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for the first article titled Tea by Justin Jin. Into the forests of the world's finest hi on China's jing Mai Mountain, indigenous tea growers are holding fast to ancient techniques, defying modern farming and producing a premium tea that has never been more popular. In a high elevation forest on jing Mai Mountain, dawn grope over a green peak bathing

an ancient tea tree in warm light. A four foot wide trunk, along with enormous branches stretching up into a canopy of leaves, gave it an imposing bearing, nothing like the smaller tea shrubs often packed into tight rows on commercial farms throughout China. But this tree, deep within the southwestern Yunnan province was different, and it served a different

purpose altogether. A married couple named Irong forty one and kat Lafang thirty six had gathered with their elderly parents in front of the tree, chanting a prayer in the Blong people's language spoken by the indigenous community throughout this region where five tea for us, collectively the oldest and largest on the planet, are cultivated. To the untrained eye, the tree might have been merely part of a forest, but for the family, it was the heart of a

live shrine. They prayed to their tea spirit tree, asking an ancestor named ha ay Ling, now considered a deity, to deliver a strong harvest as one thousand years old, eyes said, proudly, pointing to the tree's large trunk. In recent years, however, his faith has seemed to be continually tested. At a time when the region's hily specialized tea has gained widespread attention, commanding impressive prices, there are ever more unpredictable natural forces to contend with. Tea is the world's

most popular beverage after water. Globally, people drink an estimated forty five billion gallons of it each year in a wide range of styles, from green to black and ulong. While these varieties exist because of different processing techniques, they all originate from the same fundamentally ingredient. Amelia senensis, the species of flowering evergreen, has traveled the world, most notably when the colonial British brought it to India in the

early nineteenth century, breaking China's monopoly. Today, however, one specific style remains imastricably tied to Jimai Mountain for more than a millennium. The Blong people, along with other indigenous group called the Dye, are believed to have continuously maintained these ancient groves of Familio senensis variation assimaca, a subtite that produces black tea, including the mountains dark rich huer chee.

The coveted blend has been referred to as a drinkable gold among some tea connoisseurs, in part because many producers ferment it for immediate minimum of ten years, which creates a deeper flavor and increases its work among China's growing affluent class. The nutty, earthy, and slightly bitterer contraction has been compared to fine wine. It softens and becomes more

complex and collectible with age. I and his family own a plot of about four thousand trees, but had spent years struggling to earn a profit than In twenty fifteen, they decided to partner with a premium brand that sells high end wheer. They now run a farming collective that employs workers throughout the area to how processed tea from thirty seven different households, yielding about once on the product annually.

The blair is pressed into circulent cakes in age than packaged and sold from three hundred thirty dollars per twelve point six ounce cas k. Within GMAI, the average income is significant and higher than it was two decades ago. For I and K, such gains and their untrempreneurial success have led to a combined income of around forty thousand dollars a year, more than the average household in the

nearby city of Humm. Two years ago, UNESCO formally recognized Jimi Mountain as a World Heritage Site and honor reserved for places that provide unique cultural value. It is the only site related to heap tea cultivation. Perhaps not coincidentally, the price of tea from Jai has roughly doubled since the idea of a certification was introduced more than a

decade ago. The region's six thousand residents used natural practices to manage thirty nine hundred acres with over a million trees, but their model of sustainability is facing new stresses from climate chair. In spring of twenty twenty four, the region was coping with its most severe drought in sixty years, and an unusually warm winter had brought an unexpected worm vestination to the peak that IS's family was preying on, threatening the precious tea leaves just before harvest. The Blonde

People's tea spirit is based on a real person. Around the tenth century, according to oral history, Pa eye Land led his people to settle in Jingmai, where he discovered the medicinal purpose properties of wild tea plants and began to domestigate them. Near the end of his life, Paw imparted wisdom that still recounted by farmers like I and K. I can give you cattle, but they might dive diseases. Pa is remembered to have said, I can give you gold,

but you might squander it. So I am giving going to give you tea trees, which can provide riches for generations. King MAI's closely managed lands may appear untamed in contrast to terraced Moto culture tea plantations seen throughout the world. If the canopy of trees provides shelter for tea plants that grow best in shade, a vibrant thunderstory of ferns and her herbs carpets the forest floor, fostering a rich cavitat for fawnat while helping the soil retained vital moisture.

