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March 24 2014
Bharati Krishan is the wife of Ashok Krishan the General Manager of the
McLeod Russell's Tingri group of gardens. She is a history enthusiast and
enjoys studying history and this article is the result of her efforts to
enlighten us. We thank her sincerely for sharing her knowledge.
HISTORY & CULTURE OF TEA by Bharati Krishan
The Singpho & Khamti tribes of North-east India & North Burma have been
consuming tea since the 1200s.
Tea originated from China. Chineseman by the name of Shien Non Shei one
took his family mountain climbing. There he got thirsty. He noticed some
leaves had drifted onto his feet & when he twisted these leaves he noticed some
juice from these on his fingers. He tasted this juice,found it bitter &
surmised that it might have medicinal properties & be able to quench thirst.
Shien Non Shei was thus the first human to taste tea.
The first written reference to tea being made & consumed appears in 350
AD. Kuo P'o' updated an old Chinese dictionary & included tea as beverage
made of boiled leaves. Tea in those days was made by boiling leaves ,adding
ginger ,orange ,etc & the brew was used to treat ailments of the digestive &
nervous systems.
In those days people of interior China pressed tea into bricks & used
these bricks as currency for a barter system amongst tribes of interior China.
From 350 to 600 AD demand for tea far outstripped the supply of tea &
cultivation of tea by farmers spread from the Szechwan district to other parts
throughout China.
The first written reference to tea being made & consumed appeared in 350
AD. Kuo P'o' updated an old Chinese dictionary & included tea as a
''beverage made with boiled leaves''.
Tea in the Classical era,from 618 to 907 AD evolved into an art form. Tea
was now steamed,crushed,fired & set into bricks. Tea was brewed by breaking
off piece of this brick & boiling it in water.
690 AD to 1279 AD
Harvests began highly regulated procedures. Before the harvest,sacrifices
were made to mountain deities. Specific days were earmarked for the
harvest.
In 1598, Dutch traveller,historian & merchant ,Jan Huyghen records how
people of the East Indies consumed leaves of a tree with oil & chillies. He
did not call it ''tea'' but his description of the tree is very much that of
a tea bush.
In 1823,Robert Bruce found that the local people of Assam, the Singphos
brewed a drink from the leaves of some tree. He & his men negotiated with the
Singpho chief,Bishagaum & his tribesmen to give them seeds & leaves of
this tree in exchange for money. He wanted to have it examined scientifically
& identified. They kept taking samples & kept having tea but failed to keep
their end of the bargain . Bishagaum & his men were simple men,who were
felt cheated. So to punish Robert Bruce & his men,they hacked the trees. Much
to their surprise,they found that the trees grew back even better &
produced a much crop of tea thus proving the discovery of the practice of medium
& heavy pruning. This improvised tea garden of the Singpho tribe came to be
known as Beesakopie !
Robert Bruce died & it was in the 1830s that his brother Charles Bruce
took leaves of the tree,sent them to the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta & had
them identified as the ''camellia sinensis''but that of a different 'jat'
than the Chinese variety.
In 1837,the British set up their first tea garden at Chabua in Upper Assam
& in 1840,the Assam Company started the commercial manufacture of tea in
India.
Conditions were utterly bad. Plantations were remote,cut off & without
roads. Local hill tribes & wild animals a constant threat to life & property.
Machinery & material for factory ; foodstuff & building material for the
workers was very very difficult to procure.
But those pioneering British planters persevered & with sheer grit their
superior fire power ,overcame all kinds of hardships & set up these tea
plantations in very very adverse conditions.
Tea in India comprises the largest organised agriculture. 51 % or 1/6th of
the world's total tea is grown & produced in Assam. It supports 1 million
workers & their families.
While the British were doing pioneering work in setting up the tea
industry of India , the Indian businessmen weren't far behind. Maniram Dewan was
the first to attempt competing with the British. In 1839, the world's first
tea company was set up with Dwarkanth Tagore,Rabindranath Tagore's
grandfather & Matilal Seal as its directors. In the same year,several companies
that were formed were brought under the Assam Company.
Tea contains as much Calcium & is as good for bones as milk.
690 to 1279 AD - harvests became highly regulated procedures. Before the
harvests ,sacrifices were made to mountain deities . A specific day was
earmarked for the harvest
Tea was now picked to the beat of drums & cymbals. It was young girls who
plucked & they kept their fingernails nails a certain length so that the
leaves did not touch their skin !
The harvested leaves were graded & the best grades sent to the emperor. A
cake of high grade could be worth a lot of gold while that of the highest
grade would be priceless . Tea was made by breaking off a piece of tea
brick,grinding it to a powder;adding it to boiling water & whipping it with a
bamboo whisk.
Tea rooms & houses were built to enjoy tea at a spiritual & social level.
The art of making ceramic tea equipment developed a great deal during this
period.
1368 to 1911 AD Ming & Ching Dynastys
Tea in this period became a beverage to be enjoyed by the rich & poor
alike. It spread right through Asia ,Africa & Europe.
First written mention of tea in Europe was in Gambattista Ramusio's book
''Voyage & Travels''. He was a secretary of the Ventian Council of Ren & he
wrote about the health enhancing properties of tea.
In 1606 the Dutch East India Company imported the first shipment of
Chinese tea.
In 1773 ,a group of US colonists protesting the taxing of tea by Britain
boarded a ship of the Dutch East India Company & dumped the cargo of tea
into the sea. This event is known as the Boston Tea Party & is the reason why
tea is not subject to import taxes even today in the US.
Tea now is being made from loose leaves. Different methods to process tea
originated & so did different types of tea such as green,oolong & black
teas.
Tea today is the most widely consumed beverage after water.
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