Jorhat Assam Tea Garden Sahib Culture Upper Assam

Jorhat district in Upper Assam is the commercial capital of Assam's tea industry — the world's largest tea-growing region by output — with the Jorhat Tea Auction Centre handling over 100 million kilograms of CTC and orthodox Assam tea annually from the densely planted tea garden belt of Jorhat, Sibsagar, Dibrugarh, and Tinsukia districts along the Brahmaputra's southern bank. Assam CTC (Cut, Tear, Curl) tea — the malty, brisk style used in the strong milk tea of India and UK breakfast blends — is produced from the indigenous Camellia sinensis var. assamica large-leaf variety that grew wild in the upper Assam jungle and was first commercially cultivated by British planters after 1839. The tea garden culture of Jorhat produced a distinctive Anglo-Indian social ecosystem of bungalows, clubs, and churches that is documented in Assam's colonial architecture. Tea gardens in Assam employ approximately 600,000 permanent workers and over 200,000 seasonal workers — predominantly from the Adivasi (Santali, Munda, Oraon) communities brought to Assam as indentured labour in the 19th century who remain settled as garden communities. Jorhat's Tocklai Tea Research Station, established in 1911, is the world's oldest and largest tea research institution.