Little India Information Booklet - Methodist Girls' School
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction to Little India 3 Introduction to Little India Arcade 4 Tekka Market 5 Residence of Tan Teng Niah 7 Fun Facts 8 Bibliography [Credits] 11 For more information: http://tinyurl.com/explorelittleindia 2
INTRODUCTION TO LITTLE INDIA Little India (Tamil: ) is located near Rochor Canal. It is also commonly known as Tekka which is actually the name of the market in Little India. The market was originally known as Kandang Kerbau (or just KK), Malay for "buffalo pens", referring to the slaughterhouses operating in the area until the 1920s. In Hokkien, the market was known as Tek Kia Kha, literally meaning "foot of the small bamboos", as bamboo plants once grew on the banks of the Rochor Canal. This was adapted into the popular name Tekka Pasar(笛卡巴刹), where pasar is Malay for "market". Little India is not just for the Indians. You can see other races visiting Little India to shop and eat. One of the best examples of multi-culturalism in Singapore is that many Chinese parents in the early days used to go to the flour mills in Little India to grind rice to make congee for their infants. The machinery was flown in from India to grind spices into powder for use in Indian cuisine. As you will see on the trail, Little India differs from many other neighbourhoods in Singapore in many ways. Buffalo Road was one of the first roads in the Serangoon area, appearing on maps as early as 1836. This road got its name as cattle were kept there. It was also named after a village that once stood there. It was called ‘Kam Kong Ka La Bu’, a Chinese pronunciation of the Malay name ‘Kampong Kerbau’, which means ‘where buffaloes are kept’. Apparently more than a dozen Tamil astrologers lived together in a house on Buffalo Road which doubled as a fortune tellers’ centre. Apart from astrologers, various other types of fortune tellers also operated there: palmists, numerologists and parrot- astrologists. The parrot-astrologists trained parrots to select a card from a deck containing various prophetic messages. They then went to various places offering their services, especially during religious festivals. 3
LITTLE INDIA ARCADE Little India Arcade’s cluster of shop house buildings date back to the 1920s. They are home to a variety of renovated novelty shops and eateries. The buildings have been carefully preserved to retain the essence of the Indian aestheticsof the past. The winding alleys in the arcade are home to sweet shops, restaurants, and bookshops. A prominent landmark in the Little India district, it is a favourite haunt of tourists and locals looking for the best Indian buys. It not only sells silk saris, gold jewellery, knick knacks, silverware, handicrafts, souvenirs and other goodies from the Indian subcontinent, but also electronics and traditional Indian clothing. The Little India Arcade is the place to go to if you want to sample some of the scrumptious Indian food offered, like curry served on a banana leaf. A few of the Indian food stalls in the arcade are run by Chinese and Malays! Click on the subpage ‘Little India Arcade Cont’ and read up on Indian Sweets! 4
JOTHI STORE & FLOWER SHOP Indian garlands are used in Indian weddings, to symbolise a proposal of marriage. Consisting of flowers and thread, the garland signifies happiness, enthusiasm, excitement, aspiration, zeal and beauty, while the thread secures and links all these feelings and emotions together. Just as the thread never leaves the flower, married couples take vows never to leave each other, through the ups and downs in life. The Indian flower garlands can be seen as the true representation of a married couple sharing their lives with mutual understanding, love, trust, respect, faith and passion! TEKKA MARKET Named after bamboo clumps known as “Tekka” in Hokkien, the market is one of the main landmarks in Little India, where different ethnic communities come to shop. Tekka Market is also a good place to buy traditional Indian attire or shop for inexpensive casual clothes. Stop and listen! Do you hear the stall holders? Some Chinese shopkeepers speak fluent Tamil, while the Indian shopkeepers may converse in Mandarin dialects! In order to make their customers more comfortable, shop owners speak to customers in their preferred language! 5
The above mural is part of an SG50 project to revamp and decorate various hawker centres all over Singapore, to celebrate our nation’s Golden Jubilee. The project is named ‘Our Hawker Centres - A Heritage and Art Project’. Art students of many different races, from various schools, gather to paint these wall murals together, adding colours to the food centres. The wall painting of fish, at Tekka Centre, is one of the masterpieces by the LASALLE Art students! 6
RESIDENCE OF TAN TENG NIAH The history of this building dates back to 1900, when Tan Teng Niah, one of the few prominent Chinese businessmen in Little India, built it for his wife. This building is one of the last surviving Chinese villas in Little India. Said to be a hybrid of Southern Chinese and European architectural influences, the building won the Singapore Institute of Architects Honourable Mention Award in 1991. Not only can you experience Singapore’s Indian culture, you can also explore a Chinese Villa in the same place - Little India. 7
FUN FACTS Did you know? Unlike Chinatown and Kampong Glam which were places set aside for the Chinese and Malay community respectively, Little India was not planned as a designated area for the Indian community. Instead, the Indians were living in Upper Cross Street which was known as 'Kampong of the Indians' by the Chinese, while the Malays referred to it as 'Kampong Susu'. The Tamils called the street 'Pal Kampong' meaning 'Milk Kampong' because there were many Indian milk vendors there. In the early days, the various ethnic groups coined their own names for an area in their own languages. 8
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BIBLIOGRAPHY [CREDITS] 1. Unknown Author (January 1995). Little India Historic District. Singapore: URA Urban Redevelopment Authority 2. Johnny Chen (2012). Residence of Tan Teng Niah and Chinese Industries in Early Little India. Retrieved from: http://www.ghettosingapore.com. 3. Silk & Stone: Unknown author (2014). About Henna. Retrieved from: http://silknstone.com. 4. Unknown author (unknown date of publish). History of Indian Food. Retrieved from: http://www.haldiramusa.com. 5. CITI SKETCHA (February 2015). Musings of a Citi Sketcha Chinese New Year in Chinatown. Retrieved from: http://citi-sketcha.blogspot.sg. 6. Joanna Seow (April 2015). New Artwork for over 40 hawker centres before National Day. Retrieved from: http://www.straitstimes.com. 7. Unknown author (n.d.). Little India. Retrieved from: http://www.yoursingapore.com. 8. Unknown author (unknown date of publish). Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple Introduction. Retrieved from: http://www.yoursingapore.com. This Little India Trail was put together by the students of Methodist Girls’ School, Class of 2018 11
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