1 $ a day picking tea in West Java

The road trip to Gunung Halimun - Salak, Sundanese for 'The Mountains of the Mist, was fascinating!

Tea pickers in a tea plantation next to Kebun Teh Cianten.
Rice paddies, verdant fruit and spice plantations appeared along the road as we slowly cruised through the country side. At 8:00 AM, a striking, picturesque panorama came into view. It was a tea plantation close to Kebun Teh Cianten (see the blue pin in the Goggle Earth view below). The scene looked like a place of peace, harmony, and order. Soon, I was to learn this is not the case at all.

The tea plantation (blue pin on the left edge of the photo) that I visited was beside the Kebun Teh Cianten. It is managed by PTPN (PT National Plantation), a national firm.

I asked the driver to stop. We both got out of the SUV. The gentle, cool breeze  at the high elevation (930 m. above sea level) was refreshing even in the bright sunshine. Bird songs drifted across the rolling hills and the tea plantation to greet me. The sounds of metal tools shearing leaves against sharp metal edges filled the air. The female workers worked fast and silently.

Steam plumes rise from the Salak-Kiaraberes-Gagak-Perbakti volcanic complex, the largest geothermal field in Indonesia. 
Five kilometers to the east, two large, white steam plumes rose into the sky from a volcanic peak. Two smaller plumes were nearby too.

The Salak-Kiaraberes-Gagak-Perbakti volcanic complex produces the steam plumes. It is the largest geothermal field in Indonesia according to the American researchers, Hulen and Anderson (1998).

I stood in silence, dwelling in the beauty of it all. Memories of exotic scenes like this one enthralled me throughout my life. Now I thought, "This man from a humble little indigenous village in the sub-Arctic zone of northwestern Canada was standing in it!" It seemed unbelievable to me!

The kind voice of my Muslim driver brought me back to reality. He began to talk to me about the tea plantation. Tea pickers choose young leaves. They are export quality tea leaves.

Then I asked him, "Can I walk into the plantation to see it and take pictures?" "Yes," he replied. So, I entered the plantation. As I approached the tea pickers, I held up my camera to show them I was taking photos. I observed the workers and the tea plantation for 20-30 minutes. Then I returned to the van.

We continued our drive to the park headquarters. The driver began to tell me about the work day of tea pickers. He explained a picker earns 500 rupiah/kg of tea leaves. I asked, "How much can a typical picker pick in a day?" "Up to 20 kg in a day of work!", he replied. Quickly I did the arithmetic in my head. The daily earnings would be 10,000 rupiah or 1$CAN! I was stunned!

Then I began to think about the ethical implications about this kind of labour. It is not a paradise here! This wage sounds like slave labour to me!

Reference:
PROCEEDINGS, Twenty-third Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Stanford University, Stanford, California. January 26-28, 1998 SGP-TR- 158

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