Hello! I am a student at the University of Washington studying Chado. I want to write a paper on comparing and contrasting Korean, Japanese and Chinese tea ceremonies but am having trouble locating books for Korean tea.
Please post titles and authors if you know of any good books! Also, I am not at all knowledgeable about tea so easy-reads are preferred although any help is appreciated! =]
Thank you
If you are searching for "Chado" to find Korean tea ceremony that will be the first issue, try searching and reading up on "Panyaro." It will be a tough find but ISBN: 8991913172 (The Korean Way of Tea) may be all you need. Also a good jumping off point:
Korean tea is comprised mainly of greens and some Oolongs and as for my close Korean friends only greens.
- Dominic
P.S. Even though it isn't necessary for your paper, you may be very well served by finding a local tea shop or location where you can experience the real thing in person regardless of what country of origin. Also Okakura's The Book of Tea is a foundational book and available cheaply or free online. Youtube is also a friend for watching it be performed to some extent.
Search Results Go back to search history Search: tea ceremony Korea Category: The Web Matches: 40 results Date: 2/29/2008 Search mode: All the words Sorted by: Score descending Displaying results 1-25 of 40
Korean tea ceremony - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Korean tea ceremony or darye is a traditional form of tea ceremony practiced in Korea. Darye literally refers to "etiquette for tea" or "day tea rite" ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_tea_ceremony - 94% Result found by: CompuServe, Yahoo!, FAST Search (alltheweb.com), Netscape Netcenter, AOL Search, AltaVista, Live Search Globaled: South Korea The Tea Ceremony ... about tea. There is always a plant on the floor). An outline of the tea ceremony: The tea ceremony begins with ... cspace.unb.ca/nbco/globaled/skorea/act13a.html - 87% Result found by: Lycos, Ask.com Korean Si-je: Annual worship of ancestors An explanation of the burial mounds that can be seen around Korea and the ceremony on traditional annual family visits to the graves.
I am rather unhappy that all that searching did not apparently lead to my quite well developed Korean Way of Tea pages (index at
Most of the contents of the book are taken from my home page (the East Tea and Wikipedia descriptions of Panyaro are taken from there).
It might be worth discussing the usefulness of the term 'tea ceremony' which I think derives from the Japanese ritualized versions of 'doing tea' familiar in China and Korea. In Korea there has been a recent tendency to develop 'performance tea' where one te master or a group do a formalized serving of tea on a stage while tea music is performed.
I would be very happy to provide more information if it is needed
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Hello,
Actually my initial reply lists it "ISBN: 8991913172 (The Korean Way of Tea) may be all you need." and as I had stated it is most likely all one would need for a basic paper that requires only a couple sources. I own your book and it is an enjoyable read, a number of my Korean friends have borrowed it. It's a pleasure to know you hang around here... and any and all Korean tea info and talk would be welcome as it is an area not much discussed here.
- Dominic
Hello Sonjae,
Thank you for your help! Why do you think Korean 'tea performance' is beginning to have formalized serving of tea? (what do you think this says about today's Korean culture). What is tea music?
Also, I would like to know more about you. Are you a tea master? Where do you get your ideas, etc?
Thanks :)
The development of what I call 'performance tea' in Korea might possibly be inspired in part by recent Japanese examples of tea ceremony done in a public setting (international gatherings, cultural festivals etc) instead of a tiny temple tea-room, I do not know. Certainly Chae Won-Hwa, the head of the Panyaro Institute and the inheritor of the Ven Hyodang's tea tradition, has always included an 'on-stage' presentation of the formalized 'tea ceremony' she teaches in the final graduation ceremonies, first done by those who are graduating, then in a more intensely meditative manner by herself alone. This last was really impressive, the more so for being at the time (10 years ago) quite unique.
After seeing her, one Korean had the idea of inviting some major contemporary composers to compose 'tea music' -- pieces that could be played while she and other tea masters were performing their particular form of tea. Such 'tea music' has existed for longer in China (and Japan too I expect) and it was probably CDs of tea music brought from China that may have given the idea. There have been occasional concerts where these pieces were performed live while tea- people did their thing at the front of the stage. These have now become rare because the musicians felt they were being upstaged by the tea people, who seemed to get most of the applause. (Really!)
Many Korean tea masters (not Panyaro) do the performance with 2-3 'guests' to whom tea is served, everyone being dressed up in rather showy traditional Korean costumes. Part of the motivation for such performance tea might be the way, in the modern world, traditional culture tends to be reduced to little clips in performances organized during 'cultural festivals' whether for tourists in-country or as a national promotion overseas. I confess that I find performance tea boring unless the person doing it has a very special charisma, which few do, but for those seeing it for the first time, it often impresses. At least, it serves to remind dozens or even hundreds of people that Korean tea exists, whereas it is not possible to serve tea properly to a crowd that size in such a way that the real qualities come across.
I would assert that China did not until very recently have any kind of 'tea ceremony' -- everyone was too busy drinking tea! Nowadays tourism is a big thing in China too, and international tea-exchanges with Japan and Korea have prompted some Chinese tea-people to formalize a kind of Chinese performance-tea on the basis of the way they usually drink tea, only done more slowly as a show.
I, like every other tea drinker, learn my tea above all by drinking it. I am an honorary graduate of the Panyaro Institute, so you could consider me a tea master but I don't. I am a tea learner like the rest of us.
That's why we're here. Thanks for this!
/Lew
Does anyone know about Korean tea houses. What activities go on inside? Where can I get some info online about this??
Thanks
Hello, I am sorry but your question is not really very clear. It would be very helpful if you could explain in greater detail what you are asking about. Many people know quite a lot about about Korean tea houses and we mostly believe that the main activity that goes on inside them involves brewing and drinking various kinds of tea. In Korea, and elsewhere too, Korean tea houses usually serve a variety of Korean green teas, some Chinese Oolong and Puerh teas, and a selection of fruit-based or herbal teas.
Br Anthony (An Sonjae)
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