Legend of Tea
China
According
to a Chinese legend, tea was discovered accidentally by emperor
Shen-Nung approximately 3,000 years before Christ as follows: The
emperor set up camp with his entourage in the shade of a large tree. A
fire was made and a pot with boiling water was prepared. The heat of
the fire brought some of the leaves of the long branches of the tree to
dry out. Suddenly, a fierce wind got up and blew some of the leaves
into the pot with boiling water. The water turned golden and a
delicious scent appeared. The emperor tried the drink and was delighted
by the scent and delicious taste. Being immediately aware of the
refreshing and invigorating effect, the emperor let out the sound
"T'sa", meaning godlike so that, until today, "cha" is the name for tea
in Chinese.
India
The
Indian legend goes as follows. In the year 500 after Christ, the Fakir
Dharma took the vow not to sleep for 7 years. After 5 years of mental
immersion it appeared that he could no longer fight the need to sleep.
Full of desperation due to knowing he would not be able to keep his
vow, he grasped a couple of branches of the tree where he had made his
camp. He put a few leaves into his mouth and chewed them. Immediately,
Dharma experienced a refreshing and invigorating effect, his tiredness
evaporated and he could keep his vow.
Japan
The
Japanese also have their own legend with respect to the discovery of
tea. The penitent made the pledge of 7 years of meditation. He vowed
not to sleep in these 7 years. Despite this vow, he fell asleep on
night. When he woke up the next morning, he was so angered by his
failure that he cut off his eyelids and threw them to the ground. As
soon as the eyelids touched the soil, they grew roots which soon
developed into a large bush. When the penitent saw this wonder, he
prepared himself a drink out of the leaves. People from all areas came
to see this wonder tree and many followed the penitent and prepared a
drink from the leaves. The knowledge of the drink's refreshing and
invigorating effect was spread everywhere. The delicious taste and
scent were reason enough to see this drink as "divine". Until today the
Japanese language uses the same character for eyelid and tea.