Tekka Centre is a multi-use building complex comprising a

wet market A wet market (also called a public market or a traditional market) is a marketplace selling fresh foods such as meat, fish, produce and other consumption-oriented perishable goods in a non-supermarket setting, as distinguished from " dry mark ...

food centre A hawker centre or cooked food centre is an open-air complex commonly found in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. They were built to provide a more sanitary alternative to mobile hawker carts and contain many stalls that sell different variet ...

and shops, located in the northern corner of

Bukit Timah Road Bukit Timah Road (; ms, Jalan Bukit Timah; ta, புக்கித் திமா சாலை) is a major road in Singapore extending from the city centre to Woodlands Road on the way to Johor Bahru in Malaysia. The road has a length of ...

and Serangoon Road, in

Little India, Singapore Little India ( ta, லிட்டில் இந்தியா) is an ethnic district in Singapore. It is located east of the Singapore River – across from Chinatown, located west of the river – and north of Kampong Glam. Both areas ...

next to

Little India MRT station Little India MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the North East (NEL) and Downtown (DTL) lines. The station is located at the junction of Bukit Timah Road and Race Course Road, on the boundary of the pla ...

Etymology and history

The case of Tekka Centre is often used to illustrate the complexities of

Chinese language romanisation in Singapore The romanisation of the Chinese language in Singapore is not dictated by a single policy, nor is its policy implementation consistent, as the local Chinese community is composed of a myriad of topolect groups. Although Hanyu Pinyin is adopted as t ...

. The market was originally known as "Kandang Kerbau" (or just "K. K."), Malay for " buffalo pens", referring to the

slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

s operating in the area until the 1920s, and the name still lives on in the nearby Kandang Kerbau Women's and Children's Hospital, Kandang Kerbau Police Station and the Kandang Kerbau Post Office. In

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...

, the market was known as ''Tek Kia Kha'', literally meaning "foot of the small

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...

s", as bamboo plants once grew on the banks of the

Rochor Canal The Rochor River ( zh, s=梧槽河; ms, Sungei Rochor) is a canalised river in Kallang of the Central Region in Singapore. The river is about 0.8 km in length. The Rochor River is a continuation of the Rochor Canal, and begins beneath ...

. This was adapted into the popular name Tekka Pasar (), where '' pasar'' is Malay for "market". The original market was built in 1915, and was located across the street between Hastings Road and

Sungei Road Sungei Road () is a road in Singapore situated between Serangoon Road and Jalan Besar and runs along the Rochor Canal. The area around Sungei Road formerly housed affluent Europeans and Asians, and many ornately designed buildings were built ...

. site, the new multi-use complex was named Zhujiao Centre (), the

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...

version of ''Tek Kha''. However, to locals, especially non-Chinese, the new word ''Zhujiao'' was both hard to read and pronounce and bore no resemblance to Tekka. Eventually, the complex was officially renamed Tekka Centre in 2000 as it better reflected the history of the place. The market was closed for a significant renovation in 2008, reopening in 2009. Little India's first air-conditioned mall,

Tekka Mall The Verge, formerly Tekka Mall, (Chinese: 德卡廊), was the first and largest modern shopping mall at the Little India precinct in Singapore, being opened in 2003. The Verge had two buildings, the main building and Chill @ The Verge. It was loc ...

, was built on the original site of the market in 2003.

Facilities

Tekka Centre remained a landmark in Little India, where different ethnic communities congregate. There are Chinese stallholders who speak

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

, and vice versa. Shops sell traditional Indian costumes and inexpensive casual clothes. Some of the more notable shops include those selling

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...

and

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

paraphernalia, hardware shops, and tailors who can alter clothes in minutes. Wet market in Tekka Centre, Singapore - 20030228

On the ground floor is a

hawker centre A hawker centre or cooked food centre is an open-air complex commonly found in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. They were built to provide a more sanitary alternative to mobile hawker carts and contain many stalls that sell different variet ...

with stalls which sell Indian vegetarian meals, served on banana leaves or on stainless steel platters, besides Chinese vegetarian,

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Cen ...

n and Malay food. At the wet market which was on the same level, stalls sell fresh seafood, especially crabs from Sri Lanka, and vegetables. There are also many Chinese stalls selling vegetables that are specially flown in from India. The centre is served by the adjacent

. There are also an underground car park and two taxicab stands. Amenities nearby includes the demolished shopping mall

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts. The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...

and Little India Arcade.

References

{{Singapore malls 1982 establishments in Singapore Hawker centres in Singapore Shopping malls in Singapore Rochor Hokkien place names