Vietnamese country and people

The Vietnamese Art of brewing and drinking tea

As a Vietnamese legend has it, The tea drinking is an art that originates from the God of Agriculture.The God of Framing is said to have used Tea sa a detoxiccant. God of Farming made research on various kinds of herbs on earth in search of a medicinal remedy, increasing alertness, sharpening mind, and lengthening life span, and he succeeded in the discovery of Tea. Ever since then, Trà has come to life as a precious medicinal remedy know for its detoxicating, refreshing, anti aging effects. Researchers conducted that drinking tea plays a role in preventing heart diseases as well as tumors. It also increases immunity, lowers blood pressure and prevents blood clots, thus maintains general health.

Tea drinking has been through over 4000 years of development. Yet no one know for sure when it started to take root in the Vietnamese’s life. We can only say we are honoured to have possessed and nurtured the oldest tea drinking ritual of humankind. This is the custom of drinking fresh (green) tea. But we take pride in having inherited the oldest tea drinking ritual of humankind.

Vietnamese tea is classified into three main types. That is fresh (green) tea, which is the most ingrained and healthful beverage among Vietnamese families. It comes naturally to the people as a Gift from the Creator and holds inside the spirit of Vietnamese folk culture. That is tra man, a type of Chinese tea introduced into Viet Nam under the Chinese domination. Tra Man diversified the Vietnamese traditional tea ritual with its sophistication and aesthetic enhancement of Chinese culture, thus was once the ethical scale in the Vietnamese society. It was not until the 18th century did the Vietnamese conduct their subtle distinctive art of brewing and drinking tea, Trà Sen.

Legend has it that that long time ago the Vietnamese women have flavour tea into lotus. At the end of the day when sunlight dangled all over the lotus lake, young women would row their boats around, pick up the newly blossomed lotus, then put a handful of tea into the buds. Early morning of the following day, before the sun shined over the lotus, they would row back to take those bunches of tea home. The tea, having stayed in the lotus flower all night, would have the natural rich aroma of Heaven and Earth. Thetea would then be well-regulated with the water taken from the pure dews concentrated on lotus leaves. All would make the unique fragrance of Tra Sen and grew its profound spirit.

One of the indispensable standards to brew delicious tea is the perfect set of tea utensils. Tea utensils must stand for the regulation of five elements in the world, “Metal” – the brass pot, “Wood” – undoubtedly, tea, “Water – the water used for tea brewing, “Fire” – the cooking stove, and “Earth” – the set of a teapot and teacups.. Holding a cup of tea in the hands is like possessing the quintessence of the Earth. Moreover, bộ ấm chén trà was made by the dexterous hands of craftmen in the traditional pottery village of Bat Trang in Northern Việt Nam. Their traditional designs such as “dragonfly touching water,” or “sweet potato plants” were motifs featuring the familiar landscape of Vietnamese countryside.

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park

The UNESCO World Natural Heritage in 2003

The karst formation of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park has evolved since the Palaeozoic (some 400 million years ago) and so is the oldest major karst area in Asia. Subject to massive tectonic changes, the park’s karst landscape is extremely complex with many geomorphic features of considerable significance. The vast area, extending to the border of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, contains spectacular formations including 65 km of caves and underground rivers.

Phong Nha is part of a larger dissected plateau, which also encompasses the Ke Bang and Hin Namno karsts. The limestone is not continuous and demonstrates complex interbedding with shales and sandstones. This, together with the capping of schists and apparent granites has led to a particularly distinctive topography.

The caves demonstrate discrete episodic sequences of events, leaving behind various levels of fossil passages, formerly buried and now uncovered palaeokarst (karst from previous, perhaps very ancient, periods of solution); evidence of major changes in the routes of underground rivers; changes in the solutional regime; deposition and later re-solution of giant speleothems and unusual features such as sub-aerial stromatolites. The location and form of the caves suggests that they might owe much of their size and morphology to some as yet undetermined implications of the schists and granites which overlay the limestone. On the surface, there is a striking series of landscapes, ranging from deeply dissected ranges and plateaux to an immense polje. There is evidence of at least one period of hydrothermal activity in the evolution of this ancient mature karst system. The plateau is probably one of the finest and most distinctive examples of a complex karst landform in SE Asia.

In summary, Phong Nha displays an impressive amount of evidence of earth’s history. It is a site of very great importance for increasing our understanding of the geologic, geomorphic and geo-chronological history of the region.