Cultures and Religions of the Himalayan Region

Summer 2004

Brenda Helleberg
Burncoat High School
Worcester, MA
Horticulture/ Agriculture

The History of Salt
Salt was in use long before recorded history. Since early times, animals have forged trails to natural salt sources to satisfy their need for salt. Early man obtained his salt from eating animal meat. When man turned to agriculture his diet changed. Salt (maybe as sea water) gave his vegetables the same salty flavor he was accustomed to with meat. Man and animals may have had an instinctive need to satisfy the body's requirement for the mineral salt. People learned how to use salt to preserve food and cure hides. Nomadic people carried salt with them and traded it with other tribes/ groups for different goods. People of the Himalayas were traders of salt. They collected salt and traded it for grain.

Salt in Ancient Times
About 4,700 years ago, in one of the earliest known writings in Chinese, there was a record of more than 40 types of salt. This writing also described two methods of extracting and processing salt, similar to methods still in use today. Writings on salt may have existed in other earlier times but even without written evidence we can be fairly certain that salt making and use was a feature of life in all ancient communities.

World-wide, salt is produced commercially in over 100 countries with an estimated global annual output varying around 180-200 million tones. About 58% of this is used as chemical feed-stock. Estimates of production output vary widely, but according to one source*, the approximate outputs of the primary producing nations in millions of tones during 1998. (* U.S. Geological Survey (October 1999 draft)
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Until relatively recently, salt bars were the standard currency of Ethiopia and cakes of salt, stamped to show their value, could be used as money in countries as far apart as Tibet and Borneo.

Link to Questions and Resources

This site was created by Brenda Helleberg at the NEH Summer Institute "Cultures and Religions of the Himalayan Region," held at the College of the Holy Cross, Summer 2004