Pointe-à-Callière Museum: Tea Roads

The Tea Roads

April 30 - September 29, 2013


Montreal's Pointe-à-Callière Museum is presenting a new temporary exhibition entitled The Tea Roads. It was inspired by the fact that tea is the most popular beverage after water, with thousands of years of history. Apparently 15,000 cups of tea are consumed around the world in one second!

Here is a famous Chinese poem, an ode to drinking tea, by poet Lu Tong’s (China, 790-835 A.D.):

 Seven Bowls of Tea 

The first bowl moistens my lips and throat;

The second bowl breaks my loneliness;

The third bowl searches my barren entrails but to find 

Therein some five thousand scrolls;

The fourth bowl raises a slight perspiration 

And all life’s inequities pass out through my pores;

The fifth bowl purifies my flesh and bones;

The sixth bowl calls me to the immortals.

The seventh bowl ah, but I could drink no more!

……...............................................................

This exhibition is presented with the collaboration of the Musée Gaimet des arts asiatiques and 20 other lenders. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey along vertiginous roads of the ancient tea roads, a journey that spans centuries, culminating in our modern times. 

Over 200 objects are on display, some of them considered true works of art. They include a number of exceptional pieces, impressive for their beauty, age and rarity as well as for the stories they tell. There are magnificent celadon porcelain pieces, with their subtle jade colour, and the famous yixing teapots that “remember” previous infusions; their high iron content gives the clay a special colour, and the teapots are worth more than gold!

There are also on display terracotta horses, acknowledging the hard work endured by those sturdy animals on torturous, mostly mountainous roads. See photos above, and especially note a valuable Tang period (619-908 A.D.) green glazed terracotta horse at the top of the photo to the right. China required 2,500 new horses each year. Those were acquired through the tea trade, where a horse would be purchased in exchange for 60 kg of tea leaves.

You will also see exhibited tea bricks and cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves in the shape of logs or baskets for the journey on horseback. In the photo to the right, you can see an unwrapped round cake of pressed tea leaves. 

There is also a variety of pouring vessels and superb serving accessories made of fine porcelain. The photo to the left shows “Imperial” teapots and bowls crafted during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). They were even produced in the Emperor’s workshops in the 20th century.

One can also smell a variety of different teas at the central display shown in the very first photo above.

The following photo demonstrates how valuable was the tea during the pre-Victorian era. The box with tea leaves was kept locked with a key, not entrusting the contents to the servants (box to the left).

Vist the PAC Museum's website for more information and opening hours.

http://pacmusee.qc.ca/en