Tea page

At present, tea is a well-known and popular drink in all corners of the Earth. It is drunk in Asia, Europe, America, Africa and Australia. Throughout the history of tea distribution, residents of various countries have been studying its properties, forming their own traditions of its preparation and use.

Now tea is a familiar drink that most people around the world drink. Many people cannot even imagine at least one day without a cup of tea. You won’t surprise anyone with tea, but its absence is easy, it has already become an everyday habit and a pleasant pastime for millions of people. But it was not always so. There were times when people did not even know about this refreshing drink. Since the discovery of tea in China to the present day, it has come a long and sometimes difficult path. This article tells the history of tea from ancient times to our time.

Buddhists also have their own legend about the appearance of tea, it is associated with the monk Bodhidharma, who founded Zen Buddhism.

According to one version, he was born in the South Indian kingdom of Pallava, according to another, he was of Persian origin. At the end of the 4th century AD, he arrived in China, where he preached his teachings, and then settled in the Shaolin Monastery. In China, Bodhidharma was called the "bearded barbarian" because, unlike the local monks, he wore a beard.

So what does it have to do with tea? According to legend, once during a long meditation in a cave, the monk could not resist the weakness that overcame him and fell asleep. Waking up, Bodhidharma was indignant at what had happened and angry that he had broken his vow. As punishment, and out of fear that this would happen again, he tore off his eyelids and threw them on the ground.

From the monk's fallen eyelids, tea trees grew, and he himself sat in a cave, meditating, for nine years. The term “long leaf tea” is associated with this legend: according to Buddhists, the word “long leaf” comes from “white eyelash”.

At the same time, the Buddhist myth about the appearance of tea itself can be criticized: Bodhidharma lived at the turn of the 4th-5th centuries AD, and the first evidence of tea consumption in China dates back to a much earlier period.

How was it really?
No one knows exactly how tea came into people's lives. The story in the form of the myth of Bodhidharma is staggering, but does not agree with objective data. Bodhidharma lived in the years 483-540. Written sources on history show that by 350 the Chinese had cultivated the tea plant (that is, grown it specifically).



It is a known fact that tea was originally used not as an everyday drink, but as a healing agent that improves the nervous system, normalizes metabolic processes and strengthens. This is consistent with the myth of the divine farmer Yang Di (Shen Nune), which suggests the presence of common sense in this story.



The Chinese nobility began to drink tea instead of water and milk in the V century. As we would say today, this has become a fashion trend. By the tenth century, tea was spreading in southern and central China.