B'Lao Ch're belongs to Dai Lao commune, located at the beginning of Bao Loc pass. This is a new land, where people from all over the country settled after 1975. The children of the 8-9X generation in this remote and difficult land, some of them are very good students, have achieved high scores, have gone abroad to study or work, but still remember the rows of green tea on the porch, the fence and the hot cup of fresh tea carrying the soul of the people and land of their homeland.
 |
| Master Nguyen Hung Son (right) and the author |
In recent years, especially after Tet, I have had the opportunity to meet my old students from the B'Lao Pass who have returned home to visit. They are successful people with degrees or famous businessmen or scientists. However, every time they come back to visit their old teacher, they only ask to sit and drink a cup of fresh tea with him and add a few slices of fresh ginger, because that is the drink that brings back the nostalgia of those who are far away from home.
As a teacher in the countryside with more than 30 years of teaching foreign languages in the land of tea spanning two centuries, every time I teach, I often share with my students: "I am Vietnamese, so in addition to knowledge about my family, you must understand the history of the region, especially the green tea culture of the B'Lao people". That way, when they grow up, they will still remember the prestige of a family, the image of their hometown, and have the opportunity to become people respected by their family. Because successful people are people with intelligence, personality and money. If wealth is only measured in money but not personality, people will look down on them, especially educated people.
For people who do not live in the land of tea, there is often no distinction between tea and tea. Tea is the type that has gone through the stages of picking, brewing, drying, fermenting and processing and packaging for export, while tea is the type of plant grown on hills, porches and fences. When needed, the leaves are picked, rolled into balls, brought home, put in a pot, poured with boiling water, and a few slices of ginger, left for about 15 minutes, and then used. In the past, when there was no global internet, the culture and personality of people in the countryside with few letters were often personified through tea culture, because tea is not only a traditional drink but also contains the soul of the land and the soul of people.
Last Tet, Master Nguyen Hung Son, a former student, visited me and was invited to a cup of fresh tea. He stared at the fragrant green-orange cup with the bright eyes of a child who had been away from home for a long time and had returned. He confided: “I have been to many countries and enjoyed many different drinks, but when I come home and look at the cup of green tea with the flavor of my hometown, I suddenly remember the tea fields of my childhood, remember the image of conical hats of my mothers and sisters with baskets on their backs, bobbing in the tea hills or the K'Ho mountain girls walking in long lines carrying firewood home along the tea and coffee gardens that were once deeply imprinted in my memory. Then I remember the echo of my teacher more than 20 years ago: Although green tea is simply a traditional beverage that acts as a catalyst for drinking, tea is like a person with the connotation that tea is only delicious when it has time to permeate. The same goes for people, if they want tea to enter their consciousness, they must meditate on the story that brings a happy ending to the drinker, like the old saying "wine is good, tea is good". Sticking the tongue is an expression of respect for the taste of tea and the gratitude and respect of the inviter, the gratitude and gratitude for life lies in that echo".
Last year, I met Master Tran Dinh Long who came back to visit his home country and I stopped by to visit. Both teacher and student made a pot of green tea. While waiting, Long confided: “I left B'Lao for nearly 10 years. Over there, in the winter, the temperature drops to zero degrees. I miss drinking a cup of hot green tea with ginger and hearing the wisdom of tea from an old man like you to warm the heart of a person far away from home. There is nothing more enjoyable than drinking a cup of tea and talking about the culture of the newly settled people and their survival and progress. A few years ago, I fell off my motorbike and broke my arm, lying alone in my room. After the cast was put on, I realized the loneliness and money needed to survive. You also know that my family is not well off. As the eldest child, I try to survive to test my survival skills in a foreign land. I always remember what you told me before going abroad: "In a family where no one brings honor to the family, that is an unhappy family." In Taiwan (China) there are also many wild sunflowers like Lam Dong. A type of flower that exists until the season of blooming bright yellow full of vitality like a life of suffering to have a future like the aftertaste of a cup of green tea when I piece it together. Now I have a family, my wife is also a master's degree holder from B'Lao origin, that is something to be happy about, teacher! Remembering my hometown is remembering the tea hills, the steep road in autumn, the wild sunflowers blooming yellow, where my grandparents and my parents once plowed the land". Long bowed his head and covered his face as if remembering a distant time.
Mr. Phan Khoi, who has lived at the top of Bao Loc Pass for over 50 years, specializes in drinking fresh tea grown along the fence around his house. Every year, when spring comes, regardless of high or low status, green tea is the only drink to offer to welcome the new year. Mr. Khoi graduated from the teaching profession under the old regime, has extensive knowledge of Eastern culture, and has 4 children who all graduated from university in a poor family. Every time he visits, he brings a pot of hot green tea in a coconut-shaped pot of the Western people. He shared: “Drinking tea has the rule of first water, second tea, third brewing, fourth drinking, fifth being a group of brothers, in which a group of brothers is the main thing. Because these are knowledgeable people who share the same stream of consciousness. They all have gentle words, deep feelings, and respectful words for each other in the ups and downs of life. Green tea is not only a rustic drink but also preserves philosophical stories that beautify life, because in this life, sitting with a cup of green tea to contemplate the rise to preserve happiness is also a journey to perfect oneself to connect with friends and children; as the open economy said, people need three foreign things: foreign language, appearance and diplomacy. In this day and age, if the elderly like us do not seek to integrate, we will go backwards, or in other words, we do not have enough knowledge to convey messages to our children and grandchildren. Today's young generation will not like stories of the difficult past, only listening to existence in the era of global connection. Being quiet with a cup of green tea is not weakness but a way to preserve dignity, ponder what to do and say to leave honor for ourselves and our family. That is why there is a saying about wine as well as about tea: "A thousand cups of wine with a good friend is not enough, a conversation without getting along is also too much." That is the beauty of the tea culture typical of the Vietnamese as well as our B'Lao people.
A few days ago, Nguyen Thi My Hanh graduated with an MBA in the US and then became Deputy CEO of a large company abroad. During her childhood, her family only drank green tea until they settled abroad. She shared: “I really like the old saying of my teacher that tea is like people, that is, tea is drunk with water two is the essence, because it naturally gives off its aroma, while water one has a mixed artificial flavor, just like when people first meet and greet each other with sweet words next to expensive clothes, fragrant perfume, but only after a few meetings do they realize the real person as our ancestors said: "Truong do tri ma luc, cuu nhat thuc nhat tam" (Long road to know the strength of a horse, people meet after 9 days to know themselves). Green tea is not only a rustic drink but also preserves philosophical stories that beautify the lives of partners, especially in times of integration, communication and negotiation. Every time I return to my country to visit my teacher, with a cup of green tea, I imagine the distant days, the time when I and my friends from Dai Lao rode their bicycles through the green tea hills at the foot of Dai Binh mountain - a place that carries the soul of the homeland and the nostalgia of people far away from home.
Source: http://baolamdong.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/202502/ky-uc-ly-tra-doi-voi-nguoi-xa-xu-6004ab4/
Comment (0)