TeV Gamma-ray Observations and the Origin of Cosmic Rays: I

This is the first of three plenary talks with the same title given at the 28th ICRC in Tsukuba, Japan in August, 2003. A brief description of the techniques for detecting gamma rays at TeV energies is followed by a summary of the observational status of the field. The expectations of the field from a cosmic ray perspective are compared with these early results. The majority of sources detected with some certainty are extragalactic; the observational status of these sources is summarized. The most complete set of observations are those dealing with the detection of blazars for which a catalog is presented. This discipline is now established as a new branch of observational astronomy.