The tea plant sanctuaries are also divided into distinct pockets, strategically petitioned by forests that separates one plot from another to stop the spread of diseases and pests. The Blonde people believe that everything has a soul or reminder to leave nature undisturbed, so intending to forests, they avoid pesticized and herbicides, as well as aggressive practices such as pruning hay cut's grass between the trees only twice a year and with a knife. New research shows the ag rill

forestry techniques baptised in Gimi continue to be effective. A recent study by Minzu University of China found that tea produced from the Moulin's high altitude trees was less bitter than tea cultivated fo trees at lower altitude and the sustainable farming methods support the significantly higher biodiversity than commercial tea gardens. Jing Mai tea's current price is about six

point five times higher than the typical plantations. Despite his families owning thousands of venerable tea trees, I lived in poverty during his childhood because demand for their product was non existent during the second half of the twentieth century. China's focus on mass production from high yield, large terrace plantations left little room for the old trees labor intensive harvests.

While growers across other Yunan tea mountains raised their ancient roads to plant younger, more productive trees, the people of Jingai remained steadfast in protecting their arboreal treasure. Their commitment was reinforced by practical constraints. Without modern roads, their old trees were ill suited for mass production. The indigenous communities

preserved with persevered with their seemingly unkempt forests. Jingi's fortunes chain changed around two thousand, when the Chinese government invested in new roads and electricity for rural areas. Slowly, new tea buyers began to arrive at the mountain. Even as increased access led to more challenges. Some villagers destroyed parts of the forest to harvest timber for new construction. Others applied harborful chemicals to their trees and prude aggressively to

boosed profits. By two thousand three, Sioux Huawen, a retired primary school teacher who claims to be a descendant of Pa Eyelang, felt the need to act. At community meetings, he invoked paused purported instruction to protect the forests like your own eyes, arguing that the continued preservation of ancient practices and traditions would bring rowers long term benefits, even if they had to sacrifice short term field Village cheap I Send also rallied the dying people to protect their

crafted biospheres. Both pushed for bands on clear cutting and chemical use. Around twenty ten, that movement gained more speed when village elders joined forces with the Chinese government to petition for World Heritage status. As part of the government's push, authorities put a checkpoint on the single road leading off Jingli Mountain to stop people from bringing in non native plants and animal species, built a road using stones rather than asphalt, which might disrupt the aromas of the tea

and formally restricted construction and deforestation in the area. Zuo Jing, a professor at Anhui University, joined the effort to help document the area's distinct cultural heritage. His government funded team also built echo funding modeled homes to demonstrate how some modern technologies vastly improved sanitation, feeding, and power while preserving

the ancient architecture. Something community could be adopted. Juli loudly is like an old tea tree that has both a unique history and a powerful contemporary lifeboards that continues to grow,

he says. Around the time of their family's prayer ceremony, I and he joined the spring harvest performed with age bloodles to his attention, numbers of the blong dyeing in other groups wore lightweight shoes and curing large baskets gently swung across their shoulders as they carefully moved through their rugged parcels, scanning the asia trees for the most tender shoots before carefully stecking over a different branches to hand

with them. This ensured nothing would be crushed from the dried leaves, put unfurrow into a beautiful shape when climbing brood. Once their basket brimmed with fresh leaves, I and Kay returned home to start the intricate transformation process. They set out leaves to wither slightly while they prepared firewood, with a crucial steaming or killing green step which would stop decomposition. I tossed the leaves in a hot walk, arresting oxidation, and the room filled with a pleasant nity of roma.

