Yarchagumba! It's caterpillar cocktail time
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - India's Himalayan states, better known for their spectacular scenic
beauty and disputed borders with China, could play an important role in next
month's Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
A caterpillar fungus, Yarchagumba, which grows in the Indian states of Himachal
Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh is being smuggled into China
where it is believed to bestow athletes with remarkable boosts of strength and
speed.
The fungus, Yarchagumba or Cordyceps sinesis grows on caterpillars of
the Hepilus frabricius moth. The caterpillar is found
on the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas at an altitude of 3,000-5,000 meters.
Besides the Indian Himalayas, it is also found in Bhutan, Tibet and China's
Qinghai province.
Yarchagumba's reputed revitalizing qualities have made it a key ingredient in
Tibetan and Chinese medicine for over 1,500 years. Tibetan villagers add it to
their soups and teas to boost stamina and endurance and improve lung capacity,
kidney function and sexual performance.
Less than 20 years ago the fungus captured the world's attention. In August
1993, at the Stuttgart World Championships, a team of unknown peasant women
from China's northeastern Liaoning province stunned the world with their
spectacular feats in track and field events. They swept all three medals in the
3,000 meters and took gold and silver in the 10,000 meters.
A month later, at the Chinese national championships, they shattered several
world records. Wang Junxia, who won the gold in the 10,000 meters at Stuttgart,
took the gold in the 3,000 and 10,000 meters and set three world records in
three races. Wang's time of 29:31:78 in the 10,000 meters was the first sub-30
minute performance ever by a woman, beating the former record by a staggering
42 seconds.
Ma Junren, the runners' controversial coach, denied allegations that their
eye-popping achievements were fueled by banned drugs. Ma attributed their speed
and stamina to grueling training over tough terrain at high altitude. He also
mentioned a certain cocktail made of turtle's blood and caterpillar fungus.
But Ma's methods soon came under a cocoon of controversy. Sixteen of the 19
runners, led by Wang, walked out on him over differences over prize money and
excessive discipline, protesting against his training techniques and alleged
abuse of athletes.
His athletes were also testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. The
most damning evidence came before the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, when Chinese
authorities pulled 27 athletes from their respective teams after they failed
doping tests. Six were runners coached by Ma, implying that his runners' speed
had more to do with steroids than ingesting insect fungus.
Ma was swarmed with controversy, but the fungus he made famous continues to
have a fan following.
Demand for Yarchagumba has leapt over the past 15 years, especially since 2003
when the SARS epidemic swept Asia. The fungus was in demand at the time for its
reported ability to improve immunity. Its street value soared; in 2005 it was
selling for US$7,000 per kilogram.
The escalating price tag triggered something of a "fungus rush" in the
Himalayas. Schools closed and villages emptied as hundreds trooped out in
search of the lucrative fungus. Yarchagumba brought sudden and immense
prosperity to those in the trade. Then came the poachers: Bhutanese and
Nepalese villagers claimed that Tibetan interlopers were nibbling away at their
profits.
Over the past year, the demand for the fungus reached new highs. In 2007, it
cost around $9,000 per kg. Now it sells for between $16,500 and $23,000 per kg.
There is no hard evidence that the spurt in demand and prices is connected to
the onset of the Beijing Olympics, but smuggling has notably increased. The
Olympics have revived memories of the spectacular performances of Chinese
athletes in the 1990s and with nostalgia has come a renewed interest in the now
legendary Yarchagumba.
Indian newsmagazine Outlook reported that in July alone two attempts at
smuggling the fungus were foiled. In the first, a soldier of Assam Rifles, a
paramilitary unit, was caught with 500 grams of caterpillar fungus and several
hundreds of thousands of rupees in Bageshwar in the northern Himalayan state of
Uttarakhand. The other incident was in Sikkim, where three smugglers were
caught with 17 kg of the fungus.
Profits from the fungus have financed insurgencies, incited murders and
prompted neighboring villages to go to war. Nepal's Maoists controlled the
caterpillar fungus trade in the Dolpa district, which accounts for over half of
Nepal's fungus supply. At least two recent murders in Uttarakhand have been
attributed to quarrels over the fungus trade.
And in July last year, a dispute over caterpillar-picking rights triggered an
armed clash in China's Tibetan-dominated Dabba county in Sichuan province. Six
people were killed and over a hundred injured.
Will the 2008 Olympics see athletes reaching out for Ma's famous caterpillar
fungus cocktail? Will victorious Chinese athletes thank the humble highland
fungus for their achievements?
Asian athletes recovering from injuries sometimes digest deer's penis, or turn
to turtle blood to improve blood circulation. Others devour animal feet to
strengthen their legs. But Chinese sports authorities, anxious to avoid
embarrassing doping scandals, are warning Olympians off traditional remedies
because some contain banned substances like as herbal ephedrine.
But some athletes are still likely to seek the purported properties of
traditional medicine. And as long as they seek the elusive elixirs of
athleticism, neither the turtles nor the fungus will be able to breathe easily.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
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