Scotsman - Father of Ceylon Tea
Posted by Anita on May 22, 2012
James Taylor, 'Father of Ceylon Tea'
Born in Scotland during the 1830, James Taylor was one of the most influential tea pioneers of Ceylon tea. At the young age of 16yrs, he signed up to work as an Assistant Supervisor on the Loolecondera Estate coffee plantation in Ceylon. After 5 years, his employers were so impressed by his work they placed James in charge of the whole estate which was around 1,100 acres at that time. Having been instructed to experiment with tea plants and got his first seeds from the Royal Botanical Gardens of Peradeniya near Kandy, James left Sri Lanka briefly during 1866 to visit India where he studied the basics of growing tea on plantations. On his return James cleared over 19 acres of forest to plant his first seedlings in the district of Hewaheta Lower. James began to experiment with different methods of processing the tea leaves using his bungalow as a factory, rolling and firing the leaves over charcoal fires.
Production grows
Within five years he had established a fully working tea factory and commenced the manufacture of packaged tea. During the 1870's following the blight of coffee plants when the entire coffee industry was destroyed, the estate owners, following James Taylor's lead, changed their crops to tea.
The expansion of the tea industry in Sri Lanka grew rapidly and in 1886, James planted just 17 acres of seeds in the Lover's Leap division in the Loolecondera Estate. This was the only estate ever owned by James Taylor. From initially exporting just 23 pounds of tea to London, by 1890 the export of tea had reached 22,900 tons. This success was ironically the reason for James becoming redundant as large plantation companies took over estates; James was no longer required as the manager at Loolecondera. Aged 57yrs, just one year after his dismissal, James Taylor died after contracting gastroenteritis and dysentery. He lies buried in Mahiyawa Cemetery, Kandy and the following words are written on his tombstone "In pious memory of James Taylor of Loolecondera Estate Ceylon, the pioneer of the Cinchona and Tea enterprise in this island, who died May 2, 1892, aged 57 years." He certainly was the Father of Ceylon Tea.
Scottish links today
Scotland's link with Sri Lanka has continued throughout the years to the present day. Beyond the well known ' father of tea' James Taylor and of course Glasgow born Sir Tommy Lipton, another famous Scot , British Olympic bobsleigh team member, James Manclark has helped raise the profile of the plight of the Asian Elephant and tourism in Sri Lanka by reviving a game played by Indian Princes and British colonials during the 20th century. The 6th Annual International Elephant Polo Tournament was held at the Heritage Forte of Galle in 2007 where elephants take the place of horses in conventional polo. (Galle was one of the worst hit places in Sri Lanka by the 2004 tsunami). Scottish businessman Sir Tom Hunter pledged over £1.00 million pounds within days of the tsunami disaster which helped to rebuild schools and fund a new tsunami early warning system in remote and vulnerable Indian Ocean islands, including Sri Lanka.