© 2023 Dr Margaret Sheppard
“Ceylon Tea” has long been renowned worldwide and is an important export employing many people throughout the island.
Up in the Hill Country are large tea plantations owned by companies such as Liptons. The tea is grown tended and picked by the largely Tamil employees. When it is picked, it is collected to the local tea factory where it is dried and processed.
Tea pluckers at work in the Hill Country
Replanting tea bushes
Towards sunset the pluckers return to collecting points and their sacks of tea are weighed -
A roadside collecting point at sunset. The pluckers are then taken by the truck to their village.
Typical Tea Factory -
Buying tea from Hill Country road side Tea Centres
Typical views of tea estates in the Hill country
Many Tea Estates have retained their old names indicating the origins of the original tea planters!
Preparations for a Hindu Festival in a Hill Country small town.
Residents were enthusiastically decorating their houses, shops, Temple and streets for the festival. Many work in the local tea plantations and factories.
Low Country Tea Plantations
These are typically smaller estates. They are often locally owned and the owner and his family group tend the tea bushes themselves employing local daily paid labourers to help with the plucking etc. Some tea gardens are only about an acre and the tea garden may be amongst the spice plants and trees. This is in the Katuwana area in Northern Hambantota District near the cinnamon factory. (See section on Cinnamon).
At the end of the day the sacks of plucked tea are left at pick-
Tea
Apart from working in the Tea Estates and Gardens and at the Tea Factories , there are several other occupations related to ns in the Tea Industry. Tea Tasters, administration and all aspects of marketing and exporting are just some of the examples. Many of these are located in Colombo.