Plan of Fort St George and the City of Madras in 1726. The Fort proper sits at bottom left, while George Town (marked out as “Black Town”) sits at bottom centre.

Our first walking tour of Old Madras takes in the two oldest sections of the city, both of which date from the initial founding of the city, some 370 years ago. They constitute Madras’ Old Town and make for a charming, though a little overwhelming visit.

Fort St George

The Secretariat Building dates from 1695, and has been successfully added to in the course of three centuries.

Fort St George, named after the patron saint of the English – he of the dragon – started as a modest trading settlement in 1640 on the Coromandel Coast. It was a fortified settlement, housing European – mostly Portuguese, but also English – merchant families who resided in the city.

The Fort as it stands today dates from 1783, after a French siege and brief occupation between 1746 – 1749 and a second French siege in 1758. In the aftermath of these two attacks, the British would strengthen fortifications and expand the size of the Fort, resulting in what the visitor sees today.

The Fort today is still the seat of the State Government and also the headquarters of the Army. Despite the high security all around, it is definitely possible for tourists to enter and to visit the parts of the Fort still open to the public. One just has to be very upfront and tell the guards what one’s intent is – and he or she would graciously spirit one past the lines of waiting citizens to the Fort Museum (which is the starting point).

Bear in mind, that given most structures in the Fort are occupied by Government and Military, photography is definitely not permitted.

The former Public Exchange, built in 1790, is today’s Fort Museum. It is well worth a visit for its collection of portraits of former Governors of Madras.

St Mary’s Church has the distinction of being the oldest British-built structure in the city, dating from 1680.

The interior of St Mary’s is an oasis of calm and a trove of (

Clive House, also known as Admiralty House, dates from the early 1700s. Formerly a private residence, today it houses the Archaeological Survey of India.

George Town

The Madras Headquarters of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank was built in 1923, and sits on North Beach Road (today’s Rajaji Salai). It was built in an Edwardian style

Just north of Fort St George sat “Black Town” – so called because it was home to the many local clerks, porters, weavers, interpreters and administrative personnel that worked in the Fort. The old Black Town was a planned city, as the map above shows. Unfortunately, it was razed by the French in the course of their sieges in the 1700s, and completely rebuilt by the British thereafter.

The area was renamed “George Town”, after the visiting Prince George of Wales (the future King George V); and it is Madras’ Old Town proper, bustling with commercial activity and everyday life.

In form and nature, it resembles its cousin, Georgetown in Penang, in that both European and local commercial and banking centres were located here; and the area is also home to a multi-cultural community. A delightful array of Hindu and Jain Temples, Mosques and Christian Churches of many different denominations may be found in the various neighborhoods here.

Our walk takes us down North Beach Road, which is the British commercial and civic heart of the city, and takes in a few other key streets such as Armenian Street (the heart of the Armenian community), Mint Street (where the Gujaratis and settled) and Popham’s Broadway, which, as its name suggests, was the Main Street of George Town.

Next door is the Indo-Saracenic General Post Office, built in 884 and designed by one of Madras’ foremost architects, Robert Chisholm. [My photo does not do it justice in the least!!]

The Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court.

The State Bank of India Building, completed at the turn of the 19th century, in an exuberant Indo-Saracenic style. Designed by Henry Irwin.

Transitioning to NSC Bose Road, we encounter the Madras Law College, built in 1899 and designed by architect, Henry Irwin.

Across from the Law College on NSC Bose Road sits the YMCA, completed in 1900 and designed in a Jaipur/Rajput style.

The Armenian Church, on Armenian Street, was built in 1772

St Mary’s Church is one of the oldest churches in Madras, having been erected by the Capuchins in the late 1600s.

The Binny’s Building, on Armenian Street, is home to one of the oldest commercial companies in the city.

The Shaw Wallace Building.

Sri Mallikeswarar Temple, on Linghi Chetty Street, was built in 1652.

Walnut Willies Building

Moving on to Popham’s Broadway, we come to the Wesleyan Chapel, dating from 1822.

The Masjid e Mamoor sits nearby.

Tucker’s Church dates from the early 1800s.

This spectacular Indo-Saracenic residence on Popham’s Broadway dates from the early 1900s.

Nearby sits another spectacular Indo-Saracenic residence.

Art Deco commecial architecture in the vicinity.

Neo-classical commercial shophouse architecture.

St Francis Xavier’s Church, on Popham’s Broadway, late 18th century.

