of Haloxylon ammodendron. Over the long years, they have explored the properties, taste, and medicinal effects of Cistanche tubulosa, making them the earliest group of humans to domesticate and utilize it. The folk saying 'I would rather have a basket of Cistanche than a bed full of gold and jade' is the most straightforward interpretation of the precious value of Cistanche by nomadic ancestors based on their personal experience.

Millennium tracing: nomadic ancestors were the first to excavate, and the Silk Road opened up the interconnection of indigenous civilizations

The earliest application history of Cistanche tubulosa dates back to the nomadic tribes in the northwest during the pre-Qin period, far before it was recorded in the written classics of the Central Plains. During the Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian excavated the Western Regions and, on his way there, came into contact with the Xiongnu and the nomadic tribes of the Wusun. For the first time, he brought back the physical and medicinal knowledge of Cistanche tubulosa to the Central Plains. From then on, this Western immortal grass was officially recorded in the history of Chinese medicine. The Shennong Bencao Jing, which was written in the Han Dynasty, listed Cistanche tubulosa as a top-grade herb and clearly recorded: "Cistanche tubulosa has a sweet taste, a slight warmth, and is mainly used for five labor and seven injuries, tonifying the middle, nourishing the five organs, strengthening yin, nourishing essence and qi, and taking it for a long time to lighten the body." This marks the absorption and integration of the folk herbal experience of nomadic peoples into the Central Plains medical system.

The villagers of Hotan Village in Xinjiang are digging and harvesting Cistanche tubulosa

In the Han Dynasty's Hexi Border Defense Han Bamboo Slips and Wuwei Medical Bamboo Slips, the words "Rou Changan" appeared multiple times. In the prescription, Cistanche tubulosa was combined with Central Plains Achyranthes and Eucommia ulmoides, and boiled with nomadic specialty camel milk as medicine, which is a physical evidence of the integration of Silk Road medicine. At that time, the nomadic tribes of the Xiongnu occupied the Hexi Corridor and the southern desert all year round, using dried Cistanche tubulosa as their reserve dry food. The herders sliced and boiled meat, soaked it in wine for daily consumption, and resisted the cold in winter to relieve physical exhaustion from labor. The tribe prioritizes the use of Cistanche tubulosa as a dietary supplement and nourishment when encountering injuries, illnesses, or maternal weakness. This nomadic dietary tradition has been continuously improved through the Wusun, Rouran, and Turkic eras.

The Sui and Tang dynasties were the heyday of commerce on the Silk Road. The Turkic and Uyghur tribes controlled the middle section of the Silk Road, and the Cistanche tubulosa was upgraded from a desert specialty to a core tribute from the Western Regions to the Tang royal family. The "Six Classics of Tang" explicitly recorded that the annual tribute Cistanche tubulosa from Suzhou, Longyou Road, was listed as one of the three major tribute items in the Western Regions, along with Hetian Meiyu and Western Regions BMW. The Uyghur caravans traveled back and forth between Chang'an and the Western Regions. In addition to silk and jewelry, the camel caravans also had to carry dried Cistanche tubulosa. On the one hand, it was used as emergency food for long-distance crossing of the Gobi Desert, and on the other hand, it was transported to Chang'an Medicine Market in exchange for tea and cloth from the Central Plains. During the Tang Dynasty, nomadic soldiers and civilians in the border areas formed a fixed custom: when slaughtering cattle and sheep in autumn and winter, they would stew them with Cistanche tubulosa to warm up and dispel cold. This way of eating is still passed down in the pastoral areas of southern Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.

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During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the rise of the Dangxiang, Khitan, and Mongolian nomadic regimes further integrated Cistanche tubulosa into the grassland military and political system. According to the gift list records of the exchange between Western Xia and Liao, only a few pounds of Cistanche tubulosa were included in the gift list of hundreds of good horses and hundreds of camels, indicating that its value is comparable to precious metals. The Yuan Dynasty's "Yinshan Zhengzheng" system included the Mongolian court's medicinal formula for Cistanche tubulosa. Based on Mongolia's westward expansion, Cistanche tubulosa was exported to Central and West Asia through the grassland Silk Road, and the nomadic culture of Cistanche tubulosa health preservation spread outward along the commercial route.

