Monday, May 20, 2013

Between sips...


This year I was involved with the Tea Institute at PennState that studies Chinese tea ceremony. Besides receiving the knowledge of GongFu, and being in the flow of events of the tea house, I discovered the beauty of the mindful tea consumption.


Between every sip, holding a small cup of tea in my palms, I take some time to think about the roads that these tea leaves have traveled, about the broad geography of tea production, the variety of tea that is produced from the same tea bushes, hardworking people who work on plantations of East Africa, India, China, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Georgia; I think about the unusual rituals and rich history of tea ceremonies and tea cultures that show the triumphal anthropological impact on the lives of nations from all over the world.
I think tea is the only beverage that has given rise to a number of cups, pots and other “kitchenware wealth”. Its medical, social, economical, political, religious uses serve as a mirror to different cultures. Millions of books are telling us the stories about the tea leaves that reached us through space and time as a medicine, beverage, tribute or spice… Thousands of temae (body movements) are used for Japanese tea ceremony, hundreds of songs were written by Chinese poets, days and nights are spent by Buddhist monks who practice meditation and drink bitter pu’er to stay alert. It plays a crucial role in important historic events, for example, it was a Fujian tea that filled Boston Harbor as a sign of freedom.