To increase knowledge, when trimming a branch, leave about one or two branches of the tea tree and cut all the remaining branches to a height of 16 inches or 22 inches from the ground. Annual branch trim increases yield. As it is a branched plant, it produces more sprouts. fermented tea prefers sprouts, so the more beautiful the sprouts, the higher the price. The branching method should be taught that it is a 100% safe method without plant death. A 40-years-old- secretary of the Palaung Tea Producers and Sellers Association said:

“Shoulder basket brand” pickled tea leaf with sesame is the very first product in Myanmar (See figure – 1) Fertilizers, as well as insecticides, have not been used in tea plantations. The forty-year-old “shoulder basket brand” pickled tea leaf company owner said “In our company, export goods are manufactured hygienically and attractively. However, goods for local consumption are not produced properly. Like foreigners, indigenous people are human beings. So many diseases occur in Myanmar because of consuming unhygienic food.

In addition to the Buddha and Nats, bicentennial tea trees are held in great reverence in Kyushaw society as benefactors and are worshipped by Kyushaw villagers. As sacred trees, the leaves of these old trees are never plucked. Every year on the full-moon day of the month of Tabaung (late February to early March), around the time of the first tea leaf harvests, the owner of the land where the bicentennial tea tree stands dresses it in “golden robes” i.e., they gild the tea tree in gold leaves using ripe bananas as glue.

Tea pickers mainly use their thumb and index fingers, which are stained black from the repeated exposure to tannin from the tea leaves. To avoid this, the pickers now use gloves. For storing the picked tea leaves, tea pickers mostly use wicker baskets called paline in Burmese. After the paline are filled with tea leaves, they are brought back down from the tea hills on a shoulder yoke. Tea picking starts from sunrise and continues through until sunset. 

At an altitude of 3000 meters, Khamje is a tiny village with a handful of houses in the Solukhumbu region of north-eastern Nepal. The mountains in Nepal are not considered hospitable to a variety of food, and most of the country’s food production is centered in the hilly region and the Terai (Southern Nepal). Dawa Phuti Sherpa (woman pictured here) is seasoned in mountain farming and animal husbandry, and has spent most of her life in Khamje. The red tomatoes, and the large pumpkin shown here are grown in her recently-built greenhouse.