Achik Tale Susime Wealth — What the Garo story of Susime teaches about the right relationship between wealth, honesty, and giving — and why the approach matters more than the outcome.
For further research, see the Garo people of Meghalaya.
From A’Chik Golporang (Garo Folklore) Part III, Story 8 (Susime) and Story 5 (Miko Man’a), collected by Dhoronsing K. Sangma. Susime is the wealth-giving spirit in Garo cosmology.
In the Garo hills, there was a spirit called Susime — Misi Biari Katchi Susime — who governed abundance. When a family’s cattle were healthy, when the harvest was good, when the cotton crop was thick and white in the jhum clearing, it was Susime’s doing.
But Susime was specific about who received this abundance.
The story in Part III of A’Chik Golporang describes the approach to Susime. Those who came with elaborate requests, with calculations about what they deserved, with demonstrations of how hard they had worked and therefore how much they were owed — these people Susime considered carefully, and then sent away with exactly what they had calculated they deserved. Which was less than they thought.
Those who came simply — who said, here is what I have, here is what I have done, here is what I need — these Susime regarded differently. The ones who did not perform their need. Who stated it plainly. Who were prepared to receive honestly or not at all.
The bamboo shrine to Susime in a Garo village was not elaborate. A few branches stuck in the ground. An honest offering. The prayer was simple: You bless others, so bless me. Not: I deserve more than the others. Not: look how much I have sacrificed. Just: you give to those who tend the forest, and I tend the forest, and here I am.
The Garo farmers who walked five days to the frontier markets to sell their cotton carried something of Susime’s logic with them. They came with what they had grown. They named the price it was worth. They did not stay beyond the second night for a negotiation. They had either been met honestly or they had not — and if not, they walked back into the hills with the cotton, which was still worth what it was worth.
The supply chain that dominates most agricultural trade is the opposite of Susime’s logic. It is built for the people who can perform the most — who can wait longest, transport farthest, package most convincingly. The farmer, who does the most fundamental work, performs the least and receives accordingly.
A garden selling its tea directly — without the auction, without the broker, without the brand that packages someone else’s leaves under its name — is Susime’s approach. Come with what you have. State the price it is worth. Do not stay beyond the second night for a negotiation. Be met honestly or return to the hills.
Every packet of Tea Story tea is a Susime transaction. No inflation, no performance, no elaborate calculation of what we are owed. The garden is in the West Garo Hills. The leaves are from this season. The price is the honest price for what this is. Susime, the storytellers say, recognises this approach.
The hills where this story lives are the same hills where our tea grows. Explore teas from West Garo Hills →
This story draws on A'Chik Golporang (Garo Folklore), compiled by Dhoronsing K. Sangma, published by Tura Book Room, Tura, Garo Hills, Meghalaya. This is an original English narrative — not a translation — using authentic Garo characters and situations as its creative foundation. We gratefully acknowledge the A'chik storytelling tradition.
Tea Story tea is grown in the West Garo Hills — where these stories live. Single-garden, no middlemen, re-brews three times. Explore our teas →
