While I was in Taiwan in the Spring, I met a lovely tea teacher called April Jin (pictured with me on the left) who told me that she was coming to London in July this year to speak at a Taiwanese tea event to be called ‘Everyday is a Good Day’.  When all her plans were in place, she very kindly arranged for invitations to be sent to me and to lots of other London tea people and we gathered last Saturday (5^th July) at the Limkokwing University in Piccadilly, London.  The event had been jointly arranged with the London Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple and a number of volunteers were awaiting our arrival with gentle warm smiles and greetings.  Before being directed upstairs to the room where the event would take place, we had the opportunity to peruse an exhibition about the temple, one of 200 branches of Fo Guang Shan Monastery in Taiwan, about the Monastery in Taiwan and about its founder, Venerable Master Hsing Yun.  Our afternoon in London was one of a series taking place in Europe and before meeting us, April Jin had already been to Lucerne, Geneva, Stockholm and Manchester and after her London visit, she was travelling to Belgium, Holland, Paris, Lisbon, Berlin and Vienna.

As we assembled, it was clear that we were a very mixed group from many different nationalities but, as always at tea events, the bond of friendship was immediate and uplifting.  We were thoughtfully handed little hearing devices that allowed us to receive a translation of everything that was said throughout the event and so feel very much a part of the proceedings.  We were then summoned in small groups to a room upstairs (with beautiful views out over Green Park) and we were shown to our seats at small tables laid ready with delicate porcelain Gung Fu tea brewing equipment.   At each table sat a priestess or master tea brewer who bowed their welcome to guests as they took their places. 

The aim of these events is to ‘cultivate calmness of the mind and experience the joy of life through the art of the Chinese Tea Ceremony, music, paintings and meditation’ and everyone who took part was moved and inspired by the serenity and peace that we all felt both during and after this very special occasion.  After a short welcome, we were invited to take part in a group meditation that relaxed and calmed us, cleared our heads of all the mental clutter, untidiness and stress that is with us for too much of the time each day.  The priestess or tea master at each table then slowly and skilfully prepared the first of two teas for us, warming the tiny bowls and neat teapot with hot water and displaying the dry leaf on a carved wooden dish before carefully scooping the little balls of Alishan oolong into the tiny pot ready for brewing.  This first tea -a fine example of high mountain, spring-picked, semi-balled oolong - gave a wonderful concentrated orchid fragrance and taste and each of the five or six brews made from just one measure of leaf varied subtly in its depth and level of strength and flavour. 

Our little bowls were filled and refilled and, as we sipped and evaluated the fine character of the golden liquor, Teacher Jin explained the three Chinese paintings displayed on screens in front of us.  The first was a depiction of a theatrical entertainment taking place in the 14^th century to celebrate the annual spring festival of Ching Ming.  Also called Clear Brightness Festival or Tomb Sweeping Day, this is the annual holiday when Chinese families remember and pay their respects to their ancestors.  But it is also very significant in the tea calendar, for it marks the end of the early spring period during which the very best green teas are plucked and manufactured.  Teas plucked after Ching Ming do not have the same degree of light and subtle aroma or fine flavour as teas made before the festival and do not fetch such high prices.

The second painting was of LuYu, known as the founder of the ‘Tea Ceremony’.  Orphaned as a child, he was adopted by Zen Master Zhi Ji and grew up in a monastery where he developed a deep understanding of the connection between the preparation, service and drinking of tea and Zen Buddhism.  His ‘Book of Tea’, also called ‘The Classic of Tea’ was the first in the world to explain all aspects of tea - from the cultivation of the plant to the utensils needed for the preparation of tea and the perfect method for brewing the beverage.

The third painting was of a tea party at a Chinese palace which showed musicians entertaining a group of courtiers and guests as part of the traditional gathering and Jin pointed out that tea drinking occasions in China have always involved the added enjoyment of music.  Our tea celebration continued the essential connection of tea and music, and Chinese musician, Zheng Yu, played two ancient stringed instruments for us as we drank more tea or sat with eyes closed in quiet contemplation.  She conjured the typical ethereal and lightly wavering notes of temple music from a seven-stringed Guqin and a smaller, four-stringed pipa.

The second tea that was brewed for us was an amazing Oriental Beauty - sweet, smooth and reminiscent of peaches, sweet figs and ripe green grapes.  This was the perfect tea to end with and as we left, our heads were calm, our spirits uplifted and our senses thrilled by the tranquillity of the music, the beauty of the art and the lingering flavour of the exquisite tea.

(The photo on the right shows April Jin, Zheng Yu, Amber McCarroll and myself standing in front of the poster in Chinese characters which says “Every Day is a Good Day”.)

For more information about the Temple and the events, go to:

www.londonfgs.org.uk

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