Pitt Rivers Museum Anthropology and World Archaology

 

Asia

 

Block of tea

Tibet

 

Collector not known

Given to the Museum in 1935 by Harry Geoffrey Beasley

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In the early twentieth century bricks of tea were used in parts of Asia as currency. The brick could be divided into parts to make smaller denominations. This machine-compressed brick of tea from Tibet has impressed Chinese characters. It was not produced specifically to be used as currency.

View database record 1935.39.1