India's north-eastern state of Assam has begun a search to find descendants of two Scottish brothers to commemorate their discovery of wild tea bushes more than 180 years ago.
Assam, the heart of India's tea industry, is planning to honour family members of Robert Bruce and his brother Charles at a three-day "Tea Tourism Festival" starting December 4.
The Bruce brothers first discovered tea bushes in Assam with the help of some local tribal chieftains in 1823. The discovery helped the founding of India's tea industry and the end of China's position as the world's supplier of the beverage.
"The foreign ministry is in touch with the Indian High Commission (embassy) in London to help us identify some family members of Robert and Charles Bruce so that we can invite them to attend the festival," S.C. Panda, Assam's tourism commissioner, told AFP on Sunday.
"We want to felicitate family members of the Bruce brothers who were the pioneers of tea in Assam."
The carnival to be held in tea centre of Jorhat, 310 kilometers (194 miles) east of Assam's main city of Guwahati, is geared towards attracting foreign tourists.
"Apart from Assam's exotic wildlife, we see enough potential in attracting tourists to visit tea plantations," Panda said.
Long before the commercial production of tea started in India in the late 1830s, the tea plant was growing wild in the jungles of Assam. Members of the Singpho tribe ate the leaves as a vegetable with garlic, besides drinking the brew after dipping the leaves in boiled water.
According to historical records, it was in 1823 that Robert Bruce, a British trader, first discovered the wild tea plants near Jorhat with the help of a local Singpho tribal chieftain.
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