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Tea Culture in Eastern Asia

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Tea Culture in Eastern Asia Tea culture in eastern Asia. A new way ofclassification for Tea-- as a drink, as a broth, as a food Yoichiro Nakamura 23-7 Tenma-cho, Shizuoka-shi, (420-0858) Japan Summary I would like to suggest a new way of classification for tea, based both on Chinese literatures and on the customs of some ethnic minorities. It dose not focus on how to make tea but on how to use it, that is, tea as a drink, tea as a food and tea to use its essence to cook food. I will study the history and culture of tea in Eastern Asia by this classification, and I believe it will be able to clarify our relation to tea. Key words tea as a broth, miang, laphet soo, bancha Introduction The best-known way ofclassifying teas is by the degree offermentation: [l]Unfermented tea(such as green tea),[2]Half-fermented tea(such as Oolung tea), [3]Fully-fermented tea(such as black tea), [4]After-fermented tea(such as Puer tea) Another way ofclassification is by the amount ofgreen pigment, which decreases in the process of making tea(This is popular in Chaina): [l]Green tea, [2]Yellow tea,[3]Dark green tea, [4] White tea,[5]Oolung tea,[6]Black tea The third way is by names: [1]Tea,[2]Cha' This classification is based on how people in a certain place called their tea before it was exported. So, by its name we may presume the routes of each tea, or how a tea spread to other countries. However, with this classification we can go back only to the seventeenth century when G.B. first imported black tea from China. Therefore it is useful for studying recent tea culture, but not for its older history: Now, there is a new way ofclassification, which I would like to support, that is: [1] Tea as a drink [2] Tea as a broth(to cook foods) [3] Tea as a food This way is based on the new fact we have got from the further research that tea was used not only as a drink but as a food. Some experts regarded the history ofusing tea as the transition either "from a drink. to a food" or "from a food to a drink" ,But I have a different opinion from this "one way" transition. As T.Moriya and C.Nunome refer, I think that each of tea as a drink Session I -28- and tea as a food has its own history in different cultures of different places. Tea as a broth Furthermore, tea as a broth is of great significance both historically and geographically, for a neutral position. So this way of classification by the usage of tea should contribute to clarify the history ofour relation to tea. It may not be necessary to explain about "tea as a drink". The traditional ways of classification are limited to this type. There are some views concerning "tea as broth" . In this type tea is used to simmer some stuff like leeks, gingers, orange peels, mints and so on, according to Tea Classic. C.Nunome says it is " hot soup" based on tea essence. He also presumes that "tea as a drink" derived from this "hot soup" , coming to use only the tea broth as a drink separately from soup stuff(C.Nunome 1989). In this writing he quotes from MANSHU(m.), a geographical description of Yunnan state in the period of the end of Tang dynasty, that there were tea trees in Yingshencheng(_~J]il:aroundpresent Simao) but it was not known how to make tea, and that Mengsheman (people in Nanzhao, which the ancestors ofYi tribe founded) had tea mixed with peppers, gingers and so on. C.Nunome concludes that Mengsheman used tea as a broth before tea as a drink. His hypothesis is persuasive, which is based on Chinese literatures. However, the old style ofdrinking "broiled tea" ,which has been seen still now in some places in Japan can bring us another hypothesis. Ancient Japanese picked some tea branches in the mountains, broiled them, and boiled in a pot to drink. We can hear this drinking style from foresters allover Japan. Furthermore, the saIne style is seen in Yao tribe of Southeast Asia(K.Iwata 1995). This fact shows that tea as a drink has also a long history, that is, it is difficult to conclude that the usage of tea started from tea as ~roth. I think that tea as a drink has its own history from the beginning as a drink, and also tea as a broth has its own history as a broth. Both are in common in terms of drinking tea essence. People came to process tea as a drink, and later used those processed tea to simmer stuff, which continued for a long time in China. The classics and some ethnic minorities introduce this style of using tea. "Leicha" (tI~)in Yunnan state and "D£lyoucha" (tr;dJ~)used by Dong tribe in Guanxi zhuangzu zizhiqu(lt~tl.EI;al&) are also made with processed tea. I presume that this was changed from using raw leaves. LV YV insisted on using tea simply as a drink, but this usage with other stuffis seen widely even today. We can see this usage also in Japan. "Chagayu" (~~) is well known to people -29- Session I in Kansai district, which is a kind ofporridge cooked with some broth of "Bancha" (a ~:tea for selfconsumption). This recipe is similar to "Naracha" (~a.