Adikesava Perumal Temple, dating from 1565.

Tamil Wesley Church, on Popham’s Broadway, mid

Arcot Lutheran Church, Popham’s Broadway, late 1800s.

Centenary Hall, Popham’s Broadway, dating from 1901

Bhagwan Shri Parsvanathji Jain Temple, Mint Street.

Shree S S Jain Sangh Temple, Mint Street.

Kandaswamy Temple, Mint Street, built in the late 1800s.

Commercial shophouse architecture on Mint Street.

Another example of commercial shophouse architecture on Mint Street.

References:

• K. Kalpana and Frank Schiffer, 2003. Madras – The Architectural Heritage. An INTACH Guide. Chennai: INTACH.   This is an EXCELLENT and INDISPENSABLE resource and I couldn’t have done the city without this.  
• S. Muthiah, 2008. Madras Rediscovered. Chennai: Westland Limited.

View of Fort St George, on the Coromandel Coast, in the mid 1700s.

Memorial Hall was built in 1860 and designed in a Classical Greek style. It commemorates South India evading the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. Its facades were white Madras chunam – what was also used on the facades of many colonial-era buildings in Singapore.

This second part of our leisurely wander through Old Madras (today’s Chennai), takes us down three major thoroughfares in the city – Poonamallee High Road, Mount Road (and the suburb of Egmore), and South Beach Road along the Marina.

These roads play host to Old Madras’ largest colonial-era civic, cultural, educational and commercial buildings and institutions, most of these built later, in the 1800s and 1900s, when the city once again outgrew its boundaries and needed to expand westwards and southwards along the coast.

Many of the majestic colonial edifices on these thoroughfares still stand, though the roads themselves have become somewhat difficult to traverse on account of the traffic, save South Beach Road by the sea, which, then and now, makes for the most beautiful and restful promenade in the city.

Poonamallee High Road

Poonamallee High Road (today’s Periyar EVR Salai) – the city’s longest road – was built to link Fort St George to a British military installation some 23 kilometers west of the city.

Along the road, towards its Eastern end, sit the city’s most impressive civic institutions, including the Ripon Building (which was the seat of Government), the Victoria Public Hall (the city’s Town Hall), the Central Train Station and Moore Market (razed in the mid 1900s).

Our walk takes us from Memorial Hall westward to St Andrew’s Kirk.

The Southern Railway Headquarters were built in 1922 in an eclectic Neoclassical-Dravidian style.

Madras Central Railway Station opened in 1873. The main building was designed by George Harding in a Gothic Revival style, with the central tower designed by Robert Chisholm.

Siddique Sarai (1921), which sits opposite Madras Central Station, was built by a wealthy Muslim merchant to provide accommodation for Muslim travellers. The whole area around Poonamallee was and is still home to a sizeable Muslim community.

Victoria Public Hall was designed by Robert Chisholm in a Romanesque style. Opened in 1887, it is one of two buildings built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee (the other being the National Art Gallery in the Government Museum complex, Egmore).

The Neoclassical Ripon Building houses the Corporation of Madras. It was built in 1913 and named after Lord Ripon, Viceroy of India 1880 – 1884.

Residences on Sydenham Road, by the Ripon Building. Unfortunately, many of these have either been torn down, or have lost their distinctive wooden balconies.

St Andrew’s Kirk was completed in 1821. Designed in a Palladian style, it recalls the Church of St Martin’s in the Field in London.

Mount Road and Egmore

After Poonamallee High Road, the second longest road in the city is Mount Road (today’s Anna Salai), which links Fort St George to St Thomas Mount, towards the south-eastern edges of the city of Madras.

This was the commercial heart of the city in its heyday – the Regent and Oxford Streets of Madras, with fashionable boutiques and departmental stores standing alongside headquarters of banking and insurance institutions.

Our walk takes us from Rajaji Hall in the east, southwest to St George’s Cathedral. We take a detour, crossing the Cooum River to the suburb of Egmore, to end off in the grounds of the Government Museum Complex, Egmore.

The former Banquet Hall, today known as Rajaji Hall, was built in 1802 to commemorate British victory over Tippu Sultan. It is designed in a Neoclassical style.

P. Orr & Sons Building, on Mount Road, was designed by Robert Chisholm and completed in 1873. Then and today, it is a showroom for P. Orr & Sons, manufacturer of clocks and watches.

This Art Deco building houses Curzon & Co., furniture makers since 1898. The building was completed in 1910.

