On January 11th, 2016 at the Delhi Book Fair a Dialogue over Chinese and Indian Black Tea was held where I and Prof. Wang Xufeng, Dean of Tea Culture College of Zhejiang Agriculture & Forestry University in Hangzhou, China represented India and China respectively and for 45 minutes we discussed tea cultures of our countries with one Ravindranath Tagore poem in the backdrop of a tea ceremony.Later she visited the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, India Gate, Victoria Memorial, Calcutta Club, Ravindranath Tagore’s house, tea auction in Calcutta centre organised by J Thomas & Co., and a tea roadside vendor along with a tea house and a tea packaging company – covering Indian culture and tea scenarios. A China and India trade and culture platform in Delhi hosted her for an overview of India. Darjeeling, Assam, and Kangra teas were compared to Jin Jun Mei, Lapsang Souchong, Longjing teas and this four day trip was followed by a visit to Kathmandu University in Nepal before returning through Lahsa.
A perfect starting point of a “tea bridge” connecting China to India and Nepal is where a Confucius Institute is being established for the development of a new tea culture. This institute is being built in a new tea growing region which will certainly be tomorrow’s aromatic tea centre in addition to Darjeeling. Prof. Wang presented her books to Ms. Smriti Irani, the Human Resources minister of the Government of India, who inaugurated the Book Fair the morning of January 9th.For those of us in the tea industry in India and Nepal, on us lies the responsibility to develop a tea culture of its own to augment the marketing and image of tea in society as well as in the expanding tea markets catering to the health-conscious. Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China have well-developed tea cultures of their own, being traditional tea growers and drinkers, where tea is part of their system. But the tea which was taken out by the Europeans to countries like India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Kenya, and Nepal during the past two hundred years has hardly attempted to develop tea cultures of their own. The tea crops in these areas were a mere trading commodity and never taken as a sacred thing as in China. It is our responsibility to change that.
That’s an interesting observation Rajiv. It makes sense that treating tea as a commodity wouldn’t engender a tea culture to evolve. It’s exciting to think that will begin to change at this time. Considering the tremendous health benefits associated with tea, I would expect both the young and the old to embrace the new tea culture of India.
Thanks Michelle your observations on our writings makes us think further than whatever we had thought on the subject concerned otherwise. As in the case of tea culture which is the third component of tea cultivation and tea manufacture our Indian thought is not as deep as it should have been and we should certainly further the search and research on this topic.
This is a fascinating subject. Someone recently asked me about this, the existence of tea rituals in other Asian countries, as are commonly known of from China and Japan, and as you mentioned are also present in Taiwan and Korea. The point that “the tea crops in these areas were a mere trading commodity and never taken as a sacred thing” seems to hold the key; it’s hard to imagine a similar ritual with a religious significance evolving in a place like Thailand or Vietnam, or one in a different form that lacks that aspect. One odd twist is that it’s relatively commonly accepted that tea was brought to where I live now, Thailand, on the order of 1000 years ago by immigrants from China, with various claims about the age of current living plants that would serve as evidence, if verified. I’ve never ran across any mention that ceremonial aspects were preserved or developed to go with that, but of course taken alone that doesn’t mean much, what I happen to have heard of.
Thanks John for your ideas – circumstances prevailing in different eras of history led to the development of tea cultures and got embedded into the threads of societies which in other regions with other races and other times were not similar. Present day marketing for higher price realisation is necessitating story telling and showcasing the commodity as never before and our responsibilities are increasing many fold to do so. Earlier the better Sir….
That’s a great progress,Hope India Early formation of own tea culture!