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distinguished from the Siamese method by its not being steamed but boiled, 

 then kept wet in bamboo cases or in pits, and eaten with oil, garlic, 

 dried fish etc.; sonietimes it is dried after boiling, afterwards boiled again 

 and drunk with sait water. In Upper Burma, the manufacture of this tea 

 which is used on many cérémonial occasions, constitutes an industry of 

 some importance '). 



About the plant that yields this tea, Crawfurd 2) says: „the leaves 

 „are elliptic, oblong and serrated like the Chinese plant; and the Bur- 



„mese designate the latter by the native name of their own plant, 



„Lap'het". Hère Watt 3) puts in this commentary, that in Burma the word 

 „lapet" probably dénotes C'imellia drupifera LouR., which species perhaps 

 was used as tea already before Camellia Thea, „lap'het". 1 do not know 

 what reasons made Watt suggest thèse ideas and whether C. drupifera 

 really may serve for tea manufacturing (see the chapters V and VI). But 

 this much we may déclare with certainty, that the Shan crop is a geniuie 

 tea plant of a distinct type. Griffith, who, as we saw in the preceding 

 chapter, found it near the Irawaddy, already considered it as a true tea 

 plant, expressly mentioning the leaves which he found smaller and finer 



') According to the Impérial Gazetteer of India (1908), this „pickled tea", uiider the 

 names ,,paungthi" aiid „pyaokthi", is manufactured near Katha, both manufactured 

 and cultivated near Wiintho (XV, p. 160). Near Banmauk (XV, p. 157), in Tawnpeng 

 and Hsipavv (XXII, p. 242 and 238), in the Ruby Mines district along the Irawaddy 

 (XXI, p. 332) and in Kengtung (XV, p. 201) more tea centres are recorded, which 

 ail provide a national market. 



J, NiSBET (1901, I, p. 446) mentions manufacture of ..pickled tea" in Pasi. 



C. W. A Bruce (,,Leppett tea", 1896, p. 14) says that this culture is to be found 

 in the following villages on the Upper-Chindwin river: Kaungkan, Tingin, Kawya, 

 Maungkan, Tasôn, Onbet, Mainwe, Tamanthe and Malin. Very much ,,leppett ' 

 viz., 72000 Ibs. a year, is produced by Kawya. 



On the origin of this tea plant, Bruce relates: ..Tradition says that thèse „kins" 

 ..(clearings) werc cleared and planted some 200 years ago, the seed having bcen 

 „brought from Palaung (Northern Shan StatesJ." (Italics are mine.) „No one has 



,.ever heard of wild tea in the jungle Some 20 years ago there arose a 



..demand for the seed, at first intermittent, but since British occupation steady 

 [compare this statement with what was said in the preceding chapter. on tea 

 planting in S. Burma 1880— 18831] „and this has now become the main source of 

 ..income to the owners." 



Bruce then gives particulars on this seed traffic especially with Britisii India 

 where the promotion of this culture was endcavoured. and says: ..From hère 



„[that is: Burma] // is carried by Chin or Manipuri coolies in baskets to 



..Manipur". (Italics are mine) This fact is of importance because it illustrâtes the 

 seed transport by man (see next chapter), and besides because we must infer from 

 this, that the purity of the ,.wild" Manipur tea cannot last long in this way. 



Compare also the report of J.J.C. Hardinge 1881. 

 ^) J. Crawfurd 1834, II p. 214. „The best is grown by the race called D' hanu, whose 

 „country lies to the north-east of Ava. distant about ten days' journey '. 

 „D' hanu" or Danu is a tribe inhabiting the Myelat district, according toj. G. ScoTT 

 1906, p. 69. 

 8) G. Watt 1908, p. 236. 



