TEA AND TIBET.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1581, 26 October 1912, Page 11

TEA AND TIBET.

A STRONG WEAKNESS. According to the_ "Manchester Guardian," tea drinking is a universal vice in Australia, but, the journal points out, the Tibetans are even worse. They are described as the most immoderato teadrinkers in the world, who consume about 19,000,0001b. a year, 131b. per head of the population. This is moro than twice tho average consumption even in Australia, says the "Guardian," which continues, "As a warning to others,-it may bo said at once the Tibetans drink so much tea that it quite spoils their appetites. They are said to take no regular meals. They eat only when nature absolutely compels, and in fact very often live on a half-starvation diet, though thoy flrink tea incessantly. It is not even good tea. It all comes overland from China in the form of compressed bricks. They are quit© a special brand, and they consist of only about 25 per cent, leaves; tho remaining 75 per cent, is twigs and rubbish. However, this stuff costs only about two-thirds of a penny a pound. Tea-bricks in some parts of Tibet serve as money. But although the Tibetan neglects his meals for .tea-drinking, so that to him alone among men breakfast and supper timo have no meaning, he is not quite so/misguided as ho appears to be. ' His tea is both meat and drink. It might be described as tea-soup.

"This is how a Tibetan makes tea. A chip is broken from a. tea-brick and pounded in a mortar. The'dust is then boiled in a fcettlo for five minutes, after which it is poured through a strainer into a 'tea-churn,' a small wooden cylinder with a piston. A piece of butter and sonio barley meal are_ added, and the mixture is churned vigorously for a minute or two, after which it is poured off into a teapot. There are no teacups in Tibet, but everybody carries about with him a small tea bowhmade of wood and lined usually with silver. When the tea is ready the guests produce their; howls, which are then filled. A bladder or box of butter and a bowl of barley meal complete the equipment of a Tibetan tea party. Scooping out a lump of butter,, the drinker lets it melt in the tea, which he sips meditatively, blowing the floating piece of butter on one side as he puts his lips to the bowl. When the bowl is nearly empty he puts a handful of

meal into it, and works it up info a ball of paste, which lie puts into his mouth and washes down with, another doso of tea; It is a sort of tea porridge or tea brose_. So the carouse goes on, until the need' for work or sleep arises. It may help to explain the Tibetan way of taking tea, especially the butter part of it, that tho winter temperature there is as low as in Greenland."