The former Kardyl Building (today’s Bharat Insurance) opened in 1897 and is one of the most spectacular buildings on Mount Road.

Higginbothams is one of the oldest bookshops not only in Madras, but in India. This flagship store was opened in 1904. The interior is also delightfully period in ambience.

Next door to Higginbothams is Poompuhar, built in the late 1800s.

Gove Building opened in 1916 and was designed in a Victorian exposed brick style.

The Mail occupies a building which dates from 1921.

Nearby is India Silk House, built in the early 1900s.

Christ Church (1852), on Mount Road, is built in a Palladian style.

Lawrence & Mayo, early 1900s. Note the wooden balcony.

State Bank of India, early 1900s.

Agurchand Mansion, late 1800s.

The Thousand Lights Mosque Complex includes this unique circular Assembly Hall. It was built in the early 1800s by the Nawabs of the Carnatic.

St George’s Cathedral was built in 1816. Its surfaced are finished with Madras chunam.

The Tamil Nadu Archives, in Egmore, was built in 1909.

Egmore Railway Station was designed by Henry Irwin in the Indo-Saracenic style and built in 1908.

The Freemason’s Hall in Egmore was built in 1924 in a Neoclassical style.

The Madras Museum Complex (today known as Government Museum) houses many structures. This is the Museum Theatre, built in the late 1800s in an Italianate style.

The former Victoria Memorial Hall was designed by Henry Irwin in a Mughal-Rajput style and opened in 1909. It was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Today it sits in the Government Museum complex and houses the National Art Gallery.

South Beach Road and the Marina

South Beach Road (today’s Kamarajar Salai) and the Marina stretches some 4 km in length from the Cenotaph to the All-India Radio Building in the South. Along this stretch of road sit various monumental, Indo-Saracenic structures that had been designed by the most important architect of colonial Madras: Robert Chisholm.

Here too sits the Chepauk Palace, once the residence of the Nawabs of the Carnatic. Their lands and titles were absorbed by the British in the 1800s and the palace itself was similarly absorbed and taken over by the University.

Our walk takes us south from the Cenotaph to Queen Mary’s College for women.

The Cenotaph, on South Beach Road.

Madras University, with its iconic clock-tower, was built in 1913.

The Senate House, which sits within the campus of Madras University, was designed by Robert Chisholm, and is probably his finest creation. It was completed in 1879 and designed in an Indo-Saracenic-Byzantine style.

Waterfront-facing apartments on South Beach Road.

The Chepauk Palace complex (1768), absorbed within the campus of Madras University, was once the residence of the Nawabs of the Carnatic. This particular tower, inspired by Gujarati architecture, was designed by Robert Chisholm and built in 1871.

The Public Works Department (1865) was designed by Robert Chisholm in an Indo-Saracenic style.

Presidency College (1870) was also designed by Robert Chisholm in an Italianate style.

Just off South Beach Road is the neighborhood of Triplicane, which plays host to the Muslim community that migrated here with the Nawabs of the Carnatic. The Wallajah Mosque was built in 1795 by the Nawab Wallajah (hence the name). It continues to serve the religious needs of the community here.

The former University Examination Hall was built in 1935 in an Art Deco style. Today it houses the Oriental Research Institute.

View of the Marina – this is a long stretch of beach and coastline. It is immensely popular with families.

The Ice House was built in 1842 and was used to store ice imported from America. Today it is used by the Vivekananda Institute.

Queen Mary’s College was founded in 1914 and was earlier known as the Madras College for Women.

References:

• K. Kalpana and Frank Schiffer, 2003. Madras – The Architectural Heritage. An INTACH Guide. Chennai: INTACH.  This is an EXCELLENT and INDISPENSABLE resource and I couldn’t have done the city without this.  
• S. Muthiah, 2008. Madras Rediscovered. Chennai: Westland Limited.

We end our tour with a backward glance at the Museum Theatre, at the Madras Museum Complex, Egmore.

Santhome Basilica.

In 52 A.D., so it is said, St Thomas – one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ – landed at the Malabar Coast (the South-west Coast) of India, and travelled across the sub-continent to the ancient (and magnificent) port city of Mylapore on the Coromandel Coast (the coast of what is today’s Tamil Nadu).

There, he preached the word of God by the waters of the Bay of Bengal, and atop a hill which bears his name today. The St Thomas Christians of South India – an ancient Christian denomination using Syriac as their liturgical language – also owe their name to him.

