Chinese New Year Tea Ceremony - Year of the Dragon (which ushers in decisions / change)

 

Chinese New Year Tea Celebration

A number of my classmates are Chinese. Chinese New Year is a great celebration for them, so they prepared to celebrate here by very carefully packing precious tea pots and cups along with very old, precious, expensive teas to bring and share with us here in Bali. It was an extremely generous gesture. 

We gathered outside the wantilan (pavillion where class is held) and were divided into groups of three or four. Inside were six individual hosts who would be sharing their tea with us. When a small chime rang, the first group went in and sat on the floor in front of the first host. There was no talking. She, that host, then began her tea ceremony with those several people. The chime rang a second time, and the second group walked in and sat before the second host. Again, silence, and she, the second host, began her tea ceremony with her small group. That continued, one chime at a time, until all six groups had been seated. I don't know how the others did theirs, but I will share my experience.

My beautiful host was dressed in a red shirt and loose, white pants, barefooted (as we all were), with long dark hair, not making eye contact with any of us at first. She sat tall on the floor in the lotus position, hands resting on her legs. We sat silently. In time, she lifted a small bowl containing loose tea leaves. First she inhaled the scent a few times, then with the grace of a passing cloud, handed the bowl of tea leaves to the first person in our group of three. He was a small boy, maybe eight years old. He gently took the bowl, closed his eyes, and inhaled the aroma. Eventually, he handed it to the stunning, queenly Chinese woman to my left to do the same. After lingering over it for a while, she handed it to me, the only westerner in our group of three. I followed suit then handed it back to our host.

I will digress just a moment to share about the woman to my left. She is a classmate of mine from China, and she speaks no English at all. There is a regal elegance to her in the way she holds herself, moves, dressed, relates to others, and looks at people around her. Her fashion sense is exquisite - not overly dressed or dripping in jewels, but somehow stunning even in the hottest days. She has two children, and is pregnant now, not quite three months. She's very quiet, almost aloof, then her face explodes with animation when she's laughing with her Chinese friends. Now, back to the tea ceremony.

Our host set down the small bowl of tea leaves, picked up the lovliest little, brown, ceramic teapotwith a very narrow spout. Lifting the lid, she used something like tweezers to pick up the tea leaves from the bowl and place them gently in the teapot. Everything was done slowly, mindfully, and with remarkable grace. She reached around to the side and lifted a pitcher of hot water off its base. With great care, she poured a few ounces of water over the leaves until the pot was full, setting the pitcher back in place. The lid was returned to the teapot, and waiting only a few seconds, she lifted the teapot and poured the tea into a tiny pitcher, holding maybe two ounces. None of the tea leaves came out of the teapot spout because it had such a small diameter.

Then she carefully poured the tea from the tiny pitcher into our very small cups (more like shallow bowls in the western world). Once that was done, she gestured to us to pick up our teacups and smell the tea, which we did for a period of time before sipping it. Light slurping noises echoed around the wantilan from the six different locations. A sip, then lingering over the taste and aroma, holding the teacup, just being in that time and place. A sip every now and then. When the cup was empty, we set it back down in front of us. She picked up the hot water, poured it over the tea leaves in the teapot, and repeated the process. The tea leaves did not steep for more than a few seconds before the tea was poured. I understand this process is generally repeated until the flavor has become quite mild and the tea is no longer worthy of drinking. At one point, I noticed the woman to my left gesturing that she did not care to have more tea, so I followed her example. 

All of that was in complete silence throughout the room. It was a slow, fluid (no pun intended), graceful, mindful, introspective experience. And so we sat quietly. When the chime rang, our host told us we could now talk.

She told us the history of the tea she had provided, as well as the pot and cups and so forth. These are all very precious things, and it's quite a generous gift to share them with us. They are old, rare, valuable, and important. She explained that as things age, they become more precious... being one of the oldest people in the room, I rather appreciated that sentiment. 

We were then free to stay and share more of her tea, or move to the other hosts' locations and share tea with them while talking. 

While all of this was going on, there were four very young children in the room, moving around as children do, but not as western children do. They had fun and were inquisitive, but not pushy. They were gentle and graceful, and the ones who shared tea behaved in every way like the adults did. I found it quite remarkable. 

So each host had prepared her space with flowers and incense and other items that were very sepcial which they wanted to share with us. There were cookies, crackers, chocolates, and more. What was particularly interesting to me was the size of the servings. The tea cups held no more than an ounce. The cookies were quite small. In the west, we live in a giant world with massive portions and move our bodies in big, clumsy ways. Not so in the east. 

As the tea ceremonies were winding down, someone walked around with a basket of messages in Chinese, each individually rolled, and each different from the others. They were written/painted by one of the women and the children with black ink on red paper. They were randomly distributed among us all, then translated for each of us. It's amazing how spot-on the words were for my classmates and me. Mine means "blessed protector/guardian."