Why Do People Revere Tea with a Religious Devotion?

Tea, like coffee, is one of the most popular natural beverages in the world. However, tea enthusiasts harbor a religious-like reverence for tea. This devotion is evident in the ceremonies, tea arts, and tea culture, where people demonstrate a respectful piety unmatched by any other food or drink.

 

 

Japanese Tea Ceremony

 

 

Chinese Tea Art

 

What is the tea ceremony, and what are tea arts? If you ask 100 people, 95 might say they don't know or can't explain it clearly, and the remaining 5 might offer five different answers. Some say the tea ceremony is a lifestyle, and tea arts are a form of performance. This seems reasonable but still feels vague and elusive. There are many lifestyles—drinking coffee, consuming alcohol, or following a vegetarian diet—but there is no "coffee ceremony," "wine ceremony," or "vegetarian ceremony," nor are there performance arts dedicated to these practices.

 

A Google search for "the origin of tea" yields two legends. One claims that tea originated in the Ba region of the Western Zhou Dynasty (present-day northern Sichuan and southern Shaanxi). Another says that tea was produced in Chibi, Hubei, and was promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang, the discovered tea and developed tea processing techniques.

 

The earliest tea was green tea. But how was green tea discovered? There are no records in this regard. I believe that in ancient times, due to low productivity and frequent natural and man-made disasters, people often went hungry. As a result, they would eat any edible plants and animals, trying things they had never eaten before. Tea leaves must have been one of the plants people tried. The Chinese cooking method involves stir-frying; they picked tender tea tips and stir-fried them in a pot, similar to how people stir-fry toona leaves with eggs. They quickly discovered that brewed tea soup was fragrant, especially after stir-frying the leaves and boiling them in water, which was refreshing. Historically, people consumed tea by eating the leaves as well, indicating that tea was considered a vegetable, soup, or medicine. Because it tasted good, people wanted to enjoy it year-round. Thus, like preserving green beans, chili peppers, green vegetables, and eggplants by drying or pickling, tea leaves were also dried for winter consumption, giving rise to the early methods of green tea production. Over time, the process of making green tea was gradually perfected. Today, some ethnic groups still consume tea leaves.

 

 

Pan – Fried Tea, the traditional way of making green tea

 

Interestingly, both the tea ceremony and tea arts thrive in regions where green tea is consumed, not in areas where black tea is popular, such as Europe. Why is this?

 

Green tea is unique and astonishing because when steeped in hot water, the small, dark tea leaves gradually unfurl into bright green buds, floating upright in the water, vividly recreating their original, vibrant form. It is as if they come back to life. Can you imagine any other plant with such magical properties? Coffee, wine, or any vegetable? Absolutely not.

 

 

Green Tea: vivid and lifelike in boiling water

 

Having worked as a tea technician, I have made tea myself. Watching the green tea I made unfold its leaves in a cup, vividly showcasing its beauty, was emotionally moving. Observing the tea in the water is a visual pleasure, making it almost reluctant to drink.

 

I once attended many Chinese church revival meetings and remember a famous pastor repeatedly emphasizing that belief in Jesus' resurrection is crucial to being a Christian. Indeed, if Jesus can rise from the dead, what else can He be but divine? Only a deity has the power to resurrect.

 

Green tea undergoes high-temperature pan-frying, rolling, and drying, and finally "resurrects" in the tea cup. Coupled with tea's medicinal properties and refreshing effects, it seems to possess a divine power unmatched by ordinary plants. Our ancestors, who revered deities, developed a similar reverence for tea. The slow, focused rituals of the tea ceremony reflect a devotion to tea akin to worshiping a deity. These elaborate procedures surpass even ancestral or deity worship rituals in complexity. It's not just drinking tea; it's a ritualistic worship of the tea deity.

 

Why does the tea ceremony flourish in green tea-consuming regions like China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, but not in black tea-consuming regions like Britain and Europe? Some say Britain has an afternoon tea culture, but that is a social custom, entirely different from the tea ceremony.

 

Afternoon tea time

 

Green tea requires fresh spring buds, which are the essence of a tea plant's year's growth. Leaves used for black tea can be from various stages of growth. The high-temperature process of green tea production transforms tender green leaves into tea strips dramatically, while black tea's fermentation is slow and peaceful. The brewed green tea leaves vividly revert to their original state, floating in the water and mesmerizing observers. In contrast, black tea produces a mellow liquor, and the leaves rest quietly at the cup's bottom, lacking the visual impact of green tea.

 

A CCTV series, "Tea: The Story of a Leaf," introduces the Blang tribe of Jingmai Mountain, Yunnan, in the Pu'er tea-producing region. They consider themselves descendants of the tea deity and hold an annual Tea Ancestor Festival in April. Every year there's a small festival, and every four years, a grand one, with everyone participating and sacrificing cattle to honor the tea ancestor. They also worship the tea ancestor at the Pa'ai Leng temple. Legend has it that over 1,800 years ago, Pa'ai Leng discovered that tea could cure diseases, saving his tribe from a plague. Since then, the Blang people have regarded him as the embodiment of the tea deity. Whenever they open a new tea garden, the first tea tree planted is called the "Tea Soul Tree," and during the Tea Ancestor Festival, they call the tea soul back to celebrate together.

 

Although the Blang tribe's Pu'er tea is a dark tea, the initial production process is similar to that of green tea, with only fermentation added later. It is not difficult to deduce that their ancestors first invented green tea, which later evolved into the dark tea production method. During the discovery phase of green tea, they developed a reverence for tea, leading to the emergence of ancestral tea worship activities.

 

 

Blang people celebrate the Tea festival every April

 

People's reverence for tea is most fully expressed in the tea ceremony, which elevates tea to a sacred status. According to CCTV's "Tea: The Story of a Leaf," Chinese tea culture reached a high level during the Song Dynasty. Japanese monks came to China to learn the Jingshan tea banquet ceremony in Zhejiang. After mastering it, they brought it back to Japan. Today's Japanese tea ceremony evolved from the Song Dynasty's Jingshan tea banquet. While the Jingshan tea banquet has been lost in China, the Japanese tea ceremony has preserved it. This is the origin of the tea ceremony. Guangdong's Gongfu tea is also meticulous and somewhat similar to the tea ceremony. Watching friends drink Gongfu tea, every gesture is filled with reverence for tea.

 

For tea culture enthusiasts, while tea may not be a deity, it holds a god-like charm and status.