Sivalingam Brintha (U1830488A)
This video underscores the impact that religion had on food. In this circumstance, Buddhist Monks preferred tea to alcohol because they believed it was better for social and religious events. Increasingly, tea culture started becoming prevalent and was linked to religion and spirituality because of its medicinal values and how it allowed people to express their art forms. The painting that I have chosen by Yan Liben, portrays how tea was used in social discussions with monastic imagery as the backdrop.
There are captions and I have narrated the video as well—so turn the sound up ! Enjoy !
References:
- Benn, James A. 2015, “Buddhism and Tea during the Tang Dynasty,” in Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 42-71.
The photo that I used was from this reading and I primarily used this source to highlight the relationship between tea and Buddhism—and how it, effectively, and gradually, replaced the consumption of alcohol in certain social events because of influences by the Monks.
The various ways tea was utilised by monks was also explicated in this source such as the need to learn the skill of making tea to develop poetry and crafting images from the tea.
The tea culture also spread to Taoism.
2. Laudan, Rachel. “Monks and Monasteries: Buddhism Transforms the Cuisine of China, 200 CE—850 CE,” Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013), Ch. 3: 145-82.
This source was useful in elucidating the declining significance of alcohol being consumed.
3. “Yan Liben: Xiao Yi’s Deception | Chinese Art Gallery | China Online Museum”. Chinaonlinemuseum.Com, 2019. http://www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/painting-yan-liben-xiao-yi-deception.php.
This primary source was useful in providing the image of the painting and further artistic interpretations and imagery of what could have been happening in the painting and the people involved.