As the leaves cooled down, they began the delicate stepth of hand rolling, gently twisting each leaf to rupture its cells and release more flavor. After the leaves were carefully set out to dry, the tea was ready for pressing, packaging, and aging. This process yields meaningful air of tea that still requires about a decade or more of naturation to reach its peak. The twenty twenty four harvest was significantly impacted by the drought, even though it had been saved

by some labor intensive techniques. When the pest infestation broke out, I pay and helpless others weren't tirelessly pleating worms from the most important trees by hand for weeks. The infestation did not spread to other parts of the agent. For us lending credence to the effectiveness of the partitions planted by the ancestors. In recent years, I may have renovated the ground floor of their wooden home to host tea ceremonies for potential buyers, or engraceful, unbroken ribbons of ware

into porcelain cups. But their story is just one example of how the market where Juli tea continues to flourish. Today, ninety percent of the region's income pumps from tea. The Yegger generation even live streams tea tastings to a growing audience of digital devotees across China, and residents in the villages of when j and Nuanggong, cited by UNESCO as architectural gems, have turned their traditional wooden houses into charming shops.

Some have built temperature and humidity controlled warehouses to store teacakes, a nod to their increasing value and a bet that in time they might evolve into valuable antiques. As may a rare tea cake from the province, estimated to be from nineteen seventeen fetched and astonishing four hundred forty eight thousand and fifty seven dollars at auction in Hong Kong Meanwhile, it seemed as if the dry spell would continue, so

growers leaned into traditional beliefs to strengthen the resolve. Long village elders tried to read chicken bones studded with toothpicks and ancient in the Nation ritual for climactic guidness. Members of the dying community, which has different religious practices, implored a Buddha to intervene. The first downpourt finally began in May, saturating the soil beneath machine canopy. The rain swelled into a deluge as summer began, Gimi remained resilient, as if

by some larger design where tea begins. Aside from water, tea is far and away the most popular drink in the world. Some estimates suggest we consume more than two billion puffs of it every day, but not all of what's labeled as tea is actually that beverage. True tea is derived from a single plant, Amelia senensis, which is grown in more than forty five countries and is processed to create six foundational varieties, each with its own flavor

profile and characteristics. Blare green, yellow, white, boolong flap. When a tea is not a team around the world. A huge number of non traditional teas like cannonmill, mint and ribos collectively called to saints, are created by infusing plants such as herbs and roots. How tea works for the uninitiated. It can be easy to lump all caffeinated beverages together, but the differences between tea and coffee are massed. Both can increase alertness, but tea can also induce a sense

of calm. Each of the six foundational styles of tea offers a different flavor in chemical characteristics that have been associated with potential health benefits. Promotes alertness, relaxation, and increased focus. The minimal processing of green tea, including lacha, helps retain hattachins, the most abundant compounds in fresh leaves, yielding a light colored infusion. The two palest and rarest of teas have

a subtle flavor. Yellow tea requires intensive processing. White teas delicate young buds and beaves are hand pinned, enhancing taste and aroma. Powder water brings out caffeine and a stridency of ptychins. Longer steeping returns a more savory infusion from the higher extraction of lathionine. Kid ingredients. Tea can contain traces of iron, chluoride, vitamin C, as well as insect genetic material, all often originated from the plants growing environment.

Moulon's golden to amber color and black teas red come from the conversion of compounds during a controlled oxidation process, which reduces l pianine levels. Rare is the only tea that's fermented. The ancient process helps it retain the thousand plus compounds that give it a deep color and mellow, berthy flavor. From one leaf six styles, A remarkable diversity of flavors and chemical properties can be poaxed from the

single plant depending on how it is processed. In addition to the refining steps shown, flavor can be modified by using flowers, spices, or fruit to create variations like chai and earl. Gray gering leaves are spread out, losing moisture and becoming soft and leathery. Taste and aroma begin to change as proteins start breaking down de enzyming. Heating by pan roasting or steaming deactivates the enzymes responsible for decomposing

the leaves. The natural process of oxidation is pulted oxidizing, degrading, cells By tumbling and crushing leaves increases surface contact with oxygen. The controlled reaction alters the flavor and turns breath into darker shades smothering. In this processing step unique to yellow tea, the warm and damp leaves are covered lately, causing green

leaves to turn yellow and taste sweeter. Shaping machines that kneed, twist or roll leaves turn them from lenkled strips into twisted, curly, spherical, or flat shapes. Shaping is also done by hand drying. This step aims to reduce water contact until no more than a fraction of the total weight remains hydrated, which

