We had our first encounter with a garden spirit at the Makaibari estate’s tea tasting room. While sipping our prized first flush silver tip tea, we noticed something peculiar about a potted tea plant in the corner of the room. One of the tealeaves was walking down the branch. “No wonder this tea sells for 18,000 rupees per kilogram,” I thought. As we looked closely at the plant, we were astonished to see that the tealeaf had little leafy legs and what appeared to be a head. Our host informed us we were beholding a Tea Deva.

“A what?”
“Tea Deva, Tea Deva. A tea god!”
“Oh, a Tea Deva.” I suddenly realized we were in the presence of a Divine manifestation in the form of a bug.

We were told that this preying mantis-like insect first revealed itself in the garden in 1992. “It is very difficult to locate,” estate manager, Dev, told us, “because it is very similar to the tea leaves.” In fact, the Tea Deva apparently shares an empathic relationship with the tea bushes. In the early summer, the auspicious insect displays the same luster of a fresh new leaf and in the winter appears blistered and worn. As the story has it, in 1995 a hailstorm damaged many tea bushes in one part of the estate. A Tea Deva found in another unaffected location exhibited the same abrasions on its leaf-like body.

“If somebody locates a Tea Deva, lucky things happen for that person,” Dev told us. In addition to luck, there is a monetary incentive offered by the estate to any employee who finds one. The Tea Deva is then brought to the office for visitors to admire for a couple of days until it is set free.

Dev believes the appearance of this garden spirit is a direct result of applying farming practices that are attuned with Nature, “Rudolf Steiner [the father of Biodynamic gardening] says if your farm cultivation is holistically biodynamic and nature is protected, then the new life forms that emerge are a reflection of your main crop. Our main crop is tea, so the Tea Deva is the reflection of our tea. So, it is the natural certificate that we are holistically following biodynamic practices.”

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Our meeting with the tea deva inspired Jenny to create this image, while Indian packaging (tea, rice, matchboxes, etc.) inspired her graphic approach. She is offering archival prints of this ‘garden spirit’ on her site. Click here.

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10.1.08  **Scientifically speaking: The Tea Deva belongs to the Phylliidae family of leafy insects and is quite known for its talent to mimic its surroundings.

Click on image above to view text larger, or read below…

Chai means “tea” throughout most of India. In West Bengal it is called cha, in Nepal – chyaa. The Hindi word chai, derived from the Mandarin Chinese word cha, refers to the black, green, oolong or other types of tea, all made through different processing methods from the same Camellia sinensis plant. Next to water, chai, or tea, is the world’s most consumed beverage.

In the West, “chai” refers to what in India is called masala chai. Masala means spice mixture. Masala chai is black tea brewed with spices like ginger and cardamom along with water, milk and sugar. In Nepal and India, chai is made in fresh batches and drank in almost every home. Each family has their own traditional way of making it. On every street there are open-air chai stalls where Chai wallahs, or chai vendors, serve chai in small glasses or clay cups. It is a part of daily life – morning chai, afternoon chai and chai any time with friends or visitors. Most any gathering or transaction involves sitting down and sharing a small cup of chai. It is the commodity of friendship.