Venerable Jiheo and green tea

By Kim Jin-hyeon

Seonam Temple in Suncheon City, South Jeolla Province, was designated as a world heritage site in 2018. The temple has a long history and is famous for its various beautiful trees and friendly building layout. Located out back, the temple's tea fields ― different from Japanese green tea ― have played a pivotal role in maintaining the temple.

Green tea has been one of the most important beverages used in self-discipline for Zen Buddhists. Thus, temple goers in South Jeolla and Gyeongsang provinces have always considered tea fields important.

The Venerable Jiheo began his priesthood at Seonam Temple at age 15. He also cultivated and made tea for 25 years there.

At night, he trained himself, studying not only Buddhist scriptures but also books relating to green tea. He realized both Zen Buddhism and green tea were simultaneously imported from China. Thus, good tea and Buddhist practices have always been related.

Ven. Jiheo was interested in the book, “Dongdasong,” a book that praised tea. The book was written by Choui, a 19th century Joseon Zen master who became famous for his branded tea making.

There is a well-known anecdote about Choui and Kim Jeong-hui, a great scholar and calligrapher. The first time Kim consumed Choui's tea, Kim immediately wrote to him, saying “I don't want to see you or receive any letters from you, but I ask you to send me a lot of tea boxes because I can't cease to drink your green tea.”

Following the Zen master's teaching, Ven. Jiheo not only preformed his personal meditation but also continued to make good tea, hoping it would aid monks to concentrate on the practice of asceticism. But one day, unable to control his worldly desires, he left the temple to cultivate his mind like Buddha, in mountains around the country for 10 years.

In the meantime, he managed Seonam Temple three times as a chief monk from the 1970s to 1990s. At the age of 50, he left Seonam Temple to restore an abandoned temple called Geumdun Temple near Seonam from 1990 until now. In 1990, he also planted eight acres of green tea trees around Geumdun Temple and made tea from those trees.

Though Ven. Jiheo is almost 80 years old, he goes to the field every morning to take care of the green tea trees and observe the beauty of the trees ― the white flowers and seeds that appear together during autumn, the leaves covered with snow during winter, and the new buds ripe for picking during spring.

Because tea links Zen Buddhism, the scholar spirit during the Joseon Kingdom and traditional cultures ― all these factors have led to the process of Ven. Jiheo's self-improvement and focus on tea making. Ven. Jiheo has confessed that one of his preferred jobs as a monk is making tea, which can offer self-discipline and a bridge to link Korea's traditional culture to our descendants.

Kim Jin-hyeon (shinykim60@hanmail.net) works at the Yeosu Chungmu High School in South Jeolla Province.