improves transportation and shelf life. Fermenting controlled fermentation by naturally occurring or introduced fungi takes place while leaves piled or pressed into bricks are left to age, sometimes for decades. A living shrine to tea. For over a thousand years, tea pulpivation has been central to life in the nine

villages surrounding Juni Mountain. Today, the region and its tea are more globally renowned than ever, thanks in part to the area's designation in twenty twenty three as a World heritage site ancient tree forests, Tea trees are allowed to grow to their full height, sharing space with shade given taller species. The protective forest ecosystem provides natural fertilizer and

past control partition areas. These divisions, implemented centuries ago, isolate the tea forests from each other, so that disease and pests that affect one tea area are not easily transferred between the cultidated groves. Modern plantations in the nineteen eighties, tea plantations on open terraced landscapes to introduced to increase the economic output of the region. Some now embrace elements of traditional practices. Next, how historic monasteries became modern destinations

by Julia Buckley. Across the Italian countryside, once sacred religious spots are offering tranquility to a new generation of travelers. David Archieks first set eyes on the Italian sanctuary of Laverna on a school trip in nineteen ninety four. Raised in Croatia to an Italian Croatian family, Faracci was just fourteen years old at the time that it was there. At this friary nestled in the mountains of Tuscany and

his life changed forever. It filled my heart and says, the scent of the wood inside is always stayed with me. God spoke to me. Racchi felt a calling inspired by Laverna. He took Thousan as a Franciscan friar and spent a year in training at the sanctuary. In two thousand one, after two decades of postings to friaries around Tuscany and a year in Jerusalem, he returned to the mountains Brother David, a Franciscan friar and vicar of Laverna, founded by early

followers of Saint Francis in twelve sixty. The sanctuary is one of hundreds of monasteries and friaries in Italy open to the public. These monasteries are up in part of the Chenobitic tradition, based on the concept of life in common. But as these ancient Christian communities work to stay relevant

in the modern world, their traditions are also evolving. The buildings and sights overseen by those like paraccik are now destinations themselves, welcoming travelers of all religious backgrounds seeking the serenity of Italy's countryside and mountains away from the bustling urban tourist hubs promised. Fifteen centuries, monasteries, briaries and sanctuaries have welcomed visitors to worship, eats, stay the night, or

simply enjoy the views. The practice dates back to the medieval period, when Italy was the home of countless permits and groups of monachi, monks and frati brothers or friars who sought God through community. Medieval monasteries regularly hosted overnight guests,

providing a safe place to stay for all. Saint Benedict said to welcome guests as Christ himself, says Don Maurizio Villeria, Priory of the Sanctuary of the Sie pro Speco Foley Cave, a monastery grafted into the rock face in the central mountains of Blazio, where the saint lived as a hermit in the early sixth century. Saint Benedict's directive rivera ads applies to everyone, including people who come to the monastery solely for the beauty. He said that a hello is enough.

You have to give them everything you can. That became the cardinal point of the Benedictine Order. Visitors looking for contemplation, art, and food in dry pipe and in the case of Laverna, even snowshoe toward an encountering with modern spirituality. Found in Tuscanese National Park of the Cascentinasi Forests, Mount Balzorona and Campina,

Laverna welcomes around six hundred thousand visitors each year. The rogic estimates and is indelibly linked to Saint Francis, who was gifted this mountain as a place of retreat by a noble in twelve thirteen. The saint would come to the area to run the mountain, meditating in caves and

on rocks. It is where in twelve twenty four he is said to have received the stigmata, the wounds of Christ's crucifixion, marked on his hands, feet, and sighed the centuries rolled back on the seven minute stroll from the parking area, as rippling mountains furred with a thick canopy of silver purrs and huges listened in goal of each fall.

