Tea classroom
Tea Leaves Used as Paper Money
发布时间:2015/12/24 10:10:20信息来源:作者:浏览次数:
In the summer of 1960, I was on a business trip to the Tibetan Plateau, with a mission to show films to the troop of Yunnan stationed there. We set off from Xiaguan and passed through Deqin County and arrived at Yanjin County in Changdu, Tibet. From there to the west, over the Lancang River and Nujiang River, was the border between China and Indian. I found that in these places, tea leaves could be uses as paper money to buy things we needed.
In the Tibetan plateau, our daily necessities were mainly supplied by the military depots scattered around the area. Some daily necessities, such as vegetables, horse feed, firewood and other things, must be purchased from the local Tibetan people. At the time, in trading in these places, the silver dollars that were formerly used were no longer in use. RMB was not accepted because there was no department store or shops like supply and marketing cooperatives in the area where the Tibetans could buy things they needed with RMB. Therefore, we used barter transactions. Two things that the local Tibetans loved most were salt and tea from Yunnan, especially from Xiaguan. Salt was not a problem because Yanjing County produced salt locally, however, it was not so easy to get tea because tea could only be shipped by men and horses into the remote mountains and valleys of Tibet by overcoming all sorts of hardships. Because of that, tea was considered particularly precious.
When we set off for this trip, the local supply department gave us some tea to allow us to buy some daily necessities along the way. We got two types of tea: one was brick tea of the brick size, and other one was round Xiaguan Tuocha. We had more brick tea than Tuocha as Tuocha was very precious at the time. We put our projectors in several wooden boxes and put the boxes on the back of our mules and horses, and then set off. We first passed through Lancang River by zip lines, and then climbed over the Meili Snow Mountain Pass and got into the territory of Bitu County to the riverside of Yuqu River, a tributary of Nujiang River. It was noon when we put down the loads and started preparing lunch; and some villagers came out to us. I first thought that these people just wanted to see what we were doing there. But then I saw that each of them was holding something in their hands and they consciously stood in a row when they got close to us. I was very surprised and wondered if this was their way to check out on strangers? Their behavior aroused attention of the squad leader of the transportation team responsible for carrying the projecting machines. He looked at them carefully and then stared at the things in their hands with a very picky eye. He then signaled to some of them to put down the things they were holding in hand. Those people happily put the things down, and then stepped aside. Among the things they put in front of us there was horse fodder, firewood for cooking, a few eggs, vegetables, a few bunches of grapes and several pomegranates. The owners of these things stood in a row, and their faces brightened up with joy. The squad leader took out a brick of tea and broke it off into a few pieces, and then gave each of these people a small piece. These people who got a piece of tea in their hand scrutinized at the tea for a while and grinned. Suddenly I understood that the pieces of tea were like payment to buy things in their hands. And those whose ‘goods’ were not selected were still looking at the squad leader in hope that he could look again and fancy their stuff in hand so that they could get a small piece of tea.
We kept showing films along our way and finally came to the riverside of Nujiang River. We had to cross over the river so the squad leader invited many local people to help us moving the machines across the river. We had a lot of stuff. The heaviest thing, a generator was in a large wooden box, with the gap filled with old cotton to fix the generator. This box could only be carried by a sturdy and strong man. The problem was that the zip line was in a horizontal position with no slope. A slope meant that there were two cables at the ferry. One end of one of the cable was high and the other end was low so that people and things could slide from this side to the other side of the river. The other cable worked the other way round. With this type of zip line, it required less effort to cross the river. However, the flat zip line in front of us had only one cable with two ends fixed to the cliffs. Due to the gravity, the middle of the cable was lower than the ends and shaped a curve at the middle. People could only slide to the middle of the cable by utilizing the curve, and then had to hold the cable with both hands, slowly shifting from the left hand to the right, and clime to the other side inch by inch. According to the local custom, things carried by one person should be shipped to the other side of the river by the same person. When all of us had successfully slide to the other side, the sturdy man who was carrying the heavy wooden box began to cross the river. We felt very nervous and not sure if he could make it. We saw him drawing his feet close to each other, body dangling in the air, and the saddle carrying him and the heavy box slowly sliding to the middle of the cable. The wooden saddle rubbed the steel cable, fuming a faint smoke. Because the machine was particularly heavy, the cable was weighted to fall forward, forming an inverted triangle. The heavier the stuff was, the sharper the inverted triangle became. The man gritted his teeth and made great effort to move toward the other side inch by inch. This movement was, in fact, climbing up the hill, which was particularly difficult and dangerous. We could do nothing but starring at him, worrying. The fiercely running and rolling river was right below him! If anything bad happened, the result must be disastrous. However, the endurance in the Tibetan man astonished me and made me admire him very much. Sweat dripped from his face but he still persisted and kept moving his hands and feet little by little. When he successfully arrived at the riverside we finally felt relieved.
