temple tea: nan tien temple in wollongong, australia
This series of photos were taken at the Nan Tien Temple, the name literally means “paradise of the south” in English and it is the largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere. The temple is located in the Wollongong area of NSW, Australia (which is just outside Sydney) and they have a beautiful on-site tea house where they serve tea and vegetarian food in a stunning surrounding.
All the photos in this piece were taken by Vanessa Pike-Russell, Vanessa has an amazing collection of photos on Flickr, you can also see more of her work, and portfolio on her official website VanessaPikeRussell.com.au. To explore Vanessa’s full collection of temple tea house photos, check out her temple photoset. You can also read a really nice review of the tea house on the Illawarra Food website.
“The role Buddhism has played in the history of tea in Asia exactly parallels the role of Catholicism in the history of wine in Europe. Their respective beverages assumed ritual significance and the faithful of both traditions became devoted consumers.
Catholic monasteries became centers of grape-growing and wine-making the same way Buddhist monks took up tea-growing and evolved increasingly sophisticated methods of tea manufacture. Innovations like champagne, invented by the monk Dom Perignon, had their parallels in China where anonymous Buddhist monks gradually developed the various types of white, green, and oolong tea.”
* quoted directly from Tea Muse and authored by the amazing James Norwood Pratt.
tea and travel 
Comments
2 Responses to “temple tea: nan tien temple in wollongong, australia”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...[…] temple tea: a photo tour of the tea house at the nan tien temple, a buddhist temple in woolongong, australia […]
[…] find it so interesting that Jim draws parallels between the Way of Tea and Catholic Mass. In a previous post I quoted James Norwood Pratt along these same lines: “The role Buddhism has played in the history […]