Tea for Sacrifice

@teawish.co TEA FOR SACRIFICE. #teaculture #chinesetea #teawish #teahistory ♬ original sound – Derry@Teawish

Tea was used as medicine in the very beginning. Able to retrieve the dying and rescue the wounded, tea was thought as a gift from celestial beings and was respected by all. Therefore, tea was sacrificed to the gods and ancestors in respect.

Take some Chinese minorities in Yunnan and Guizhou as an example. They offered tea in the ancestor worship every December of Chinese lunar calendar, which was called layue (腊月) in Chinese. So tea was also called la by these minorities. In Guangxi, tea cakes specially for Buddha and forefathers were imprinted with two Chinese characters “祝仙”, meaning sacrifices for gods or ancestors.

Meanwhile tea farmers had the custom to worship with tea. For example, in Fujian Province, the first cup of the tea Dahongpao should be offered to Buddha when tea farmers in Wuyi mountain have had newly processed tea. The prayed in front of the Buddha with burning incense. After the worship, the sacrificed tea would be shared with tea farmers for the sake of good luck. This rite has been practiced for ages.

The booming Buddhism made tea more important in sacrifice in ancient China. For example, Xiao Ze of Qi Kingdom in the Southern Dynasty (479 – 502) stated in his last testament : livestock must by no means be sacrificed to my grave but only cakes, fruits, tea, and rice.

From these stories, you can see how respectful the tea is in China.