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Last brew
AUG 20 -
Till a decade ago, visitors to Ilam Bazaar would be greeted with the smell of freshly-ground tea that emanated from the yellow building standing on a hillock near the Bazaar’s entrance. But the Ilam tea factory no longer hums with the sounds of the machines inside, nor does the smell of tea linger anymore. Instead, all that is left is an old, dilapidated building turning chrome with peeling paint and rusty corrugated sheets. Wrecked walls are covered in graffiti of different sorts, while a tank-like structure by the building has become an open urinal for students of local colleges and passers-by. Termites have eaten up the wooden first floor. Sloped tin roofs, earlier painted red, have worn out and faded in the sun. In sum, Nepal’s earliest tea factory is now a mess.
It is difficult to trace the history of tea plantation in Ilam district, now considered one of the finest places in Nepal to cultivate the crop. One strain of history believes that tea was brought to Ilam after the Thapathali Treaty between Nepal, the Bhot kingdom, and China in 1856. Following the treaty, a ‘token of love’ was exchanged every five years, and it was during one of these exchanges that the Chinese brought a rare ‘Chinese-breed tea seed’ to Nepal—which was then planted in Ilam and Soktim during the reign of Jung Bahadur.
A more credible theory holds that the practice of planting tea in Ilam was a result of the influence of neighbouring Darjeeling, where the British had already planted tea by 1856. It is said that Gaja Raj Singh Thapa, the Bada Hakim of Ilam and a close relative of Jung Bahadur, visited Darjeeling, and came back very impressed by the lush green plantations.
Thapa then brought tea seeds back and planted them, with the Ilam tea factory opening up in 1878—15 years after the first tea plants were brought to Nepal.
The factory’s building was probably Nepal’s first earthquake-resistant building with 80 cm thick walls and wooden ceilings joists at a height of 25 to 30 feet. The building resisted the 8.4 Richter scale earthquake of 1934 with just a slight crack. The British government donated a tea processing machine, two rollers, and three pieces of withering troughs to the factory. These machines were in operation till 1992, after which losses and government indifference forced the factory to shut down. Eventually, the government leased out the Ilam tea estate and the factory to industrial house Sanghai group in 2000 for 50 years with an agreement that the group would renovate and conserve the factory.
THE BLAME GAME
After the Sanghai group leased out the factory and the tea estate, they dismantled the factory’s machinery and shifted some of it to the Kanyam tea estate. The rest of the factory is crumbling—once a symbol of Ilam’s development, the building is now a symbol of apathy. The machines still inside the factory hark back to the times when visitors would see for themselves how the tea they sipped in the morning was made.
“This tea factory was the symbol of Ilam Municipality, but now it seems that the building is just waiting to fall,” says former chief of Ilam Multiple Campus Juddha Prasad Vaidya.
Local authorities seem to relish the fact that the factory and the tea estate have been leased out to a private company, and thus, are content to not pursue serious renovation plans. “We have always asked for the factory’s renovation in every planning programme,” says Yubaraj Dahal, chief of Ilam Municipality, “We cannot accomplish these tasks without the support of local political parties.”
Political parties negate their responsibility by pointing out the agreement between the state and the private player. “The terms and conditions of the leasing agreement with the Sanghai group are not clear and we cannot take any preservation measures because of this,” says Mahesh Basnet, former mayor and a local leader of CPN-UML. Local UCPN (Maoist) leader Kancha Lawoti says the parties have no right to interfere with the Sanghai group’s policies. “Until and unless our party comes to power, there is no hope for any sector to develop, and the same is the case with the tea factory.” Lawoti says the Sanghai group has created a monopoly in the tea business, and demanded that the government take back the tea estate.
The Sanghai group believes it is due to lack of government interest that the factory is in such a condition. “We want to co-ordinate and develop the factory but the Municipality has shown no interest in it,” says Subash Sanghai, also the chairman of Nepal Tea Development Corporation.
The ball keeps getting thrown into another court by the various parties involved without a solution in sight. Still, locals believe that once renovated, this factory can be a huge factor to increase tourism in the district. “As this factory is a national heritage, we can turn it into a museum by bringing back all the dismantled parts,” Vaidya says. He believes that the whole garden and the factory can be developed as a tea research centre as well.
“It’s hard for people to understand the tea-making process, but we can bring in mini tea-preparing machines and allow people to manufacture their own tea inside the factory,”
says Puskar Sanyasi, a student of tea development, “People get interested in this sort of activity and it also helps enhance the tourism of this district.”
Even if these plans do not seem possible, it is essential that the tea factory be preserved, if only for its cultural and historical importance. Nepal’s first tea factory is languishing in a state it has never been in its 132-year-old existence, and if left the way it is, it will probably collapse in a year or two. “If proper furnishing is not done, there are few chances that this building will last very long,” warns Ilam tea estate manager D.K. Yonjon.
Posted on: 2010-08-21 09:01
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