Prince Siddhartha

We have mentioned before that nobody knows for sure when and where tea was first discovered. One of the most popular legends is of a Chinese King by the name of Shen Nong who is said to have discovered tea around 2737 B.C. More information about this legend can be found in the article titled Shen Nong - The Father of Tea. There is another legend that has spread throughout the Orient and traveling wherever tea and Buddhism went, gaining a large following in Japan. This legend is important to the Buddhist version of tea’s discovery because of its important to Zen Buddhist religious practice.

The legend says that a Prince with an Indian name called Siddhartha Gautama made a pilgrimage to China. To prove his faith he vowed never to sleep, not even in years, but one day when he felt really fatigued he fell into a deep sleep. When the Prince Siddhartha woke from his dream he was so ashamed at having broken his vow that he tore off his eyelids and threw them into the ground. His eyelids took root and from them a bush of green tea leaves sprouted. Prince Siddhartha started eating these leaves and it helped with his meditation and alleviated his weariness so he recommended it to his followers.

According to Indian tea origin theorists, tea was introduced to China by Prince Siddhartha in 519 B.C. However, tea had already been a part of China’s culture for at least one thousand years before Prince Siddhartha’s birth. It seems like the true origin of tea will remain unknown for the time being. Even though the legends of the origin of tea are wonderful in essence, they seem to hold some myth in them.

Join me in my next article as I explore the facts that allow us to determine the true origins of tea.

Tags: buddhism, bullen, China, cultures, discovery, eyelids, followers, gautama, green, indiandeep sleep, Japan, leaves, legend says that, legends, meditation, pilgrimage, popularity, prince, prince siddhartha, religious practice, siddhartha, siddhartha gautama, tea, teas, theorists, true origin, vow, weariness, zen buddhist

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 9:30 pm and is filed under The Life of Tea. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.