Tea Time In India -For Travelers
It is the prettiest industry-and now a tourist attraction.
The ancient Lu U spoke of tea (cha), in the Chinese classic Cha Ching, as the herb that allows one to fly on the wings of immortality. The Chinese jealously guarded their bushes and manufacturing secrets, though they willingly traded tea to the Gwyalo (white devil) for gold. By 1832 tea was part of daily life in England, imported by East India Company ships. John Companys monopoly ended in the 19th century, but he wasnt about to give up on such a lucrative trade. He began to look elsewhere-and what better place than in India?
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After much experimentation, the British discovered a native species of the Camellia sinensis-the tea plant-in Assam. Charles Bruce extracted the techniques of cultivation from the Khamti and Singpho tribes, who had long been drinking a concoction, made from its leaves, and set up a nursery of indigenous tea plants in Sadia.
The first consignment of Assam teas was sent to London in 1839, a London broker ordered 1,000 chests, and the scramble for Indian tea began. The British braved the boat journey up the Brahmaputra, and the kala azar (malaria), to clear the jungle. By 1841 the Assam Company, run by Bruce and Masters, had produced 29,000 kg of tea. The industry was forbidden to natives; Maniram Dewan, the first Assamese planter, was executed for defying this dictat. Meanwhile British planters, to cushion their loneliness, set up lifestyles to rival those of English lords.
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To this day, the road to Upper Assam is lined with unending miles of tea gardens. Nonoi, Kellyden, Hathikuli the names conjure up days of yore. You can smell the fresh leaves as soon as you enter the tea districts. On either side of the road stretch bushes trimmed and plucked to perfection like huge billiards tables. In the distance you might glimpse a Managers Bungalow, built on stilts and covered with flowering bougainvillea.
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