PUERH TEA AT FU JIAO COLLEGE
I met with my friends Chen Tien and Yin Lang to go to a Buddhist monk school in Anning this morning. They were having a special celebration there that would involve monks from Tibet, Thailand, China, and Myanmar. On the way we stopped to pick up Mr. & Mrs. Ai, who are quite famous in Yunnan for their puerh tea. Mr Ai sells his puer tea here in Kunming where he has a very nice tea house. He is famous for his growing and packaging of puerh tea. You can see his company’s tea in the photo here. Mr Ai helped in establishing the Fu Jiao College.
Upon our arrival at the monk’s college, we joined in the celebrations for the Temple. With Mr Ai leading the way, we went to a private tea house there and relaxed inside while Mr. Ai served his famous puerh tea. High in the mountains, this retreat was a most enjoyable environment to savor the tea and just enjoy life. The temple and school are built on the hillside of the mountain. Walking trails lead you around this wooded enclave to the small houses where the monks live and study. I was the only Lauwai there, and I met with several of the monks from China and Tibet. We drank tea and I learned about some of the differences between the Thai, Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist practices. This was a perfect outing from the city and the weather couldn’t have been nicer.