By the time visitors reached the monastery, which clings to the cliff side the abyss falling beneath it, it's as if they have arrived in the thirteenth century, when Francis's followers started construction after his death. Descending the cliff down eighty nine precipitous steps, visitors will reach a liminal space of moss slick boulders, among the same that Francis commune

with in the twelve twenties. He is said to have preferred one rock cleaved down the middle and echo of the heavens rending when Christ died on the cross, to prayon for gratchik Bysiia not the monastery above is Lavere knows true sanctuary. Many common in search of something spiritual. In a generic sense, there are a lot of people looking for something who says at Laverna, says Garaci. Our mission is moving from the church to the guest house.

Once the monastery gates close for the evening, amid the boots of owls and the songs of birds beloved by Saint Francis. Overnight guests can connect from your own version of the divine. The Cassentinaisy forests are often dubbed the Sacred Forests because of their centuries long monastic presence. Not all Italian monasteries allow overnighting. Not all have monks or friars either. The Sapraa. The san Kile floats above the clouds, and the piedmont alps, an airing over the Sussa Valley

thirty one hundred and fifty feet below. Its sinuous battlements melt into the mountain as if wrapping their landscape in and a grace, an architectural symbol that echoes ancient depictions of the Madonna of Mercy sweeping her cloak around the face. The monastery was dissolved in sixteen twenty two, but priests from the Rasmiu Rasminian order moved back in the nineteenth century to relight the spiritual spark, says Elisa Ralberino, a

guide at the site. Today's pilgrims are joined by travelers intrigued by the spectacular location and hikers who slog up from the Dalia Medieval for beast, as Don Lorizio says, Benedictine monasteries are perhaps the most experienced at welcoming outsiders. Each must have a foresteria pest house, but there are some modern interpretations. At the abbey of Monte Oliveto Majoaree, in the famous dimpled hill south of Siena, guests can

seep in converted barnings of the organic farm. Our order's motto is ora et labora pray and work, says dom Andrea Sanchos. We've produced wine, oil and everything else uninterrupted for seven hundred years. The monastery is also famous for its art, a cloister as frescoed with scenes from the life of Saint Benedict by Renaissance masters Luca Singorani and Ilsidoma, as well as the Gregorian chant sung throughout the day

the for summer. I came here. I was astonished by the beauty, the richness of the art in the presence of these men who lived in this very particular style, says father Andrea. There are more than a thousand years of history in their rituals. That sense of spectacle and serenity initially overwhelmed MICHAELI Usillo, a tour guide who arrived at Monte Alivetto Lajade as an art history student. A lapsed Catholic, Ussilo nonetheless found a special energy on the grounds.

For the first time. Sodoma's paintings worked a futurana page. I saw every things surrounded by the landscape in which he painted them, he says. He passed through a wood cypresses, and when you emerge your soul's spirit, whatever you believe in becomes more than last. You can have a kind of reconciliation with your soul. While monasteries across Europe faced a diminishing number of recruits, together in the sanctuaries form an Italy wide network of places of reflection and portals

to the past. And whether it's the art of Monte Olivetto Majorree or the unspoiled forests of Saint Francis, they offer a quieter, more spiritual experience than most visitors will find in Italy's great city churches and cathedrals. For thous seeking a religious experience, head to the abbey of Monte Olivetto Majorree, an hour and a half drive south of Florence. At morning Mass held at seven thirty a m. And at evening vespers at six thirty pm, President monks partake

in an enrapturing nebroi chant. If an evening of meditative reflection is needed, book and overnight study of laver and the sanctuary and under the grounds set within the Pasantinesi forests. It is in an sam woods in Saint Francis, commune with nature and found in the small church of Santa Maria dan On Daily eight centuries ago. Should you need your spirituality with a sight of stunning views and a Joseph literary and cinematic history, look no further than the

Sacra designatae powering over the Susa Valley. The abbey was the inspiration for Umberto Eco's nineteen eighty classic novel The Name of the Rose and the ensuing film adaptation starring Sean Connery. At the hermitage of San To Maria Infra Sasa, a nearly one hundred ninety seven year old octagonal chapel, the Temple of Valadier was built into a clip side paved in the Marsh region. This concludes readings from National

Geographic Magazine for today. Your reader has been Marsha. If you've enjoyed hearing this content, please give us a call at eight five nine forty two six three nine zero. Thank you for listening, and have a great day.