St Thomas was struck down – so it is said – in 72 A.D. and buried by the shore. A small shrine and church was built over his grave. This would be torn down and replaced by the Nestorian Christians at the turn of the 1st millenium; by the Portuguese in the 15th century, and finally by the British in the 19th century.

Santhome was the Portuguese settlement that emerged and huddled around the Portuguese church of St Thomas near the Mylapore shore. Today, it continues to bear the name Santhome, despite the settlement being absorbed into British Madras, and then Madras itself being renamed the city of Chennai by an Independent Republic of India.

The Basilica of San Thome, as it stands today, is a soaring Neo-Gothic confection built by the British in 1896. It is holds the distinction as one of a handful of Basilicas in the world that hold the remains of one of the Twelve Apostles, the most notable being St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

Santhome is a small Christian enclave in the larger Hindu city of Mylapore, which has existed for millenia along the Coromandel Coast, and – so it is also said – was the major port city from which Tamil merchants took their culture and language across the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia.

Certainly, Mylapore today is still home to some of the most important Hindu temples in the city of Madras, with some of the most impressive and breath-taking gopurams I had ever seen.

The most important of these temples is the Kapaleeswarar Temple, which, in its present form, dates from the early 18th century; but has existed on the site from at least the 7th century. A visit to the temple is essential for a first-hand account of just how important a religion Hinduism continues to be in (Southern) India, and to appreciate the distinctive architecture of the Tamils.

Santhome / Mylapore

Front view of the splendidly Gothic Santhome Basilica.

Interior of Santhome Basilica.

Close-up of the Virgin Mary, Santhome Basilica.

Across the street from Santhome Basilica is the (Catholic) Church of the Holy Rosary. It is far older than the present Basilica, having been built by the Portuguese (in the Portuguese style) in 1635.

Also in Santhome is Luz Church – the oldest surviving church in the city of Madras, having been built in the mid-1500s by the Portuguese Franciscans in a distinctively Luso-Iberian style.

The small but elaborately-adorned interior of Luz Church.

Another view of the interior.

The Ramakrishna Mission Student’s Home (1921) is an orphanage for poor children.

The impressive Gopuram of the Kapaleeswarar Temple.

Structures within the Kapalesswarar Temple Complex.

The Temple’s Tank.

A close-up of the gopuram of Kapaleeswarar Temple.

Another temple (need help identifying which temple this is!)

St Thomas Mount

Entrance to St Thomas Mount.

The winding way up to the Shrine.

The National Shrine of St Thomas Mount, built in 1726.

The interior of the Shrine.

Wesley English Church, in the vicinity of St Thomas Mount.

An old marker, St Thomas Mount.

References:

• K. Kalpana and Frank Schiffer, 2003. Madras – The Architectural Heritage. An INTACH Guide. Chennai: INTACH.  This is an EXCELLENT and INDISPENSABLE resource and I couldn’t have done the city without this.  
• S. Muthiah, 2008. Madras Rediscovered. Chennai: Westland Limited.

We conclude with a backward glance at the Santhome Basilica. With this, my tour of Old Madras is complete.

The Connemara Hotel today.

The Connemara Hotel was the grande dame of the Madras hospitality scene. Its earliest incarnation was a private residence bought in 1815 by one of the foremost merchants of the city at the time, Mr John Binny. The road on which the hotel sits today – Binny Road – still bears his name.

It was sold and became, first in 1867, the Imperial Hotel and then in 1886, the Albany Hotel, before finally becoming the Connemara Hotel in 1891, when it was sold to yet another major merchant house in Madras – the M/S Spencer & Co.

The Connemara Hotel in its heyday in the ’40s and ’50s. Source: The Henslet Photo Library, hosted on The Digital South Asia Gallery, University of Chicago.  http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley/large.html?id=m057

The hotel was named after Lord Connemara, who was Governor of Madras from 1886 – 1890. The land it stands on had belonged to the Nawab of Arcot (also the Nawab of the Carnatic).  Lord Connemara and the Nawab had been fast friends, and indeed, a portrait of the two gentlemen still hangs today just off the lobby of the Hotel.

The Lobby of the Connemara Hotel today.

Portrait of the Nawab of Arcot and Lord Connemara.

Photos of a bygone past dot the hotel today.

The Hotel as it stands today is an Art Deco building which was completed and re-opened in 1937. It used to stand on the edge of a large grassy plain though unfortunately, much of its front court today has been replaced by a huge thoroughfare and the hotel building abuts its own wall.

