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Reminiscing on events leading to his becoming a Planter, Maithri said: “I was fortunate to be a member of a family of proprietary tea planters. My parents and uncles (William's) owned tea estates, in the Up Country and Low Country. As a child I was blessed with the opportunity of spending holidays at Tillyrie Estate in Dickoya, and play 'pullearr' with the kids, mostly children of estate workers.” Read More
It is a singular irony that Tea, unarguably the most healthy beverage in the world next to water, should share a common history with Opium, the curse of many societies across the world for several centuries, particularly China; equally ironical is that China, the original fount of tea, should have paid for Opium with Tea, reluctantly exchanging a significant and obvious benefit for an absolute evil. Read More
It is one year since the friend and mentor of so many, Leslie Dharmaratne, departed this earth on that fateful day – March 3rd. Leslie after an illustrious career at his alma mater – Kingswood College – joined that exclusive agency George Steuart & Company Limited and soon made his mark as a planter. After a spell in Uva, Leslie Read More
It is with much sadness that I advise the planting community of the peaceful passing of a planting legend - Douglas Jenkins. He was my boss, mentor and dear friend. Read More
During the colonial period of the late 1930s, a tea plantation in the Madulkelle district Relugas Estate, was the place where what appeared to be a simple act of insubordination by an assistant superintendent, was to have far reaching consequences and wider ramifications not only for the company concerned, but for the colonial government of the time and a left leaning socialist political party called the “Lanka Sama Samaja Party” (The Lanka Socialist Party), popularly known as the LSSP. Read More
David Perkins is the son of English parents. His father, G.G. Perkins, had been an officer in the British Army during the First World War, serving in the Western Front. At the end of the war, accepting a tea planting opportunity in Ceylon, he had moved to Hatherleigh Estate, Rakwana, in 1919. Read More
Recently, my friend, Kavi Seneviratne, formerly Managing Director of Kelani Valley Plantations and, subsequently, Managing Director of Hayleys Global Beverages, very generously gifted to Dilmah, a set of old books on a wide range of aspects of the Plantation Industry. Amongst them was a tattered foolscap book with the spine exposed Read More
My brother Sene and I became professional plantation managers – commonly known as simply: ‘Tea Planters’ – a career certainly not for the chicken-hearted – it was tough and above all warranted much fore-planning and meticulous implementation with an eye for detail. To get a giant work-force of 2500 to 3500 Read More