~)which was introduced in the cooking book of the early Edo period. This fact shows that Japan has had the usage of tea as a broth for a long time. Tea as a food Now, I will explain about the third type ofusing "tea as a food". In this type people eat tea leaves after cooking. "Suancha" (9~) by Bulang tribe in Yunnan state, "Miang" in Thailand and "Laphet soo" in Myanmar are some ofthe examples. First ofall they steam raw leaves and then put them into some bamboo or some sealed-up baskets to ferment by lactic acid bacteria. There are various ways ofeating but the process is the same. In the same areas people also eat fermented tea leave with some stuff and some salt like salad, which are called the same as "Laphet soo" in Myanmar and "Miang" in Thailand. "Lianpancha" (jjjl~~)by Jinou tribe in Yunnann state is almost the same as non­ fermented Miang. People rub raw tea leaves and put them into a bowl, pour clear water, and mix them with peppers, gingers and salt. By A.Naniwa's report, Thai tribe in Luili-city, which is in Yunnann state, has a similer recipe. This report tells that they also use dried tea leaves to make Lianpancha. I have seen people eat boiled tea leaves with some stllff like peanuts in some places such as Mytkyina, Kachin state in Myanmar. The usage like Lianpancha may not be peculiar to Jinou tribe but it may be widely used. All these examples above tell us "tea as a food" is widely distributed in Eastern Asia. In this usage tea leaves are used like a kind ofvegetable, either raw or pickled. (pickled tea is for both preserving and enjoying different tastes.) Therefore, I presume that "tea as a food" has its original history totally different from that of "tea as a drink" .I do not think it make sense to argue which was earlier, tea as a food or tea as a drink. Each developed individually in different places, I suppose. I would like to consider this point from the different angle. In Myanmar tea as a food is called "Laphet soo", and on the other hand, tea as a drinkis called "Laphet chau". Laphet means tea, and soo means wet, chau means dried. But people there generally use the word "Laphet" as "Laphet soo" . The same example is this: Shan tribe calls tea "Nem", which also means pickled tea leaves. They call tea as a drink "Nem hai" . Hai means dried. These two examples show that people who use tea as a food mean the word tea as wet. pickled tea leaves. For them tea is a food. I presume that the culture of tea as a drink spread to these areas from China, and that they named it by adding the word "dried" Session I -30- to distinguish from their traditional tea as a food. T.Moriya's report is also worth noticing: in Thailand people called tea trees "Mie(a)ng" and they did not know that tea as a drink could be made from Mieng tree. This shows that tea as a food has the different history from as a drink. There is another interesting fact: in a lot of areas where people produce tea as a food they call tea "Miang". In the beginning of TEA CLASSIC there are many Chinese letters meaning tea. One is g, which has been regarded as the same meaning as ~. It is pronounced "ming" according to today's pronunciation, but people in some areas pronounce it similarly to "Miang". As C.Nunome and M.Hashimoto, and also S.Matushita refers, g is probably the letter to ~ean "Miang", which was widely used by people other than Chinese. It meant "tea as a food" originally, and was used later for "tea as a drink" , influenced by the Chinese culture. As a result, "tea as a food" was deleted from the history books written by Chinese people. Conclusion To conclude, people in the areas of Yunnan state of China, Northern Laos, Northern Thailand and Myanmar had used tea as a food.
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