AUSTRONESIAN ORIGIN

Teh, Tea, Cha and Chai

An indicator for tea distribution

 

Tea comes from the plant Camellia sinensis, which originates in an area between North Myanmar and South-Western China, an area famous for the high mountains, deep valleys and the different ethnic groups that speak different languages.  The habit of tea drinking must have originated from these people who may have given this beverage different names. 

​

In the southern parts of China, Canton, it is called “Cha”. In Fujian and Formosa (Taiwan), people call it “Teh”.  “Cha” soon spread to the northern and eastern parts of China and became a popular beverage as early as 1300 years ago. Almost at the same time, “Cha” was spread via westward routes such as the Silk Road to Central Asia. To prevent decomposition along the long journey, “Cha” was made into a compact form, “Cha brick”, a main traded commodity along the Silk Road, and the main form of tea consumed in Mongolia and Tibet.

Portuguese is the only European language that refers to tea as “Cha”, since they owned the Macau Concession, a harbour of Canton where tea is referred to as “Cha”.

People of Central Asia, especially the Turks, modified the name of “Cha” to “Chai”, probably to make it sound more Turkish. During the expansion of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, “Chai” was probably spread along the way. This could explain why there are people who say “chai” in Central Asia, Northern Asia and Eastern Europe.  

Comparatively, the word “Tea” is more popularly used in the modern world. This could be attributed to the Dutch spread of the Formosan use of “teh”.  Due to the conservative, isolationist diplomatic policy of the Chinese government 400 years ago, the Dutch East India Company was only able to establish itself in southern Formosa after many years of failed attempts to trade with China.  From Formosa, the Dutch were then able to obtain tea for export to Europe which was a resounding success. Naturally, the Dutch adopted the local Formosan name for tea, “Teh”, with just a little alteration, to “Thee”.  This is where English and most European languages’ use of “Tea” came from.

“Teh” is used by Formosan, Indonesian, Javanese, Malay, and Sundanese, all of which belong to the Austronesian family. According to a recent study, all Austronesian people have common ancestors who originated from Formosa. So the conformity to “teh” in those five languages is not too unexpected.  So, “teh” had not actually arrived in Malay Archipelago through the traders, when the ancestors of the people of the Archipelagos had departed from Formosa southward, they might already have had “teh” in their bags.

As a common popular beverage, tea spread over the world through two distinct routes. “Cha” went westward to Central Asia and became “Chai”. “Teh” went southwest via the sea routes to Europe and became “Tea”.  Now Tea is more widely used around the world, though they have the same origin.  After becoming an important commodity of global trade, tea also was the main reason for the decline of China and the prosperity of Great Britain*.  Tea even played an indispensable role to the independence of United States of America.


*For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History by Sarah Rose

​

​