Post World War II and after the Indian Republic gained its independence from the British, the hotel management refurbished the premises once more, and invited, as its interior designer, a certain Geoffrey Bawa from Ceylon. The latter, of course, would become the most important architect from Sri Lanka, known for having originated the Tropical Modernism movement in contemporary architecture.

The grand stairway and the wooden panel it leads up to were designed by Geoffrey Bawa, who tried to infuse a kind of tropical/South Indian modernism onto a colonial, Art Deco aesthetic – to mixed results, I must say.

Corridor in the historic wing of the hotel.

Tropical gardens in the courtyard of the historic wing.

The hotel today is managed by the Taj Group and has been renamed Vivanta by Taj – Connemara. It is positioned as a business hotel, and has lost much of its historic grandeur. Nonetheless, a stay within its walls is still a pleasant experience, due to its excellent dining establishments, the wonderfully atmospheric rooms in its historic wing, and the restful environment at its lovely swimming pool.

The ground floor suites in the historic wing are well-appointed and boast these double-volume ceilings, that in the old days, would have functioned to promote air circulation.

Each ground floor suite has a sitting area which opens out onto the swimming pool.

The lovely, and extremely restful swimming pool.

South Indian poriyal, accompanied by papadum. I loved the poriyal, which is a kind of stir-fried vegetable dish with shredded coconut flesh. The main vegetable changes everyday and could be okra, cabbage, mallow gourd, etc. Simple yet absolutely scrumptious!!!

The hotel’s other restaurant, The Raintree, serves exquisite South Indian food and looks like it could have also been designed by Geoffrey Bawa. A highlight its its chutney pushcart.

Reference:

• The Great House on Choultry Plain, a commemorative volume published by Vivanta by Taj Connemara Chennai, and available for purchase at Reception.

We take a final glance back at the Vivanta by Taj Connemara Chennai.

Next stop on The Grand Tour III: Pondicherry (Puducherry) 

So I did a podcast interview with Thomas L. Fraser about Asian Civilisations Museum Singapore, the challenges of being a Museum Director and what to look out for if you’re thinking of giving to a Museum.

This arose from an earlier blogpost right here on Dream Of A City where I shared what I’d learnt after 8 months on the job – specifically what the Job Description “Museum Director” covers.

Big thank you to Thomas!

Listen to it at Thomas’ blog: https://www.tlfraser.com/podcast-17

Le Café, Pondicherry waterfront.

Pondicherry was established in 1674, when La Compagnie française des Indes orientales, otherwise known as the French East India Company acquired a plot of land on the Coromandel Coast from the Sultan of Bijapur.

As trading settlements went, Pondicherry was a rather late phenomenon. The Portuguese had established Goa in 1511, the Dutch Pulicat in 1609, the Danes Tranquebar in 1624 and the British Madras in 1639. Pondicherry itself had been fought over by the French, Dutch and English, and held onto a precarious toehold for much of its existence.

Map of Pondicherry in 1778, showing the walled settlement on the waterfront.

The former headquarters of the French East India Company in Pondicherry.

Then as today, the settlement of Pondicherry consisted of a cluster of some dozen enclaves entirely surrounded by British Madras State (today’s State of Tamil Nadu).  The heart of Pondicherry is the old town that sits on the waterfront. Here, a walled settlement used to stand – with a tiny fragment of that wall continuing to exist at the northern edge of the waterfront.

The man most associated with Pondicherry and the French colonial effort in India, is the Marquis Dupleix, Governor-General of French India from 1742 – 1754. He it was, who, harboring ambitions of a far larger French empire in India, provoked the British into a serious of sieges and wars that resulted in the loss of much of Pondicherry’s territory.

Nevertheless, he was accorded posthumous recognition when the Second French Empire, under the reign of Napoleon III, erected a statue in his honour here in Pondicherry in 1870.  The statue still stands on the southern edge of Goubert Avenue – the settlement’s lovely water-front thoroughfare.

The only remaining fragment of the old wall.

Marquis Dupleix

Commemorative tablet.

Pondicherry is perhaps best known for Goubert Avenue and its rocky waterfront. Here in the evenings, Pondicherrians emerge to take in the sea breeze and to bathe in the tepid seawater. Unfortunately, the architecture along the waterfront itself is rather less inspiring.

