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While meandering through the BBD Bagh area today, we happened to stumble upon a curious sight: Kolkata’s Chinatown.
Today, hardly any ethnic Chinese live in Kolkata. Those who did – mostly merchant families brought there by the Brits in order to stimulate trade – moved to Vancouver, London and the US a long time ago.
Of the houses, nothing much is left to remind you of the people who once lived there. The exception is the one still-standing Chinese Temple. We were let in by the caretaker: a half-Indian gentleman who showed us the altars and told us a bit about the place.
In exchange for a small donation (40 rupees/1 USD), our friend Nils got to light candles and burn joss sticks. While the caretaker rung the temple bells and banged on the temple drum, we silently hoped that maybe this will help placate the Chinese ancestor spirits, whose relatives have all abandoned them for greener pastures.
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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 27th, 2010 at 5:15 am and is filed under Kolkata. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Rangan Datta
About Us
You know the saying, “to fly by the seat of your pants?” Well, that's been our philosophy for most of our adult lives – before and after meeting, falling in love and marrying. We're now taking that idea on an extended round-the-world trip. Follow us as we share the good, the bad and the downright nasty of life on the road.
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