Dhoby Ghaut () is a place in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

that often refers to the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station, a major interchange station on Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit network connecting the North-South Line,

North East Line The North East MRT line (NEL) is a high-capacity Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line in Singapore. Operated by SBS Transit, it is the shortest MRT line at . The line runs from HarbourFront station in southern Singapore to Punggol station in the no ...

, and the Circle Line. As a place, Dhoby Ghaut lies along the eastern end of

Orchard Road Orchard Road, often known colloquially as simply Orchard, is a major –long road in the Central Area of Singapore. Known as a famous tourist attraction, it is an upscale shopping area of Singapore, with numerous internationally renowned depa ...

. There is a shopping mall above the MRT station called

Plaza Singapura Plaza Singapura is a contemporary shopping mall located along Orchard Road, Singapore, next to Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. The mall is managed by CapitaLand and owned by CapitaMall Trust. There are retail outlets over seven floors and two basemen ...

Etymology

Dhoby Ghaut was influenced from ''

Dhobi Ghat Mahalakshmi Dhobi Ghat is an open air laundry place in Mumbai, India. It is located at Mahalaxmi railway station in southern Mumbai, it is also accessible from the Jacob Circle monorail station. The washers, known as '' dhobis'', work in t ...

'' , which literally means ''washerman's place'' in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

, from ''

dhobi Dhobi known in some places as Dhoba or Rajaka, Madivala is a group of community in India and the greater Indian subcontinent whose traditional occupations are washing and ironing, Cultivator, agricultural workers. They are a large community, ...

'', "washerman" or one that does

laundry Laundry refers to the washing of clothing and other textiles, and, more broadly, their drying and ironing as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with t ...

, and ''

ghat Ghat, a term used in the Indian subcontinent, depending on the context could refer either to a range of stepped hills with valleys (ghati in Hindi), such as the Eastern Ghats and Western Ghats; or the series of steps leading down to a body of ...

'', referring to a series of steps leading down to a body of water, as in the case of the Varanasi ghats by the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

. The Hindi term ''ghat'' passed into English usage during the

British occupation of India The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

, and was later

anglicised Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by English culture or British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English becomes English. It can also refer to the influen ...

to '' ghaut''. Around this time, the British had also ruled Singapore, which influenced naming this area.

Early history

Until the early 1900s, the ''dhobis'' used water from a clear stream that flowed into ''Sungai Bras Basah'', now Stamford Canal. This stream now exists as a large drain beside Handy Road. The ''ghats'', or steps leading down to the stream, were demolished when ''Sungai Bras Basah'' was canalised. The ''dhobis'' would then dry the laundry at Dhoby Green, the open park bounded by Stamford Road, Handy Road, Bras Basah Road and Prinsep Street.

References

External links

Reference from National Library of Singapore Infopedia Website
Places in Singapore Museum Planning Area Orchard Road Laundry places {{Singapore-geo-stub

Etymology

Early history

See also

References

External links