Give an account of the history of tea and its journey from China to Europe and to India
Answers
Answer:
The beginnings of tea in India
In my previous blog post about the Opium Wars, which touched on the history of tea, I explained how the drink became popular in England and how the British failed to renegotiate the payment in silver required. However, that was not the end of the story for tea in China, and only the beginning of the story for India. Even before Joseph Banks (the first unofficial director of Kew) had pressed for a mission to China focussed on tea, he had already considered India. In 1788, he suggested to the East India Company that the climate in certain British-controlled parts of north east India was ideal for tea growing.
It was a Scottish Major called Robert Bruce who first discovered tea being grown in India. He learnt from a native nobleman, Maniram Datta Barua, that a principal tribe in the Assam state of India called the Singhpho were growing tea. Unfortunately, Robert died in 1824, but he had already sent seeds to his brother Charles to plant in Calcutta Botanical Gardens. Charles Bruce was successful in growing tea there to such an extent that he was even able to send samples of the plants to the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich.
"I submit this report on our Assam Tea with much diffidence, on account of the troubles in which this frontier has been unfortunately involved. I have had something more than Tea to occupy my mind, and have consequently not been able to commit all my thoughts to paper at one time; this I hope will account for the rambling manner in which I have treated the subject." - Charles A Bruce, Report on the Manufacture of Tea, and on the Extent and produce of the Tea Plantations in Assam (Calcutta, Aug. 1839), p. 1.
Explanation:
Explanation:
China is the great birth-place and first home of tea. Even the word ‘tea’ comes from China (where in some regions it is called te), as does that other worldwide name for tea, cha. Tea was always the favourite beverage of the Chinese Emperor. Exquisite tea gardens were carefully tended for their imperial tribute teas, as offerings to the Emperor (such as yellow tea, which only the Emperor was permitted to drink). So royal and distinguished is tea for the Chinese, that legend attributes the very first discovery of tea to an Emperor, Shen Nung – as astonishingly far back (and precisely dated) as 2737 BC. Almost 5,000 years ago, this herb-collecting Emperor is said to have sat beneath a tea tree and boiled up some water for his herbs – the wind blew some tea leaves into the bowl and thus began the amazing journey of tea. As a medicinal herb, tea has continued to be prized by the Chinese for its healing powers, its ability to stimulate and rejuvenate both mind and body, like the elixir of immortality sought by China’s alchemists.
It was around the 7th century AD, during the vibrant Tang dynasty, that tea really took off as a delicious and restorative drink for daily pleasure. The raptures and refinements of tea were soon to inspire a remarkable degree of connoisseurship. Beginning with the Cha Jing or ‘Classic of Tea’ by Lu Yu in 760, over one hundred treatises on tea production, storage, and gourmet appreciation were composed over the following centuries. Tea became as elevated a theme for poetry as the mountains and streams of China’s sublime landscapes. Amongst this profusion of rhapsodies on tea, it is Lu Tong’s 9th century poem, ‘Seven Bowls of Tea’, that is the most cherished by poetry and tea lovers. The first bowl ‘moistens’ Lu Tong’s lips and relieves his thirst; the second banishes all loneliness; the following bowls cleanse his body, while the final three ‘purify’ his spirit and raise him up to the realm of the ‘Immortals’. Such a ritual and celebratory approach to tea would later flourish in the Gong Fu Cha, the joyous and intricate Tea Ceremony that was later imported by Japan.
Tea also transformed China’s trade. The Tibetans developed a taste for tea with butter during the Tang dynasty, leading to the building of the vast ‘Tea and Horse Road’ across Yunnan and Sichuan in Southern China to Tibet and beyond. Carrying tea chests on mules through the winding river valleys and snow-capped mountain trails, and returning home with the Tibetan horses traded for the tea, this incredible journey across thousands of kilometres has been called the ‘Southern Silk Road’. When Europe discovered tea in the 17th century, it was China that dominated the world market as the only supplier of tea until the 19th century. The imbalance of trade was so great that Britain’s East India Company tried to pay for its tea by selling opium. When China banned imports of the drug, the notorious Opium Wars ensued (1839-60). This conflict’s diplomatic resolution led to the rise of Hong Kong (acquired by Britain through the Treaty of Nanjing), the opening of new ports in China, and an expansion of China’s international trade. China is still the world’s largest exporter of tea. Tea was instrumental in laying the foundations for the global power we know today, and China remains one of the world’s great tea cultures.
JAPAN AND THE ‘WAY OF TEA’
Tea spread beyond the temples and monasteries to win a place of honour at the very heart of Japan’s social life. Nobles and merchants threw lavish tea parties and contests, at which guests were tested (and gambled) on their ability to distinguish high quality tea from false or inferior substitutes.
TEA ARRIVES IN EUROPE
Tea in Europe began with the opening up of trade with China. The first recorded mention of tea was by a Venetian merchant in the 1550s, and this wondrous new discovery was soon to be reported by Portuguese missionaries to China. When the Dutch East Company took over the Portuguese sea route to China, it arranged the very first shipment of tea to Europe in 1610. Thus began a craze for tea that spread across Europe in the seventeenth century. Tea took over the court of Louis XIV, where it was sipped from exquisite porcelain – the Sun King himself was an enthusiastic tea drinker. For the first time in history, aristocratic ladies in France developed a penchant for tea with milk. Closely associated with the royalty in France, tea would fall into disfavour after the French Revolution, but the establishment of gourmet tea companies like Mariage Frères in 1854 would revive its following among connoisseurs. In Germany, tea also became a favourite refreshment, above all in the East Frisia region, and its strong black tea with cream, prepared with a ritual exactitude, is still celebrated among tea lovers.