Yartsa Gunbu (Cordyceps sinensis) and the Fungal Commodification of Tibet’s Rural Economy
@article{Winkler2008YartsaG, title={Yartsa Gunbu (Cordyceps sinensis) and the Fungal Commodification of Tibet’s Rural Economy}, author={D. Winkler}, journal={Economic Botany}, year={2008}, volume={62}, pages={291-305} }
Yartsa Gunbu (Cordyceps sinensis) and the Fungal Commodification of Tibet’s Rural Economy. Cordyceps sinensis is a mushroom that parasitizes larvae of Thitarodes (Hepialus) moths, which inhabit the alpine grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau. Tibetans have used the mushroom, which they call yartsa gunbu (“summer-grass, winter-worm”) for many centuries, if not millennia. A 350% increase in the price paid to pickers between 1997 and 2004 has turned this tiny mushroom into the single most important… Expand
Figures and Tables from this paper
155 Citations
Steps towards Sustainable Harvest of Yartsa Gunbu (Caterpillar Fungus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis)
- Geography
- 2013
- 8
Beyond resistance: A political ecology of cordyceps as alpine niche product in the Garhwal, Indian Himalaya
- Geography
- 2018
- 2
Harvest and trade of caterpillar mushroom (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) and the implications for sustainable use in the Tibet Region of Southwest China.
- Geography, Medicine
- Journal of ethnopharmacology
- 2018
- 10
Distribution, Harvesting, and Trade of Yartsa Gunbu (Ophiocordyceps sinensis) in the Sikkim Himalaya, India
- Mountain Research and Development
- 2020
- PDF
People, money, and protected areas: the collection of the caterpillar mushroom Ophiocordyceps sinensis in the Baima Xueshan Nature Reserve, Southwest China
- Geography
- Biodiversity and Conservation
- 2010
- 46
- Highly Influenced
A review of Chinese Cordyceps with special reference to Nepal, focusing on conservation
- Biology
- 2015
- 9
- Highly Influenced
- PDF
Advances in research of the artificial cultivation of Ophiocordyceps sinensis in China
- Biology, Medicine
- Critical reviews in biotechnology
- 2014
- 47
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 15 REFERENCES
[Resources and distribution of Cordyceps sinensis in Naqu Tibet].
- Biology, Medicine
- Zhong yao cai = Zhongyaocai = Journal of Chinese medicinal materials
- 2000
- 14
The scientific rediscovery of an ancient Chinese herbal medicine: Cordyceps sinensis: part I.
- Medicine
- Journal of alternative and complementary medicine
- 1998
- 447
Phylogenetic classification of Cordyceps and the clavicipitaceous fungi
- Biology, Medicine
- Studies in mycology
- 2007
- 667
- PDF
Mushroom picking does not impair future harvests – results of a long-term study in Switzerland
- Biology
- 2006
- 120
- PDF
Conservation through community use of plant resources Establishing collaborative management at Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks, Uganda
- Geography
- 1996
- 111
- Highly Influential
Cordyceps sinensis — Animal , Vegetable or Both ?
- Journal of Chinese Medicine
- 2006