Legendary imprint: Genghis Khan and the Mongolian tribes, capturing the epic of the grasslands of Cistanche tubulosa

In the Mongolian nomadic civilization, Cistanche tubulosa is regarded as the grassland god grass and the historical legend of the battle of the thirteen wings, which makes Cistanche tubulosa deeply bound to the rise of the Mongolian Empire and becomes a cultural symbol passed down from generation to generation by nomadic peoples. In 1190 AD, Temujin (Genghis Khan) and Zhamuhe engaged in the Battle of Thirteen Wings. After losing the battle, Temujin's troops were besieged in the Suosuo Forest area of the Alxa Desert. It was the middle of winter, with wind and snow blowing everywhere, and soldiers suffering from hunger, cold, and exhaustion, on the brink of despair. At a critical moment, the warhorse dug open the yellow sand at the roots of the shuttlecock, revealing the thick and tender roots of the Cistanche tubulosa. After the soldiers ate it, they quickly regained their strength, broke through the encirclement, and defeated Zhamuhe, laying a key foundation for the unification of the Mongolian grassland.

Since then, Cistanche tubulosa has been regarded by the Mongolians as a precious desert gift from the gods. The Mongolian army has included dried Cistanche tubulosa as standard food and supplies for their troops. During the long journey of the westward expedition to the Eurasian continent, soldiers carried dried Cistanche tubulosa with them, chewed it to satisfy hunger when they lacked water and food, and soaked it in alcohol to replenish their blood and essence during long-distance marches. This greatly enhances the cold and labor resistance of the troops and helps Mongolian cavalry gallop across thousands of miles of grasslands and deserts. Mongolian aristocrats have formed a normalized health custom, where lamb is stewed and boiled with Cistanche tubulosa, and Cistanche tubulosa is soaked in milk wine on a daily basis. Palace physicians use Cistanche tubulosa combined with grassland herbs to improve the Mongolian medicine formula system.

Many traditional Mongolian nomadic customs preserve the worship of Cistanche tubulosa. Every spring, during the season when Cistanche tubulosa breaks through the soil, grassland tribes hold small-scale sand worship ceremonies to express gratitude for the desert's gifts, agree on excavation quotas, and strictly prohibit excessive fishing and digging of wild Cistanche tubulosa; During tribal weddings and festive banquets, Cistanche lamb soup is an essential hard dish, symbolizing the strengthening of the body and the prosperity of offspring. This set of customs rooted in nomadic beliefs has lasted for more than 700 years and has become an indispensable part of Mongolian folk culture.

Silk Road Merchant Network: Desert Gold Connecting the Millennium Trade Chain between Nomadism and the Central Plains

From the Han Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Cistanche tubulosa became a high-end commodity circulating on the Silk Road due to its scarcity and medicinal value, connecting the nomadic production areas in the Western Regions with the consumer markets in the Central Plains, profoundly changing the livelihood patterns of nomadic tribes along the route. In ancient measurement units, the market price of high-quality air-dried Cistanche tubulosa was equivalent to an equal amount of gold. The saying "one or two Cistanche tubulosa, one or two gold" has been passed down along the Silk Road for thousands of years, which has also helped Cistanche tubulosa maintain its reputation as the "desert gold".

The ancient Silk Road was divided into two routes, the southern route centered around Hotan and Yutian in Xinjiang. The Uyghur and Kyrgyz nomadic ancestors on the southern edge of the Taklamakan Mountains relied on the red willow forest to cultivate Cistanche tubulosa, which was the top-producing area of Cistanche tubulosa in ancient China; Beidao relies on the Alxa and Bayannur deserts, where Mongolian herders harvest desert Cistanche tubulosa. The Yugu and Dangxiang tribes in the Hexi Corridor act as transit traders, connecting the grasslands of the northern desert with the inland of the Central Plains. At the end of autumn, when camel caravans depart, nomadic herders pack the harvested and sun-dried Cistanche tubulosa and hand it over to Sogdian and Uyghur camel traders to transport to the Central Plains for sale in Chang'an, Luoyang, and Bianjing medicine markets. Returning caravans bring back tea, porcelain, and grains from the Central Plains, forming a fixed trade pattern of "Cistanche tea exchange and camel transportation interconnection".

In ancient times, the Central Plains implemented control policies for high-quality Cistanche tubulosa. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the government monopolized the tribute of top-grade Cistanche tubulosa, and private trafficking faced heavy penalties. The scarcity of Cistanche tubulosa further increased its commercial value. The nomadic tribes living on the edge of the desert rely on the trade of Cistanche tubulosa to exchange for essential goods, and desert resources are transformed into survival capital. Many small nomadic tribes rely on Cistanche tubulosa to settle in oases, gradually shifting from a nomadic form of migrating by water and grass to a semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral form, promoting the rise of oasis towns along the Silk Road. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, specialized Cistanche markets emerged in Alxa and southern Xinjiang, where herders, camel traders, and medicinal merchants gathered. The Cistanche trade gave rise to supporting industries such as camel transportation and medicinal processing, becoming the economic pillar of the Gobi oasis.

