By Supriya Savkoor
You may not have heard of this tiny place, one of tropical India’s most beautiful regions, but chances are, you’ve tasted one of its many edible delights.
You may not have heard of this tiny place, one of tropical India’s most beautiful regions, but chances are, you’ve tasted one of its many edible delights.
Coorg, in the country’s
southwestern mountain range – between the Arabian Sea and the Deccan Plateau,
is a tiny, mostly rural region whose economy relies on its rich agriculture, plantations,
and forestry. At its lowest elevation, Coorg, also known as Kodagu, is 3,000
feet above sea level, and 5,500 at its highest. Rainy season lasts a long time,
close to half the year, and in some areas, receives more than 160 inches of
rainfall a year. Just imagine the handsome produce from this weather. And the misty
hills and lush, verdant valleys.
Coorg’s number one cash crop is coffee, which
thrives in the region’s steepest, shaded areas, intercropped on plantations
along with cardamom, peppercorns, vanilla beans, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves,
bananas, and oranges. Both practices, planting crops in the shade and intercropping
with spices and fruits, are practices said to enhance the unique flavor of
Indian coffees. You’ll find lots of rice paddies on the less steep parts of the
hilly land. In the valleys, you’ll find ginger crops and meadows and, yes, more
rice paddies. And in the forest, honey, rubber, bamboo, teak, sandalwood, and cocoa.
So much of Coorg’s way of life is tied to the
land that even its major festivals revolve around it: Kailphodu, on September 3, the time when rice is transplanted, to
aid in double cropping late season, and a ritual ceremony is performed to guard
the crop from wild animals; in early October, Kaveri Sankramana, to venerate the holy river Kaveri that runs
through the region; and Puttari, the
rice harvest festival, around late November or early December.
In the last few decades, eco-tourism has
become popular too. A number of fairly affluent Coorgis are turning their
beautiful old plantation estates into guest houses, which are popular with
tourists who want to enjoy all the amazing things to see and do in this verdant
land – waterfalls, wildlife sanctuaries, several Tibetan settlements and
monasteries, amazing scenery and natural vistas, the Kaveri river, an elephant
camp, and lots of outdoor sports, such as whitewater rafting, rock climbing, camping,
fishing, and so on.
Many Coorgis have settled into farming today,
either as landowners or labourers, but they have a most interesting background,
making up a unique Indian subculture. While most Coorgis practice
Hinduism, they come from a tradition of ancestor worship as well as the martial
arts. Their cuisine includes lots of pork and game dishes, alcohol flows
freely, hunting is an age-old tradition, and the traditional garb for men
includes a warrior’s uniform – dagger, pistol, and all – and for women, a very
different style of wearing a sari.
The region has produced many well-known
Indian generals, including the country’s first one after independence from
the Brits. Coorgis are generally considered brave and aggressive, and they
carry on their age-old tradition of warfare through their rituals, festivals,
ceremonies, and weddings. Men perform martial art ceremonies at weddings. At the
Kailphodu festival, the one where men prepare to guard their crops from wild
animals, all the weapons are removed from the prayer room (owning guns is not
much of an Indian tradition, but keeping them in the prayer room has to be even
rarer). These guns are cleaned and decorated with flowers in the religious
Hindu ritual known as puja. Sports
and physical contests take place, including testing players’ marksmanship by
firing their guns into coconuts tied atop tall trees.
But back to the coffee.
Legend has it that in the early 16th
century, a Sufi Muslim saint, Babubudan, during a pilgrimage to Mecca, smuggled
seven beans of different varieties, from the Yemeni port of Mocha, wrapped the
beans around his stomach, then planted them in the southern part of the Indian
state of Karnataka, in which Coorg is located. The hill he planted them on,
Chandragiri Hills, is now renamed Baba Budan Giri (giri meaning hill). Interesting side note: it was illegal to take
coffee beans out of Arabia back then, but as the number seven is sacred
in Islam, the saint’s carrying out of seven beans was considered a religious
act. Make of his act what you will, but it did mark the beginning of the coffee
industry in India.
Soon, coffee cultivation in India spread from
southern Karnataka to the neighboring states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. And
under British rule, coffee plantations in South India overall flourished so that
the colonizers could export them around the world. Today, Karnataka produces
two-thirds of all the coffee grown in India, the most common arabica and robusta.
And while coffee houses, bars, and co-ops thrive in India itself, about 80% of its
production is exported, mostly through the Suez Canal to Europe, the United
States, and Japan. About a fourth of this export goes to Italy alone. Indian
coffee is particularly popular in Europe for making espresso, as it has less acidity and more natural sweetness. These days, India's production of organic coffee is also taking off.
What a beautiful place! This one's going on my bucket list. Trouble is, I don't know if I would ever leave...
ReplyDeleteI love these stories of smuggled agricultural products, coffee in India, tea in Iran. How interesting.
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