"The Green Tea Gardens of Assam Valley"
The Green Quotient of Northeast
A much needed
rejuvenating start to a day, Tea lovers around the world cherish the fresh Assam tea. It is a green paradise and is filled with beautiful lush
covers of greenery.
Tea gardens throughout
the range of Assam valley is a natural beauty site. I am originally native of Upper Assam; it’s
always my dream come true journey during my summer vacation, across
those lush green tea-gardens all throughout my childhood when I used to visit
my grand ma’s place at Jorhat.
A nature walk to the lush and verdant tea gardens, the beauty of the green tea garden offers a casual visitor
with a subtle ambience, a mental and sensory quietude, rarely to be experienced
elsewhere. Imagine yourself in a tea-plantation on a spring-scented evening,
seated on the verandah of your bungalow, watching the twilight melt unhurriedly
into the night. Surrounded by a veritable sea of verdure, stretching across all
around as far as the eyes can see, and the tall shade trees standing watchful
amongst them, like shepherds guarding their flocks of sheep. Green, they say, is
the colour which soothes the eye. A tea-plantation, literally, is a sight for
sore eyes!
Witness the workers plucking the
tea leaves and working hard in the fields. Admire the deftness of their fingers
as they pluck the delicate two leaves and a bud You can converse with them and
have a cup of hot and spicy black tea with them. Apart from that you can simply
relax in the calm and peaceful environment. The silence
is so thick that you can reach out and touch it. Only a few sounds ripple
through this pall of quietness. No trip to Upper Assam can be complete without
a visit to one of the numerous tea-gardens that stand, lush and verdant, all
around the valley. The tea gardens of Assam have a unique ambience, and a cultural
entity that makes them stand apart from other such plantations elsewhere. Fresh
and pollution-free, the atmosphere is invigorating. A visit to the gardens, as well as a
trip to a garden factory to see the actual process of curing and preparing the
leaves, is a very interesting experience.
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| Tea Workers plucking the tea leaves |
Today Assam Valley is one of the
largest tea growing areas of the world. There are more than 850 tea estates and
more than 2500 tea gardens, Black tea of
Assam having a rich, strong and a distinctive malty taste of favour very much
known to outside Assam. BLACK tea, far different in taste and colour from the
GREEN tea made in China. Each tea-garden in Assam has its own history, The both sides
of famous river Brahmaputra,
constitute the world's largest Tea growing area. Full bodied and malty flavoured
Assam Tea offers bright liquor that is enjoyed by all Tea drinkers. It’s a worth
visit to Tocklai in Jorhat, which is the world’s largest tea research institute.
Tocklai campus is beautiful, with some ponds full of lotus and lilies and
numerous tall and small trees dotted with seasonal flowers. It does research on all aspects of tea, right
from the soil that it grows in to the way it is packaged and sold. It also
comes out with new varieties of tea and new systems, methods and processes for
processing the tea.
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| Tea Garden |
In the month of November, Assam Tea festival is organized by the Assam tourism and is
the completely unique experience which should not be missed. It gives the
opportunity to make a visit to the magnificent tea gardens, enjoy the exciting
river cruises. If fortunate, you might catch the tea tribes performing a Parab or
festival. They celebrate a host of Parabs like Tusu parab, Karam puja, Saharal
parab, Bir puja, Charul pujo, onosa puja and so on. These festivals are
celebrated not only ritualistically, but also with dance, music and feasting.
The songs sung during Karom puja for instance, are called Jhumur. The Jhumur
songs are replete with enchanting descriptions of the beauty of Nature and
express emotions like love, sorrow and joy.
When we start
we also need to stop so, after driving through the lush greenery of the
numerous tea growing estates that fill the landscape of Upper Assam, arrived at
the destination.
Earth is here so kind, that just tickle
her with a hoe and she laughs with a green leaf harvest.
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