Uyghur Medicine
01 · Historical Records
Hotan medicinal tea has a long history, stretching back some 900 years to the present day.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Hotan medicinal tea making technique is the craft of preparing Hotan medicinal tea, a traditional folk beverage of the Uyghur people. The Uyghur people of Hotan generally have the custom of drinking tea; the three daily meals cannot be got through without tea, and among the people there is a saying: "Better a day without food than a day without tea." Hotan medicinal tea is made by crushing more than thirty locally grown ingredients that are both food and medicine -- clove, goji berry, fresh ginger, dried tangerine peel, rose, fennel, agastache, cardamom, celery seed, black pepper, cinnamon and chamomile -- and then steeping them. During production, the raw materials must be free of mould and of insect damage, and their shelf life must be within two years. Following the formula, the ingredients are ground to a powder and are then ready for use. Hotan medicinal tea has more than twenty formulas, and different formulas are used in different seasons. Winter blends are prepared with fennel, long pepper, black pepper, galangal and fresh ginger; summer blends with clove, aniseed, cardamom, dried tangerine peel, goji berry, rose, Dracocephalum moldavica and cinnamon. Each serving uses 5-6 grams of the prepared Hotan tea, infused in boiling water for three to five minutes, after which it is ready to drink. Especially in the past, when the countryside lacked doctors and medicines, this kind of tea -- which quenches thirst, treats and prevents illness, and is beneficial to health -- was all the more valued and welcomed by the people. The main characteristics of the technique include the following. First, Hotan medicinal tea uses no tea leaves, but ingredients that are both food and medicine, and has the effect of keeping fit and preventing disease. The Uyghur people have always had the custom of receiving guests and meeting friends over tea, and the Hotan medicinal tea making technique is continually practised in the course of this, playing a positive role in smoothing interpersonal relations and promoting unity and harmony.
Thirty-plus food-medicine ingredients
The tea contains no tea leaves: more than thirty edible-medicinal ingredients such as clove, goji, ginger, tangerine peel and rose are crushed.
Accepting clean, uninsect-damaged raw material
Raw material must be free of mould and insect damage and within two years of shelf life.
Crushing to powder
Crushing the weighed ingredients into powder completes the making: the craft turns on the formula, not on heat.
Winter and summer formulas
More than twenty formulas exist, with a warming winter blend of fennel, long pepper and ginger and a cooling summer blend of clove, tangerine peel and rose.
Five to six grams, three to five minutes
Five or six grams are steeped in boiling water for three to five minutes; the tea, called qayi, accompanies every meal.
Qayi and the custom of offering tea
Offering qayi to guests is a long-standing Uyghur custom, and the saying that one may go a day without food but not without tea keeps the craft in daily use.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Hotan medicinal tea, called "chay" in Uyghur, is distributed mainly in Hotan Prefecture, and is also found in Kashgar, Aksu, Urumqi and elsewhere. Third, participation is wide: Hotan medicinal tea is widely circulated locally, closely bound up with the lives of the people, and almost everyone drinks it; at the same time, the local custom of serving tea to guests also provides a favourable environment for the transmission and practice of the technique.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Uyghur Medicine · Uyghur Medicine · Uyghur Medicine · Uyghur Medicine · Uyghur Medicine.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Second, it is transmitted by folk pharmacists: this body of inheritors, who enter the profession through school training or through master-apprentice instruction, can both take part in diagnosis and treatment and make tea for the people. Hotan medicinal tea is transmitted mainly within families; in some cases it has been handed down for generations, for at least three generations at the least. The inheritors are mainly folk Uyghur medical practitioners, produced through training at the Xinjiang Uyghur Medical College in Hotan and through folk methods of master-apprentice succession. The matching tea utensils of Hotan medicinal tea, its procedures for drinking, and its other requirements for tea drinking that carry rich cultural connotations are important material for the study of the beverage culture of ethnic minorities.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Abudouwubuer Aji 04-1954
- Aibibula Yusufu 04-1955
- Abudoukelimu Abudouremu 05-2966
- Wusiman Yasheng
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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