Interesting Facts About Tea Plantations
It is said that ‘tea’ originated in China about 5,000 years ago. But the major part of the universal recognition and admiration of fine tea should, in my opinion, go to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Scotsman James Taylor, the pioneer of the Sri Lankan Tea Industry, planted the first tea estate in Loolekandura estate in Kandy, in 1867. He discovered and introduced the technique of fine plucking as ‘two leaves and a bud.’
A British national named Henry Randolph Trafford, owner of the coffee estates in Kandy, also knew how to produce tea. He too is considered as one of the pioneers of tea cultivation in Ceylon. By 1880, he switched to tea plantations and within a few years, almost all the coffee plantations in Ceylon were transformed in to tea estates.
Nicknamed “Little England”, Nuwara Eliya was a hill country retreat for British colonialists and is now a popular holiday destination and the famed Nuwara Eliya bungalows are an unmissable experience. Its cool climate, beautiful views and famous tea plantations are major attractions and draw visitors from all over the world.
If you walk in tea estates you will see the grand estate bungalows with their colonial feel with massive fire places and tasteful furniture. It is so wonderful to see a slice of England in Sri Lanka among these tea plantations.
Even today, tea leaves in Sri Lanka are plucked by hand. Smiling tea plantation workers are another site you would love to see. Armed with baskets tied to their backs with strings , they still dress according to their Indian origins. These ladies skillfully select the leaves most suitable for preparing the tea. They work all day long in rain and shine till the basket is full and the collected leaves are dropped in the processing machinery.
In the late nineteenth century large amounts of labor were needed for the tea plantations and the Sinhalese were reluctant to become workers in tea estates in Sri Lanka. In order to meet the labor demands, plantations recruited workers from India, who are now Sri Lankan citizens with voting powers.
A Tea Museum was also established in Kandy and is open to public.
