TODAY

Tea is Myanmar native flora-a shrub type plants growing wild or being cultivated mostly on the Shan plateau but now spreading to other hilly places in Kachin and Chin and even Rakhine States. ”Tae” or ”Cha” is Chinese word for tea. Originally pronunciation of Tae is corrupted to tea and ”cha” into Chaing, Khyaung in different countries. Myanmar call it Laphet  vufzuf proving that it is our native plants. Many legends showed the history of Laphets. Laphtet plays many roles in religious and socio- cultural life of all Myanmar ethnic nationalities.

There is an old Myanmar saying which goes as follows:

အရြက္မွာ လက္ဖက္                Teas is the bes leaves to eat

အသီးမွာ သရက္                     Among fruits, mangoes are so  sweet

အသားမွာ ၀က္                       Pork is the best meat to eat

Botanically named ”Thea sinesis” or “camellia sinesis” tea’s role in religion is great. In all religious ceremonies and festivals, a special offering called Kadawpwe(An arrangement of three banches of banana fruit with a green coconut in the middle, flowers and packets of pickled tea are artistically adorned on them.)Any offering to nat-spirits, to your parents, teachers, superiors or bosses, such kind of Kadawpwe is compulsory.

Kadawpwes with packets of pickled tea are seen all novitiation, ordination, inauguration, house warming ceremonies, name giving, birthday ceremonies. Even at the funeral the last rite given to the dead includes packets of pickled tea.

At almost every house of Myanmar and other ethnic communities, there is a lacquerware  container with pickled tea and tea pot to offer the visitor. Pickled tea of different taste, sour, spicy and seasoned with roasted peanuts, sesame, fried slices of coconut etc with oil or salt is served to the visitor with hot plain green tea to go with. So refreshing for the visitor to enjoy. Conversation can be carried on, whether business, gossip, between the guest and host.

In socio-cultural life, tea takes a major role. There are different modes of wedding ceremony. To mention briefly- a grand wedding ceremony called sulya yit pat lathtet စုလ်ားရစ္ပတ္လက္ထပ္မဂၤလာ by a Brahmin priest pouring water on the bride and groom, clean water from the conch shell on the two joined right hands of the couple are dipped in the scented water in the silver bowl. But the simplest  ways of wedding are to exchange each other’s jasmine garlands between the wedding couples or to eat pickled tea together from the same centuries and put into each other’s mouth a bit of pickled tea or is put groom’s dress in the wardrobe of the bride. But in all of them, there must be pickled tea.

In the days of Myanmar monarchy, Kings had special room for tea လက္ဖက္ရည္ေတာ္ေဆာင္ and young male officers were appointed to run the function of tea serving. These young male officers accompany the royalty on journey. Tea ceremony officer post was the first in the ladder of subsequent promotions  leading to minister level on condition of loyalty, faithfulness, educational standard and knowledge.

Myanmar is the only country in the world where tea leaves are eaten. Today myanmar pickle tea has spread to the world thanks to tourism and globalization. The great name of pickled tea is Ayee Taung Laphet which enjoys a good demand also and prepared, seasoned according to the customers’ taste. This brand is  organic, healthy, chemical free lat phet, excellent  snack for your long journery.

Maha Suddhamma Jolika dhaja

Sithu. Dr.Khin Maung Nyunt