On the 22nd of April, the Fo Guang Yuan (FGY) Art Gallery CHCH hosted two sessions of tea meditation, with Coordinator Vicky Han serving tea to 8 local Westerners while explaining to them the culture and history of Chinese tea. Vicky said that Chinese people’s seven basic needs are firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea. In ancient times, drinking tea was a important part of popular culture. It is also quite different from the tea culture of the Western and Japanese world. China’s tea culture has a long history and rich connotation, with both material and spiritual significance. Since the Tang Dynasty, the spirit of tea has affected all corners of society, enriching the unique style of Chinese poetry, painting, calligraphy, religion and medicine.
In this tea meditation session, Vicky introduced six distinctive types of Chinese tea, such as green tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, white tea, red tea and black tea. At the same time, she also took the opportunity to introduce the wood fired ceramics exhibition by Huang Da An. They were all amazed by the artist’s perseverance and strong passion for creativity, and also by Mr Huang’s unwavering patience in producing those wood-fired works of art. If you were to brew tea using these wood-fired pottery, then no doubt will you experience an extraordinarily different aroma.
The guests all proclaimed that they did not understand the charm and taste of Chinese tea, that is until now. It was a remarkably fine tea to taste. Some of them shared their experience, saying how they not only learnt more about the background history and culture of Chinese tea, but also felt immensely at ease and tranquil in a Chan like state when drinking the tea. After the tea meditation session, Vicky encouraged the participants to enjoy the FGY Art Gallery CHCH and the temple environs, taking a closer look at not only the pottery exhibitions but also the Feng Yi Ying’s Chinese Comic Art and “Horizons oil An Exhibition of oil paintings” by Dean Buchanan.