Tea Drinking: Origin, Perceptions, Habits with Special Reference to Assam, Its Tribes, and Role of Tocklai

ARTICLE TEA DRINKING: ORIGIN, PERCEPTIONS, HABITS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ASSAM, ITS TRIBES, AND ROLE OF TOCKLAI PRADIP BARUAH* ea is the most popular drink in the planet and it The first authentic reference to tea is found in an occupies that position only after water. Its first use ancient Chinese dictionary which was revised about the Tis believed to be about 5,000 years back and has year 350 A.D. by P’O, a Chinese scholar. Tea leaves were remained popular as the most pleasurable and efficacious boiled at that time to prepare a medicinal decoction. The beverage in the world. Tea drinking has rather been gaining first book exclusively on tea was published in 780 A.D. by further acceptance now due to its natural health benefiting Lu Yu (733-804), respected as the Sage of Tea. The book properties. The heritage drink has withstood the test of ‘Ch’a Ching’ or ‘The Classic of Tea’ in three volumes is time and it may well be the drink of the future. The journey divided into ten chapters, each describing various kinds of the beverage through the passage of time has been of tea, cultivation, manufacturing methods, etc. and gives glorious and fascinating. The origin of tea in China, myths information on the tea growing districts of China. Use of associated with it, spread across the world, perceptions, tea as a beverage commenced towards the end of the sixth culture and habits, discovery in wild forests of Assam, century in China. Thereafter, tea grew in popularity and and tea drinking habit of the tribes of the state are all the Government levied a duty on tea in 783 A.D. Tea was amazing like the mystic brew itself. reported to be a common beverage of China in ninth century by an Arabian traveler who went there.1 Origin of Tea Drinking The Chinese were passionate about drinking tea and Tea drinking originated in China about 5,000 years many lyrical expressions are available.2 ago and was cultivated in South-East China at first. The The first cup moistens my lips and throats word ‘tea’ is derived from ‘t’e’ of the Chinese Fukian The second shatters my loneliness dialect. In Cantonese, tea is known as ‘Cha’. The origin of The third causes the wrongs of life tea is obscured by a maze of legends. One legend associates the origin of tea with Daruma who founded to fade gently from my recollection. Ch’an school of Buddhism in China. While meditating for The fourth purifies my soul years together, Daruma fell asleep. When he woke up, The fifth lifts me infuriated at his sleepiness, he cut off his offending eye to the realms of unwinking gods lids, threw them away and tea plants grew where they fell – Chinese mystic poet, T’ang dynasty on the earth. Thus, tea drives away sleepiness. Another legend associates tea with Shen Nung, a 2737 B.C. Chinese Even the great Chinese philosopher, Confucius (551- emperor. While on a hunting trip in wild forests, some tea 479 B.C.) described the fascinating properties of tea as: leaves carried by the wind fell into his boiling water pot, ‘Tea tempers the spirit and harmonizes the mind and he discovered the properties of the leaves on drinking dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, unknowingly. awakens thought and prevents drowsiness, * Tocklai Experimental Station, Jorhat – 785 008 Email: lightens up or refreshes the body, [email protected] and clears the perceptive faculties.’ VOL. 77, NOS. 9–10 365 The habit of tea drinking later spread to Japan in 593 Tea drinking had become a habit over the years and A.D. (approx.) where it became so popular as to become its popularity as a beverage spread across the world. an integral part of Japanese culture. It is believed that Tea People drink tea to relax, to drive away fatigue, to Ceremony started in Japan at the close of the Heinan revigourate themselves, knowingly or unknowingly period in about 1159 A.D., Japanese Chado or Sado (“way obtained medicinal benefits along with it. It forms a part of tea”) of Cha-no-yu (hot water tea) is a time honoured of healthy life style, social custom and often a habit. institution in Japan, rooted in the principle of Zen Samuel Johnson, the British poet and critic, famously Buddhism which is basically founded upon the adoration said himself to be, ‘a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, of beautiful in the daily routine of life. It is an aesthetic who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the way of entertaining guests, where everything is done infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely according to an established order.3 time to cool; who with the tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the mid night, and with tea welcomes the Spread of tea to Europe and the World, 7 Popularity and Perceptions morning.’ Scientific analysis explains that tea is drunk primarily The legendary Lu Yu believed that tea symbolized on account of stimulus given by caffeine. The British and the harmony and mysterious unity of the universe.4 Tea Australian tea drinkers acquired a taste for the tannin in drinking had been culturally linked to the Chinese people. black tea and although fully appreciative of the stimulus Tea drinking spread to other parts of the world only in given by the beverage, judge a cup largely by the strength the middle of seventeenth century. In 1497, opening of a of the infusion.8 sea route to the East by the Portuguese facilitated large scale trading between Europe and the Orient. The Dutch However, tea drinking became an irresistible practice bought tea from Japan and the first consignment of tea in based on culture and values developed over the years. Europe was from the Island of Hirado in 1610 A.D. The The magical brew so much influenced the psyche of the Dutch dominated the tea trade in Europe for more than a drinkers that one such tea connoisseur exclaimed. century and then the British emerged as the largest trader. Thank God for tea! China continued to be the main supplier of tea to Europe What would the world do without tea? till the middle of the nineteenth century.5 How did it exist? Tea had been popular in the erstwhile Russia also I am glad, I was not born before tea. and they were aware of it way back in 1567. In 1735, the Empress of Russia inaugurated the overland tea trade from – Sydney Smith (1775-1834) China. Brick tea was a popular form in Russia in the early The primitive tribes of Assam where tea plant grew years, and it was mostly imported from China. However, wild in Upper Assam area were in the habit of drinking tea black and green teas took over later. The great Russian prepared in their own indigenous method since time writer Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) said so about the beverage. immemorial. Tea became popular among the common people ‘Tea unleashes the potential which slumbers in of India much later on the efforts of the British tea depth of my soul.’ companies; although the Singpho tribe of Assam was known to drink it beyond their memories could help. The The world, originally, knew tea made by the Chinese tea plant was discovered in Upper Assam in 1823, the in black, orthodox form in 1600 when it became popular in credit going to three persons – Robert Bruce, Beasa Gaum Europe. Tea became fashionable and popular as a beverage of Singpho tribe and Maniram Dewan, an Assamese in Holland and England in mid 1660s, and its popularity nobleman. kept on soaring in England thereafter. Originally, tea liquor was drunk, and the first record of use of milk in tea was The first tea company, Assam Company, for in 1655 at a banquet of Dutch Embassy in Canton. The commercial cultivation of tea in Assam was established in available records indicate that wife of a French poet 1839. Due to success of tea cultivation and production in introduced the custom of adding milk to tea, and tea Assam, a large number of tea companies were formed to drinkers of American colonies first took it added with milk exploit this fortune in Assam, and supply tea to the British or cream in 1700. Green tea was first used in England in people in England and engage in export business in Europe. 1715.6 However, the black orthodox type had been the These companies taught the Indian people the practice of popular one in Europe in those days. drinking tea and it did not take long to be popular with 366 SCIENCE AND CULTURE, SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2011 the common mass. The magic brew caught the imagination ceased to be produced since 1976 (approx.). of the people of India to be established as the most The premium segment of tea drinkers in the world consumed beverage in course of time. There was no dearth still prefers the traditional orthodox type of tea, which of tea lovers among the countryman, and the renowned contains the original characteristics of distinct liquor and Noble laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, an avid tea drinker flavor. But the popularity of the CTC type had risen who also had family business interests in tea, wrote about manyfold over the years, mainly due to more cuppage the mystic brew as: obtained from it, mostly in the Indian sub-continent and Come, oh come, Yea tea-thirsty the neighbouring countries. The change in consumer restless ones; the kettle boils, preference resulted in shift of manufacturing process from bubbles, and sings, musically.

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