Tea as History
[ Product Design ]
Bringing tea back to the Todas
The ubiquity of tea, though convenient, comes at a cost. This tea set seeks to bring focus to the Toda people of southern India, a tribe whose culture and lifestyle have been hugely impacted by the rising cultivation and consumption of tea throughout history. As tea plantations spread and consumed grasslands, the Toda people were forced to move away from their origins as a pastoral tribe and instead take up farming.
THE TODA TRIBE
Historically a pastoral people, their entire community and religion are structured around raising buffalo and making dairy products. As more land was taken for British tea plantations, the buffalo population decreased and the Toda were forced to modernize and begin farming.
Each aspect of the set draws inspiration from an important part of the Toda culture, telling the story of a people who have been greatly affected by the proliferation of tea culture.
THE POOVARSH
The Poovarsh acts as both a temple and a storehouse for dairy products produced by sacred buffalo. Like all the Toda's structures, it's made with only naturally-occurring materials in their environment. The tea set captures the temple's conical shape and the surrounding stone wall to represent 2 fundamental elements of the Todas: their deep connection to nature and the buffalo that their community once revolved around.
THE EMBROIDERY
The color palette represents another big part of Toda culture, which is their embroidery. It’s such an iconic practice of theirs that the government prohibits anyone outside of the Toda people from recreating it. The vivid colors and patterns all have their own meanings, each representing parts of the Toda culture or environment. For the colors, red represents the earth, black the underworld, and white the heavens.
THE PALUVARSH
This is another one of their temples called a Paluvarsh. These markings again represent their religion which revolves around their sacred buffalo. I wanted to incorporate these to reiterate how important the buffalo used to be to the Todas people before they were forced to move away from their pastoral roots.
THE PRODUCT
Drawing upon the rich history of tea, this set incorporates the design principles of tea ceremonies, which used consistent palettes and motifs to create a cohesive experience for the user.
The tea set and packaging are simple and focus on texture and silhouette to capture the Toda’s culture. The package is made from only handmade papers and the tea set itself was fabricated from clay, representing the grasses and mud that the Toda use for their structures.
