The Ceylon Tea Museum is located in the former Hanthana Tea Factory, which was originally constructed in 1925. It is situated south of

Kandy Kandy (, ; , ) is a major city located in the Central Province, Sri Lanka, Central Province of Sri Lanka. It was the last capital of the Sinhalese monarchy from 1469 to 1818, under the Kingdom of Kandy. The city is situated in the midst of ...

Hanthana The Hanthana Mountain Range lies in the central highlands of Sri Lanka, south-west of Kandy. It was declared as an environmental protection area in February 2010 under the National Environment Act. The maximum height of the range is . The mounta ...

was one of the first successful areas to cultivate tea following the failure of coffee production on the island. In 1959 the Tea Research Institute of Ceylon established a substation on land leased from the Hanthana Estate, similar to the Passara substation established in the 1920s. The Hanthana Station was set up to cater to the needs of mid-country tea plantations with regard to the physiology and entomology of tea, in particular the identification of drought-resistant clones and the insect pest shot-hole borer. The Ceylon Tea Museum was incorporated on 9 January 1998, under Section 21 of the Companies Act of 1982, in a move initiated by

Clifford Ratwatte Clifford Senaka Ratwatte (19 March 1927 – 10 February 2009) was a Sri Lankan politician. He was a former Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture, Food, Co-operatives and Fisheries in 1964 Member of Parliament for Balangoda, ...

, chairman of the Sri Lanka Tea Board. The museum was formally opened on 1 December 2001. The four-storey tea factory had been abandoned for more than a decade before it was refurbished in 2001 by the Sri Lanka Tea Board and the Planters’ Association of Sri Lanka. The museum contains exhibits on tea pioneers, including

James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...

and

Thomas Lipton Sir Thomas Johnstone Lipton, 1st Baronet (10 May 18482 October 1931) was a Scotsman of Irish parentage who was a self-made man, as company founder of Lipton Tea, merchant, philanthropist and yachtsman who lost 5 straight America's Cup races. ...

, as well as much vintage tea-processing paraphernalia. The ground floor houses 19th-century colonial generators, rollers, dryers, fermentation tables, sorting machines, and other equipment. The second floor houses the library and museum. The third floor has a shop and the top floor contains a restaurant and tea rooms.

References

External links

Official website
{{Museums in Sri Lanka , state=collapsed Museums established in 2002 Tea museums Museums in Kandy District Cultural buildings in Kandy Tea industry in Sri Lanka

See also

References

External links