The Dambatenne tea plantation was founded by Sir Thomas Lipton of the world known Lipton tea brand back in 1890. Here, he began his tea cultivating empire in order to satisfy the likes of Scotland, his home country, and England. The hills of Sri Lanka were converted from rubber and coffee to tea when the British overcame the Dutch rule of Sri Lanka in 1815. At this time, there were many Tamil Indians 'imported' to labor on the tea plantations, giving them the distinct cultural category of "Plantation Tamils". To this day, you will see that the little villages within and surrounding the tea plantations are made up of Tamils. The history of how the British intentionally used a non-native labor force, one that was eager to work and was willing to cede to the British ways, was strategic and manipulative. Yeah, that sounds about right, given the capitalist and racially charged nature of colonialism...
To walk around the rugged tea plantations is like a dream... the temperatures are cool, the sun is a welcome presence, and the Tamil workers peer back at me with the same curiosity with which I gaze at them. It is almost exclusively women who do the picking, placing handfuls of young, bright green tea leaves into sacks balanced across their foreheads and slung down their backs.
A typical view of the tea growing regions that define the Hill Country landscape. While this 'green cover' helps the Sri Lankan government spout environmentally-sound statistics to people like me, it is still, in large, a mono culture; over one hundred years ago, the suddus, or white people, chopped down countless acres of virgin forest to attain this manicured, yet admittedly stunning, cultivation technique. Some ecologically-conscious growers have managed to integrate other species into the tea bushes and preserve any adjacent stubs of remaining forest cover, while others have preferred to prioritize profits over sustainability.
All of those tiny white pock marks on the upper left corner represent the bags, full of freshly picked tea leaves, that adorn the sweat-soaked and sari-clad backs of the Tamil women. This woman is walking down the irrigation ditch, the most common walkway you'll find here, between the rows and rows of bushes.
Women chat amongst themselves and shyly smile when we pass.
The amount that these women are paid is dependent on the amount that they pick. For most workers, this amounts to less than $2/day, providing them with barely enough money to survive. Most workers live on the plantations where they work in very basic housing structures, and are permitted to tend a small tract of land for their own consumption or for market.
When the women fill one or two bags, they walk to the nearest weighing station to have their product weighed. Here, the men are wrestling to weigh the incoming product.
Once weighed, the bags of tea are transported to the factory for processing.
Most of the plantation Tamils are Hindu, and you can find many kovils, or Hindu temples, throughout the region, each with its own distinct tribute to a particular god or goddess. Large and important trees, some along waterways, are also used as sites of worship for the workers. It's hard to see in this photo, but this large tree has many pieces of faded fabric tied to its trunk and lower limbs, as well as stripes of color painted at its base. Small weathered figurines depicting gods and goddesses are laid at the foot of the tree, and remnants of pooja, or offerings, remain in the form of spent incense sticks or clay bowls of oil, their wicks extinguished.
The irrigation ditches are quite a marvel even now, and help control the flow of rain and the footsteps of weary workers.
Along the path, we spot some calendula growing.
Taking in the scenery on top of Lipton's Seat, the vantage point from which Sir Thomas Lipton surveyed his regional tea-growing empire.
We decided to tour the Dambatenne Tea Factory, located at the foothills of the plantation.
The large floor-to-ceiling windows that characterize the multi-storied tea factories help circulate fresh air into these stuffy, metal hot boxes.
The tea dumped out and piled high upon arrival from the fields.
Another shot of the heating and drying process. You can also see how the windows to the right are utilized for air circulation.
In the event of a fire, don't fret: they are equipped with an arsenal of protection, including 7 buckets of water and two extinguishers. Phew!
After the tea is somewhat dried and turning brown, the leaves go through several stages of cutting and sorting on a series of conveyor belts racing through the ground level of the factory.
The tea is ground up further and is then piled on the floor and allowed to ferment for several hours.
Our guide shows us the difference that just 3 hours of fermentation can make! Yeah fermentation!
After fermentation, the tea is sorted again, tasted and then classified into a variety of grades, shown here by our guide. Sadly, as in many exporting countries, the best of the product is never left for the locals--all the best stuff is sold abroad and Sri Lankans get the remaining dust for their own tea.
I would like to end this post with one final image, one of total peace, the ideal aim of our local and global communities. This diagram was painted on one of the schools that we passed while walking through the Dambatenne plantation (schools are host to the best artwork and philanthropy I have seen in Sri Lanka). After all the suffering that Sri Lankans of all sorts have endured over the centuries, I just hope this total peace will soon come to this land and its people.
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