ORIGIN AND DISSEMINATION OF THE SIBERIAN TEA DRINKING CULTURE

Abstract

Reviving traditions and customs of the peoples living in the huge territory of our country is one of the sources of cultural values of modern Russians. Studying new archival materials, family chronicles and the pre-Soviet literature which is now stored in largest foreign libraries provides the opportunity to reveal the economic, spiritual, political and social features of Siberians’ culture. The formation of the West Siberian society was very closely connected with the trade organized on the Siberian path and the Great tea way, both from China and from the central part of Russia. The paper focuses on the features of various groups of people involved in caravan trade moving along the Siberian path in the borders of the Tobolsk province. It was there that the Siberian tea drinking culture emerged, imported by Russian and overseas merchants and travelers, to later become a symbol of prosperity, hospitality and education. The new traditions connected with feasting found the reflection in proverbs and sayings, transferred from generation to generation, gradually pulling together city and rural cultures. The use of various blends and types of tea was opposed to the alcoholism which captured the Siberian village in the late 19th century, but didn't yield the results on which the government and the local intellectuals counted. With transition to industrial society, considerable part of traditions including some features of tea drinking culture were lost and forgotten. Therefore today works of the famous culinary specialists and scientists opening bases of food addictions of certain regions, countries and continents enjoy special popularity; museums of local lore will organize exhibitions and expositions, school and university students study these questions within training programmes.