Divine beauty nurtured in mud

A man collecting lotus flowers during the lotus season - which lasts from late May to August - at a lake in Hanoi, Vietnam, yesterday.

Many methods of making lotus tea now exist, but hand-harvesting lotus blossoms by boat and mixing their anthers with tea in order to get a unique fragrance is the most popular one. A batch of lotus tea is completed after 20 days.

Appearing in many legends, the unofficial national flower of Vietnam is viewed as a symbol of divine beauty. In Asian religions and cultures, especially Buddhism and Hinduism, the lotus flower is the embodiment of perfection.

The flower, despite being nurtured in mud, still grows out pure and glowing. In Vietnam, the elegance of the lotus is often cited in Vietnamese folk songs and poems, and lotus tea is said to combine the essences of the flower, the earth and the sky.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 28, 2020, with the headline Divine beauty nurtured in mud. Subscribe