Looking Good while Picking Tea

Anyone that is treated well will do the same in return. This is an attitude that tea pickers maintain rigorously. They wear full make-up while working on the plantation as a sign of respect for the tea plants.

KOMPAS/Lasti Kurnia

Tea plants are seen at state plantation PTPN IV in Pematang Sidamanik, Simalungun, North Sumatra, on July 8, 2017 (8/7/2019). People use the young leaves and leaf buds to make drinks.

Several tea pickers sat in a circle amid the shady tea plants in the Sukararu section of the Malabar plantation in Bandung regency, West Java. They had lunch at noon after picking tea leaves all morning at the 1-hectare plantation.

As usual, they shared the meals they had brought from home, like a potluck in an urban setting.