Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Taking Tea

Tea plays a very important part in the social life of Burma. A pot of green tea, refilled again and again, is the hub of many an animated circle of conversation. There is also pickled tea leaves, /laphet/, soaked in good oil and served with such garnishes as sesame seeds, dried shrimps, roasted beans, peanuts and crisp fried garlic. It is indispensable as a traditional offering of hospitality, either as a conclusion to a meal or as a savory snack between meals.

While there is nothing more refreshing than a cup of pale amber tea made from roasted leaves grown in the Shan plateau, the Burmese people have become increasingly fond of "sweet tea." This is tea made from milk and sugar -- but not the English way. "Sweet tea" stalls were originally run by Indian immigrants so the tea is made in a way not unfamiliar to those who have frequented "char" shops in India. Tea leaves are boiled up with sweetened condensed milk in large vessels. The resulting pinkish brown beverage is thick and of a full flavor quite unknown to those who pour out their tea into individual cups before adding a dainty splash of milk and restrained spoonfuls of sugar.

In Burmese teashops one does not ask for "lapsang souchong" or Earl Grey or flowery orange pekoe or English breakfast blend. Instead one asks for "mildly sweet," "mildly sweet and strong," "sweet and rich," or "/Kyaukpadaung/" (very sweet and thick). If the tea is made with imported condensed milk instead of the locally produced variety it becomes "/she'/" ("special") and costs and extra couple of kyats. Friends gathering at teashops is so popular a pastime the expression "teashop sitting" is practically a verb in its own right. It is in teashops that people exchange news and, when it is not too dangerous an occupation, discuss politics. In fact there is an expression "green tea circle"which implies an informal discussion group. There is even a book of that title, based on a political column written between May 1946 and October 1947 by a famous newspaper man. The teashop is still one of the best places for catching up on the latest gossip around town, whether it is about the marital adventures of film stars or about nefarious dealings in high circles.

Writers also go in for "teashop sitting." Sometimes such a gathering is the equivalent of an informal literary meeting or a poetry reading. Students and other young people too, congregate at favorite tea shops to hold discussions ranging from pop music to political aspirations. Pungent catch words and phrases often emerge from such teashop talk and quickly spread around town. These days there is a tacitly accepted dividing line between young people who go in for "teashop sitting" and those who prefer to spend their leisure hours in discos and expensive restaurants. The difference between the two categories is to a considerable degree, but not altogether, financial. "Teashop sitting" students are more in the tradition of those young men and women who turned Rangoon University into a bastion of the independence movement before the Second World War while their disco-going counterparts tend to look upon the yuppie as their role model.

Taking a cup of tea is such a regular practice in Burma that, as in some other Asian countries, a tip is known as "tea money." However, when the gap between the salaries earned by civil servants and the cost of living increased, the interpretation of the phrase "tea money" underwent a metamorphosis: it came to mean bribes given to clear obstacles that block the bureaucratic process. But this was in the day when such bribes were relatively modest sums. Nowadays, when the going rate for speeding up a passport application is in five figures, "tea money" is no longer a satisfactory euphemism for bribes: the current expression is "pouring water," referring, one assumes, to the need for liberal "libations" at all relevant department.

The price of a cup of tea in an ordinary teashop is about 8 to 10 kyats, still not beyond the means of struggling writers and students. However, the cost of taking tea in one of the new, or newly renovated, starred hotels of Rangoon is quite beyond the dreams of most people in Burma. Tea for a single person served in the English style costs three U.S. dollars. The official rate of exchange for one U.S. dollar is less than six kyats, but in recent weeks official exchange centers have been opened where Foreign Exchange Certificates (FECs) can be exchanged at the more realistic rate of 120 kyats to the dollar. This makes the price of taking a gracious cuppa in a luxury hotel equivalent to 360 kyats. Compare this to the basic monthly salary of the lowest eschelon of civil servant, such as a beginning policeman, which is 600 kyats, hardly sufficient to feed a family of four for one week. It is then easy to understand why the supplementary income needed by government employees can no longer be accurately described by the expression "tea money," even when the tea concerned is of the most expensive kind.