The classic image of the central Hill Country in Sri Lanka is that of its seemingly endless tea plantations — carefully groomed and well tended as tea’s an important cash crop for this small island. With the tea comes a small army of tea pluckers (note, they are pluckers, not pickers). This work is invariably done by women, almost all Tamils of Indian descent (their ancestors brought here by the British several centuries earlier to work the tea they’d planted, but some migrating across the narrow strait separating Sri Lanka from India on their own).
I was traveling with friends LestertheInvestor, his lovely wife Pamela, and author Neil McAleer when we came across a group of 10 or so women plucking tea on a hillside. We got out of our van, approached them, and received a friendly welcome. Of that group, the plucker highlighted in today’s photos was especially memorable because of her warm smile. Her face just lite up when she smiled!
Notice that her hands are filled with tea leaves she’s plucked — always the last 2-3 leaves from the branch, which take a week or so to regrow. The work is hard and pays poorly, but they’re happy to have it.
For a list of DrFumblefingers blog posts on Sri Lanka, please click on this link.
