One story is told, that it was Bodhidharma meditated on the mountian of Ta in China. As he would meditate for long hours he would become sleepy and his eye lids would drop. In a act of frustration to prevent the sleep from disturbing his meditation, he cut off eyelids and threw them onto the mountian side. The legend says from those eyelids grew the first tea plants, and that Bodhidhara and other Zen people were the first to find that drinking tea would help them to remain alert. As the Buddhists traveled between China and India the word Ta changed to Cha in south east Asia and became Chai the Sanskrit word for tea as it's use became popular in India. Yes, British Imperialism has help the wonders of tea to spread. There is another story of a king (I have forgotten the name) in China, who was boiling some water when a wind blew some leaves into the water he was boiling. Which ever story one prefers, both agree Chinese was the first people to drink tea sometime about 4,000 years ago. Has anybody heard other stories of Tea?
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