Right afterwards, these well-tried and highly-honored Tibetans immediately stood in a line with smile on their face, waiting for the squad leader to give them tea. I whispered to squad leader to persuade him to give more tea to these people, especially the sturdy man who carried the generator. The squad leader said to me, ‘I know’. He took out a tea brick and carefully broke it into small pieces and each of the ‘heroes’ a piece. All of the people had a big smile on their face and looked at the piece of tea they got by hard working with joy. The squad leader did not go back on his word, and he gave one more piece of tea to the man who carried the generator and then took out a round-shaped thing from his pocket. I immediately recognized that it was Xiaguan Tuocha. The squad leader tried to break the round Tuocha cake into pieces but the tea cake was compressed tight and he could not break it. I grabbed the tea cake from the hands of the squad leader and gave it to the Tibetan man because I believed that he deserved a whole piece of Tuocha. A little touch of bashfulness appeared on his face while he took the whole piece of Tuocha from my hand, seeming not believe such good thing would happen to him. He then looked at the squad leader, not sure about it. The squad leader nodded his head as saying ‘yes’ to him. Bright smile immediately shone on his face. He could not take his eyes away from the whole piece of Tuocha, and looked too happy to know what was going on. People around him could not take their eyes away from the whole piece of Tuocha in his hand either. They starred at it with admiring look on their face as if starring at some treasure. They invariably surrounded him, and he seemed realized something and immediately closed his hand, firmly grasping the treasure in everyone’s eyes, and then hid it in his pocket. Some women there took off their jewelry and handed it to him with smile but he shook his head and refused; a few young guys took off their beloved sabers and handed them to him with respect but he shook his head again; some old men took out full snuffboxes and handed to him with sincere but he shook his head again unmoved. These disappointed people looked at him and did not seem to want to give up. Suddenly, someone blew a whistle; and everyone turned to him and threw themselves on him. I could only see a group of people wrestling together, surrounded in dust, but could not tell who they were. We did not anticipate such thing could happen. However, I could judge from their smiling face that this was merely a game. At this time, a man stood out from the crowd. It was the sturdy man. He vigorously jumped onto a mound and looked at the crowd breathlessly, with sweat and dirt on his face, and hands still tightly holding the round Tuocha. Just as other people were trying to start a new round of battle for the tea cake, he suddenly pulled out a Tibetan sword that he carried with him. It was a shiny, sharp sword. Everyone, including me, was shocked by his action. Was he going to protect the Tuocha with the sword? But things soon became clear. The look on his face was not fierce but a naughty smile. It looked like he was just making a joke with everybody. I saw him put the round piece of Tuocha under his nose and smelled it, and then rubbed his face with the tea cake. He stripped the wrapping paper and sniffed the tea cake again, and then he put the tea cake with the wrapping paper on a flat stone, raised the sword in his hand and split the Tuocha open. The was split into two halves silently divided. He then changed the angle and split the tea cake again into four pieces. Every time he raised his sword he would turn to people around him with a triumphant smile. Four pieces were split into eight, and then sixteen. The Tuocha cake was gradually cut into smaller pieces. At the beginning, we did not understand why he did so. Later, we saw him putting away the sword and wrapping the pieces of Tuocha up. To my surprise, the wrapping paper was still in one piece. How skillfully the man used his sword! He then took the packet of the pieces of Tuocha and walked to people around him and gave each of them one piece of tea. Until this moment did those shocked people and we understand what he was doing. Everyone smiled brightly with a piece of Tuocha in their hand. At last, only a small piece Tuocha left in the hand of the man. Everyone looked at this sturdy Tibetan man with great respect.
People who got a small piece Tuocha were so happy as if they got great treasure. They bowed at us happily and bid farewell, and then returned to the river and went back home.
In 1960s, films were loved by everybody. However, the Tibetans living in Tibet almost knew nothing about films. Local troops had to publicize films among the Tibetans, telling them films were very interesting. However, the local Tibetan people still doubted it so only few people would come to watch films on the first night and then more would come on the second night. On the contrary, tea was the Tibetan people’s favorite daily necessities. In some very remote mountain areas, as soon as people saw the tea in our hand, they immediately knew it was treasure. This might indicate that Yunnan tea and Xiaguan Tuocha had bigger fame than films, and were already recognized by every family and household. In a small village with only a dozen families, an old man warmly invited me to his home. I went, and as soon as I stepped into his house he asked me to have a look at something pasted on the wall. I just saw a small piece of dark leather pasted on the middle of the wall in the house. My confused look made him laugh. He disclosed the small piece of dark leather and asked me to have a close look at a yellowed piece of paperhidden behind the leather. It has been found that the original yellow piece of paper is not an ordinary piece of paper, but a Shimonoseki Tuo wrapping paper. The piece of yellowed paper was not a common piece of paper but a piece of wrapping paper of Xiaguan Tuocha. This made me so excited and moved. I had the feeling that I became closer with this old man who lived in the remote mountain area. The old man also felt very proud as if, to him, this piece of wrapping paper of Xiaguan Tuocha could prove he was a man of knowledge and experience who had drunk Xiaguan Tuocha.
As we continued our trip, we still used tea leaves as paper money to buy daily necessities from local people. Deep inside we always had a guilty feeling and thought this kind of trade seemed a little unfair because those people gave us a lot of, and we just gave them a little bit of tea in return. However, it was truly difficult to ship Xiaguan Tuocha to the remote areas and it was impossible for us to carry a lot of tea there because, otherwise, we might not be able to come back.
Sigh! Xiaguan Tuocha is not only the treasure in my life but also the treasure in the heart of ethnic minorities. In the past, it used to be a symbol of wealth, and sometimes, the money trusted by everyone and would never be devalued. Today, it could reflect the conception of life and social status of holders and drinkers.