The Hantane tea museum - the only one of its kind in the world

"The tea fields of Ceylon are as true a monument to courage as is the lion at Waterloo" - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sharm de Alwis

The cultural side of tea: The first shipment of tea in 1872 comprised 02 small packs weighing 23 lbs and it was valued at Rs. 58.00. We now export 300 m lbs every year as the largest exporter in the world.

What is more significant is that our tea is quality added. We also have the distinction of having conducted the largest tea auction in the world since 1883.

The Tea Museum at Hantane stands as a monumental tribute to the pioneers who forged ahead through trials and tribulations to make the Tea Industry the colossal enterprise it is today. The brain-child of Clifford Ratwatte who wanted to leave something tangible for posterity before he retired after serving the Industry for a lengthy period, the Museum was born on 29th November 2001 after a gestation period of three years in which the refurbishment took place.

It is housed in an old tea factory which had been plundered by its last Superintendent to leave it as a hulk of four walls and nothing within. The only one of its kind in the world, it beckons your personal visit when you are next in Kandy.

The spirit of those gallant men who rose above their pecuniary catastrophe when coffee collapsed and they set forth on another voyage of enterprise is captured for posterity in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle purple prose when he wrote, "not often is it that men have heart, when their one great industry is withered to rear up in a few years, another as rich to take its place and the fields of Ceylon are as true a monument to courage as is the lion at Waterloo."

Tea rose like the phoenix over the ashes of coffee plantations which perished in a blight. The first tea seeds and young tea plants were brought to the island from the Botanical Gardens of Calcutta in 1839. James Taylor of Loolecondera first planted tea commercially on ten acres in 1867.

The visionary as he was it was two years before the blight that took coffee off our international dealings. His bust adorns the Tea Museum three miles up on Hantane where the wild boar roam and the placement on a pedestal indicates precisely his height of 6 ft 6 inches.

He was of a robust frame, says the Manager of the Museum, Dharmasiri Madugalle whose untiring efforts led to the collection of the machinery and artifacts which he culled from the Tea Trade through the courtesy of his one-time colleagues in the plantation industry.

A special area is reserved for the James Taylor memorabilia. The Museum is replete with names of the Office-bearers of the Planters' Association of Ceylon. Mr. A. Pitt had been Secretary for 29 years from 1876 to 1904.

The panoramic view of Kandy surrounded by the tableau of impressive Hunnasgiriya and Knuckles range, the Matale range of hills can be viewed through a telescope mounted on the fourth floor which also houses a restaurant and tea centre offering a variety of brews to cloy the most fastidious of taste buds.

The tea outlets and the mini emporiums of handicrafts, particularly Shop number 2, give ample money's worth to those who want choice. The grounds surrounding the Museum are to be landscaped with different varieties of tea. The entire staff, including a janitor, consists of seven personnel who keep the Museum in spick and spank condition.

Some exhibits to heighten your desire to visit will be mentioned as the oldest known packet of Ceylon tea, 56 years old and still in its original packing; a photograph of the largest tea bush in the world with 28 pluckers encircling it; the James Taylor collections; hand operated tea roller over 100 years old; hob bulb engine also over 100 years old; the first tea drier ever made by W&J Jackson, called the Venetian Drier from 1880.