In addition to the Central Plains market, Cistanche tubulosa is exported to Persia and the Arabian Peninsula along the Silk Road camel caravan. Nomadic merchants bring Cistanche tubulosa health knowledge to Central Asia, integrate local herbal culture, and achieve cross-regional integration of traditional Chinese medicine and Western traditional medicine. Cistanche tubulosa has also become a hidden symbol of ancient Chinese and foreign civilization exchange.

Planting of Cistanche tubulosa

Passing on the torch from generation to generation: the wisdom of nomadic health preservation is implemented, and modern industries continue to write a golden new chapter

Entering modern times, the wisdom of collecting, processing, and supplementing Cistanche tubulosa, which has been passed down by nomadic tribes for more than two thousand years, has been transformed into a "desert golden industry" for farmers and herdsmen to increase their income and become prosperous through technological empowerment. This has achieved a win-win situation for ecology, people's livelihoods, and industry. Based on the planting experience accumulated by generations of Uyghur and Mongolian ethnic groups, domestic scientific research teams have gone through decades of research and overcome the difficulties of artificial inoculation and cultivation of Cistanche tubulosa. They have widely promoted the planting mode of Haloxylon ammodendron/Salix chinensis afforestation+Cistanche tubulosa in Hotan, Xinjiang, and Alxa, Inner Mongolia, which not only uses Haloxylon ammodendron to control sand and restore desert ecology, but also relies on Cistanche tubulosa planting to drive the transformation and income increase of nomadic herders in sandy areas.

 

Cistanche tubulosa a nourishing legend that crosses regions

Today, Xinjiang has built the largest Cistanche production area in China. Around the Tarim Basin, Hetian Luopu, Yutian, and other counties and cities, there are millions of acres of red willow forests, of which more than 340000 acres are artificially inoculated with Cistanche tubulosa. The annual output of Cistanche tubulosa in Xinjiang accounts for more than 80% of the country. Tens of thousands of Uighur and Mongolian herdsmen bid farewell to the traditional extensive nomadism and transform into Cistanche planting and processing practitioners. Every mu of Cistanche increases farmers' income by thousands of yuan annually, and the sand sea really turns sand into gold. The medicinal formula of Cistanche tubulosa, inherited by nomadic ancestors, has been improved through modern technology and developed into diversified products such as Cistanche decoction pieces, Cistanche wine, Cistanche oral liquid, and Cistanche tubulosa extract. In 2023, desert Cistanche tubulosa will be included in the national list of medicinal and edible products, officially opening up the food application track and expanding the boundaries of industrial development.

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At the level of folk custom inheritance, the Uygurs in southern Xinjiang and the Alashan Mongols in Inner Mongolia still retain the traditional way of eating: stewed lamb with cistanche, soaked milk wine with cistanche, and millet porridge with cistanche are still daily food supplements for families, and essential dishes for entertaining guests on festivals; The elderly herders in the folk still adhere to the traditional digging rules passed down from their ancestors, engage in protective harvesting, and safeguard the ecological balance of the desert. Relying on IFANCA international halal certification, Hetian's extract of Cistanche tubulosa is exported to Muslim countries in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Leveraging the commercial heritage of the ancient Silk Road, it restarts cross-border trade in the new era, allowing desert gold to once again enter the world along the millennium Silk Road.

The folk medicinal experience of Cistanche tubulosa accumulated by nomadic peoples has also become an important reference for modern Chinese medicine and Mongolian medicine research. A large number of scientific research results based on traditional dietary supplements have been implemented, confirming the scientific nature of the millennium-old health wisdom of nomadic ancestors and completing the leap from folk remedies to modern industrial raw materials.

The yellow sand is vast, camel bells are distant, and a Cistanche tubulosa plant, half of the history of nomadic civilization on the Silk Road. From the native bond of natural coexistence in the desert to the survival treasure of nomadic ancestors using local materials; From the grassland legend of the Battle of Thirteen Wings to the Silk Road's golden commodities that connect the east and west; From rare tribute items in ancient palaces to the pillar industry of enriching the people in modern desert areas, Cistanche tubulosa has been rooted in the Gobi Desert for more than two thousand years, deeply integrating into the clothing, food, housing, transportation, medical beliefs, and commercial development of nomadic tribes such as the Xiongnu, Wusun, Uyghur, Mongolian, and Uyghur throughout history.

It is not only a health treasure gifted by nature to desert nomadic tribes, but also a material carrier for the integration of Central Plains agricultural civilization and Western nomadic civilization, and the most vivid physical witness of the interconnection of ancient Silk Road civilizations. To this day, in the context of the new era of windbreak and sand fixation, rural revitalization, and Silk Road foreign trade, the "golden desert" Cistanche still continues its deep connection with nomadic peoples. On the vast yellow sand of Taklamakan and Alxa, accompanied by the newly born shuttle and red willow, it continues to write a new chapter of civilization spanning thousands of years.