The British left many legacies following their withdrawal from South-East Asia after World War Two, for better or for worse. One of their more digestible memories was tea.
I’d always wanted to visit Malaysia’s tea fields. Ever since I’d seen a battered postcard of the Cameron Highlands on my first trip to the country, I knew I had to go.
Stepping off the bus from Kuala Lumpur several years later in Brinchang I was immediately met by the pleasantly cool mountain air. A welcome respite from the constant humidity I’d found in the rest of Malaysia. Silent cloud hung above the town which buzzed with traffic. The jungle was everywhere.
There was one thing among all else that had drawn me here. I wanted to take a photograph of the tea-fields I had seen on that postcard years earlier. To capture a rolling carpet where man’s productivity met nature’s art.
I booked into a local guesthouse and enquired about nearby tea estates. There was plenty of information available.
Developed in the 1930s, the Highlands are one of the oldest tourist spots in Malaysia. They were named after William Cameron, a British explorer and geologist commissioned to map out the Pahang-Perak border area in 1885. Researchers at the time found that though the climate was too cold and moist to grow coffee beans, it was perfect for growing tea.
Eschewing the offer of a tour from the guesthouse owner, I explored the area by the power of the thumb, finding it easier to hitch a ride with the locals and explore the area.
I visited several plantations, sampled the tea, always black, and chatted with the workers there. Over a particularly bitter cup of tea, one labourer brought my attention to how this industry was in crisis. Estates had been closing recently due to a shortage of unskilled workers which are highly critical to the cultivation of tea.
Picking tea is a labor intensive activity done by hand, and workers are not paid well for their hard work. Many migrant workers from Nepal and Bangladesh prefer to find easier jobs in the cities than to toil on Cameron Highland tea estates. Worried plantation owners told me several estates had moved to cultivating palm oil as it demanded less labour.
I’d seen the effect of palm oil in Malaysian Borneo when I cycled through in 2013. The production of palm oil is incredibly destructive to the natural environment and requires huge swathes of jungle cleared for its cultivation. Many countries in South-East Asia are following this trend. Over 25% of Indonesia's rainforests have been deforested and replaced with vast palm oil plantations.
Looking through images of palm oil plantations online piqued my curiosity. From above, the palm oil trees had the strange pleasing symmetry I was looking for in the tea fields. I filed the potential story in the memory banks for another time.
My finally visit and hope was to the Cameron Bharat Plantation. Walking into the estate’s restaurant I immediately saw my shot. Gazing down the hill were the rolling fields I had been looking for. To the curious glances of other guests I set up my tripod, measured for the exposure and took my shot.
Enjoying my final cup of tea in the restaurant, I considered the legacy Malaysia was now writing. Palm oil for tea. A fair trade? Who were the winners and losers in this new arrangement? I sensed another project forming. Looking into the leaves at the bottom of my cup I just couldn’t see the tea trade disappearing. I mean, who would enjoy a cool glass of palm oil?
Careful pruning to form table top bushes maintained at a height of about three feet facilitates harvesting of the young “flushes”, shoots consisting of a bud and two leaves.
Tea production is highly reliant on unskilled labourers. Malaysia has been struck in the last decade by a shortage of manpower due to inconsistent government policies.
In Malaysia, tea plantation estates are closing and have moved to planting palm oil. Palm oil estates only require four workers for every 40ha, while a tea plantation requires 40 workers for the same area.
A young “flush”, shoots consisting of a bud and two leaves.
Know someone that may find this article useful? Feel free to share and forward on!
It’s thirsty walk creating these newsletters. If think I’ve earnt one, you can buy me virtual coffee below. Hold the sprinkles though.
The British left many legacies following their withdrawal from South-East Asia after World War Two, for better or for worse. One of their more digestible memories was tea.