Tiretta Bazaar, is a neighborhood near

Lalbazar Lalbazar is a neighbourhood in Central Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is part of the central business district adjoining B.B.D. Bagh area. The headquarters of the Kolkata Police is located here (18, L ...

in Central

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. It is usually called Old China Market. The locality was once home to 20,000 ethnic Chinese Indian nationals, but now the population has dropped to approximately 2,000. Most of the

Hakka Chinese people The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhe ...

in the area moved closer to Tangra. The traditional occupation of the Chinese Indian community in Kolkata had been working in the nearby

tanning Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

industry as well as in Chinese restaurants. The area is still noted for the Chinese restaurants where many people flock to taste traditional Chinese and Indian Chinese cuisine.

History

The

bazaar A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, suc ...

is named after Edward Tiretta, an Italian immigrant from

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, who was a land surveyor and owner in the area during late 18th-century. During the time of

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-Genera ...

, the first governor-general of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, a businessman by the name of Tong Achi established a sugar mill, along with a sugar plantation at Achipur, from Calcutta, on the bank of the

Hooghly River The Bhagirathi Hooghly River (Anglicized alternatively spelled ''Hoogli'' or ''Hugli'') or the 'Bhāgirathi-Hooghly', called the Ganga or the Kati-Ganga in mythological texts, is the eastern distributary of the Ganges River in West Bengal, Indi ...

near the town of

Budge Budge Budge Budge () is a town and a municipality of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of West Bengal. It is situated on the eastern banks of the Hooghly River. It is a part of the area covered by the ...

. A temple and the grave of Tong Achi still remain and are visited by many Chinese Indians, who arrive from the city to celebrate

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Sinophone, Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly r ...

. One of the earliest records of immigration to India from China can be found in a short treatise from 1820. This records hints that the first wave of immigration was of

Hakkas The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan ...

but does not elaborate on the professions of these immigrants. According to a later police census, there were 362 Chinese in Calcutta in 1837. A common meeting place was the Temple of

Lord Guan Guan Yu (; ), courtesy name Yunchang, was a Chinese military general serving under the warlord Liu Bei during the late Eastern Han dynasty of China. Along with Zhang Fei, he shared a brotherly relationship with Liu Bei and accompanied him on ...

, the Martial God of Loyalty & Righteousness, located in the Chinese quarter near Dharmatolla. A certain C. Alabaster mentions in 1849 that Cantonese carpenters congregated in the Bow Bazar Street area. As late as 2006, Bow Bazar is still noted for carpentry, but few of the workers or owners are now Indians of Chinese origin. According to Alabaster, there were lard manufacturers and shoemakers in addition to carpenters. Running tanneries and working with leather were traditionally not considered "respectable" professions among upper-caste

Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

, and work was relegated to the so-called "lower caste" ''muchis'' and ''

chamar Chamar is a Dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of affirmative action. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna. ...

s''. Nevertheless, there was a significant demand, for high quality leather goods in

colonial India Colonial India was the part of the Indian subcontinent that was occupied by European colonial powers during the Age of Discovery. European power was exerted both by conquest and trade, especially in spices. The search for the wealth and prosper ...

, which Chinese Indians were able to fulfill. Alabaster also mentions "licensed"

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

dens, run by "native Chinese" and a "''Cheena Bazaar''", where "

contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes o ...

" was readily available. Opium, however, was not illegal until after

India's Independence The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...

from

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

in 1947. Immigration continued freely through the turn of the century and during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

partly due to political upheavals in China, including the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...

s, the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

and the Yihetuan Movement. Around the time of the First World War, the first Chinese-owned tanneries sprang up.

Transport

Road

Chittaranjan Avenue Chittaranjan Avenue, more commonly C.R. Avenue (Formerly Central Avenue), a principal north-south thoroughfare in Central-North Kolkata. It starts from Beadon Street (Dani Ghosh Sarani/Abhedananda Road) crossing (Girish Park) in the north and ...

(C.R. Avenue) and Rabindra Sarani pass through the area from north to south. Bepin Behari Ganguly Street (B.B. Ganguly Street) and Kshirode Vidyavinode Avenue (New CIT Road) pass through the area from east to west. Many bus routes follow these roads.Google maps

Train

Sealdah Station Sealdah (station code:SDAH) is one of India's major railway terminals serving the city of Kolkata. The other main railway stations in the Kolkata metropolitan region are , , and Santragachi. Sealdah Railway station is the busiest railway stat ...

and

B.B.D Bag railway station B.B.D Bag railway station is a Kolkata Suburban Railway station in BBD Bagh. It serves the local areas of BBD Bagh and Fairly Place in the Kolkata, West Bengal, India. This is a very important station and is mostly used by office goers. The sta ...

are the nearest railway stations of Tiretta Bazaar.

Gallery

File:Chinese New Year in Chinatown, Tangra, Kolkata, India.png, The Chinese New Year celebrated in Chinatown File:KolkataChinaTownOld.jpg, An

opium den An opium den was an establishment in which opium was sold and smoked. Opium dens were prevalent in many parts of the world in the 19th century, most notably China, Southeast Asia, North America, and France. Throughout the West, opium dens were fr ...

in the Chinatown, Kolkata, 1945 File:Chinese New Year Kolkata.jpg, Chinese New Year Celebration,

File:Morning Chinese Breakfast at Old Chinatown ~ Tiretta Bazar, Calcutta 02.JPG, Morning Chinese Breakfast at Tiretta Bazar File:Achipur.jpg, Chinese New Year Celebration, Achipur, near

File:CNY3.jpg, The Chinese New Year celebrated in

Notes

External links

Kolkata ChinaTownPhotos of Chinese New Year, CalcuttaPhotos of Chinese Temple, Tiretta Bazar, CalcuttaTrade changes Indo-Chinese relations - BBC.co.ukKolkata's Vanishing Chinatown
{{Kolkata topics Chinese-Indian culture Ethnic enclaves in India Neighbourhoods in Kolkata

Restaurant districts and streets in India India–Italy relations