Letter: 124th Death Anniversary of James Taylor, the father of “Ceylon Tea”
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May 2 marked the 124th death anniversary of James Taylor, the man who introduced tea plantations to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) James Taylor who was born in Scotland on 29th March 1835, took up an assignment as an assistant supervisor on a coffee plantation in Ceylon at the tender age of 16 years.
Five years after his performance, his employers Harrison & Leake impressed by the quality of his work, placed him in charge of Loolecondera Estate (later became Loolkandura Estate) and instructed him to experiment with tea.
He began his plantation by clearing an area of 19 acres, and used his bungalow verandah as the factory. The initial manufacturing process began by rolling the leaf by hands on tables, firing the oxidized leaf was carried out on clay stoves over charcoal fires with leaf on wire trays. In 1867 he invented a machine for rolling tea leaves and by 1872; he had set up a fully fledged tea factory on the Loolkandura Estate.
In 1873 Taylor exported his first ever consignment of made tea weighing 23 pounds to London. It then accelerated to 81 tonnes and by 1890 it reached up to 22,900 tonnes. Since then “Ceylon Tea” began to arrive in London on a very regular basis.
At the backdrop of an economic slump, owing to the extinction of coffee plantations, that once flourished, Taylor’s tea became a huge success to the then economy and came under lot of praise.
“Not often is it that men have the heart when their one great industry is ruined, to rear up in a few years another as rich to take its place, and tea fields of Ceylon are as true a monument to courage as is the lion of Waterloo..” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Taylor never saw his homeland since his arrival in Ceylon. So great was his transcendence to the cause of tea that he died on the soils of Loolkandura Estate on 2nd May 1892, at the age of 57 due to a severe attack of dysentery. His body was buried in the Mahiyawa cemetery in Kandy. The epitaph on his gravestone reads: “In pious memory of James Taylor of Loolecondera Estate, Ceylon, the pioneer of the cinchona and tea enterprise in this island, who died May 02, 1892, aged 57 years.”
The beauty of our hill country with plenty of tea bushes gracing the hills with their rich verdancy, as we see it today, is truly a priceless gift to us by Taylor.
We are ever grateful to his assiduous efforts in making our little island globally known with that everlasting golden product of “Ceylon Tea” the proud saga; that will remain in our hearts forever. (Source data: contemporary Tea Time Volume x No.03 -Sept-Nov-2001)
Ranjith Alwis, Kandy.