Ancient Origins: Buddhist Tea Culture
Korean tea history begins in the Buddhist temple world. The "Samguk Yusa" (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, 13th century) records that Buddhist monks were drinking tea during the Silla period (57 BCE–935 CE), and that tea seeds were formally imported from Tang China by a returning Buddhist scholar in 828 CE. King Heungdeok of Unified Silla ordered tea cultivation at Jirisan — the mountain in South Jeolla Province that remains today the heart of Korean wild tea cultivation.
Through the Koryo dynasty (918–1392), tea was central to state ceremonial, Buddhist temple practice, and aristocratic culture. The "darye" (茶禮, literally "tea etiquette" or "tea ritual") was practiced at court ceremonial occasions and Buddhist temple services alike — its origins in this period remain the basis of the contemporary Korean tea ceremony.
The Joseon Suppression and Japanese Colonisation
Two historical forces combined to nearly eliminate Korean tea culture. First, the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897) adopted Confucian neo-orthodoxy as its state philosophy, which associated Buddhist cultural practices (including tea ceremony) with the politically disadvantaged Buddhist clergy. As Confucian aristocratic culture favoured rice wine (makgeolli, soju) over tea for social gatherings, tea's cultural role diminished dramatically over 500 years.
🧠 Expert Tip: Japanese Colonial Suppression
Japanese colonisation (1910–1945) enacted the most direct suppression. Colonial authorities promoted Japanese cultivars and Japanese tea processing methods, displacing indigenous Korean varieties. Many traditional Korean tea gardens were repurposed for Japanese-style cultivation or other agriculture. Indigenous Korean tea ceremonies were treated as socially irrelevant. By liberation in 1945, the institutional memory of Korean indigenous tea culture had been nearly severed.
The Modern Revival
Korean tea's 20th-century revival is inseparable from the figure of the Buddhist monk Hyodang (Choi Beom-sul, 1902–1979). Like the Japanese tradition's Rikyu, Hyodang synthesised the remaining knowledge of the Korean tea tradition, studied Chinese and Japanese references for context, and wrote the "Dongdasong" (Song of Eastern Tea) — a modern Korean tea treatise that became the foundation of the contemporary practice. He trained a generation of disciples who spread Korean tea ceremony practice (darye) through Buddhist temples and eventually secular tea rooms.
Today, Hadong county's wild-growing Camellia sinensis — the descendants or relatives of the 828 CE planting at Jirisan — produces artisan green teas with a flavour profile distinctively different from both Chinese and Japanese equivalents. Pale, herbaceous, with a characteristic nuttiness and absence of chlorophyll intensity, Hadong nokcha represents one of tea's genuinely distinctive regional expressions.
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