As a matter of fact, Pondicherry as a whole lacks the kind of imposing imperial monumental architecture that its sister city Madras boasts. The city has a quiet and laid-back provincial feel, laid out, as it were, on a simple grid pattern, with verdant tree-lined boulevards and streets.

Pondicherry Waterfront

Recently standing – the Hotel de Ville, or Town Hall of Pondicherry, built in 1870.

Fallen into disrepair, the Hotel de Ville finally collapsed in November 2014. This is all that remains today.

Cenotaph.

Jeanne D/Arc (Joan of Arc) Statue.

Like Madras and Calcutta, Pondicherry is divided into White Town (or the French Quarter), on the waterfront, and Black Town (the Tamil Quarter), the latter separated from the former by a canal.  Black Town, which is twice the size of White town, is in turn segregated into Hindu, Christian and Muslim sectors.  This results in an urban landscape that is multi-cultural in its outlook.

Colonial facade in the French Quarter

Vielles maison française – patrimoine historique. This is a listed house.

Restored French colonial residence, French Quarter.

Co-existence of French and Tamil traditions.

Tamil Quarter, Pondicherry

Tamil Quarter, Pondicherry

The bustling Tamil Quarter is the city’s commercial centre.

Hindu Temple, Tamil Quarter.

Kutpa Mosque, Tamil Quarter

Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Tamil Quarter.

When India gained its independence from the British in 1947, Pondicherry, and the other territories of French India (the coastal enclaves of Karaikal, Yanam, Mahe and Chandernagore) remained French till 1962, when the French Parliament agreed to cede these territories to India. These territories (save Chandernagore) merged to become the Union Territory of Pondicherry, directly administered from New Delhi.

The transition had been peaceful. Unlike the British and the Portuguese in Goa, the French had been more than willing to return its territories to India. As a reward, they were allowed to stay – and even today, one sees a strong presence of French schools and non-government organisations, such as the Alliance Française and L’École Française d’Extrême Orient.

Meanwhile, the streets retain their French names, delightfully spelt out on blue and white signs, the likes of which are to be found in Paris. The city still oozes a French vibe. And the food here is perhaps the best in all the Indian port cities I had travelled to thus far – certainly, this is the only place in India where one could have a hearty steak-frites à la française.

And every steak-frites I had was simply delectable.

Gandhi Statue, Goubert Avenue.

Rue Romain Holland.

Alliance Franc

Street Art

Steak-frites.

Cour d’Appel (Court of Appeals), erected in 1766 as the Hôtel de la Marine. Avenue Goubert.

We begin our tour of Pondicherry in the Ville Blanche, or White Town. This is the town the French built, and it as Gallic and Mediterranean as it can be, thousands of miles away from Marseille.

Most of the buildings here date from the mid-1800s, after the British razed the city in one of the many skirmishes between the French and the British to claim ownership of the city.

French town itself is small, extending only four blocks deep from the waterfront.  The streets here maintain their French names, and are remarkably pleasant, lined as they are with verdant trees and low-rise colonial edifices.

There aren’t monuments per se, but the city contains the typical trappings of a French colony – civic and commercial institutions like a public library, public works department, schools and a cercle sportif – the equivalent of the gentleman’s club in les regions francophones.

Our walk first takes in Avenue Goubert – the city’s lovely though a tad sleepy waterfront boulevard – from end to end. We dive into the heart of the French Quarter, around the former Place du Gouvernement, today’s Bharathi Park. Finally, we hunt down civic institutions and vieilles maisons françaises (old French houses) along the main streets.

Avenue Goubert

L’Alliance française (situated in the former Maison Colombani).

Waterfront residences.

Ajantha Sea View Hotel

Colonial edifice.

Colonial edifice

Waterfront facades

Notre Dame Des Anges (1855)

Interior of the Cathedral.

War Memorial (1937)

La Douane (Customs House).

Le phare (Lighthouse, 1835)

Messagéries Maritimes (1862)

Colonial facades

French Consulate, dates from the late 1700s.

Institut Français du Pondichéry

Autour du Place du Gouvernement

Park Monument (1863), in the former Place du Gouvernement (today’s Bharathi Park)

Chambre de Commerce (1849)

Former Banque de l’Indochine (1875), today’s UCO Bank.

Legislative Assembly (Former Medical College, 1863)

Cercle de Pondicherry (1899)

Governor’s Palace (1768), formerly the headquarters of the French East India Company.

Elsewhere

L’École Française d’Extrème Orient, Rue Dumas

Lycée Français (1826), Rue Victor Simon

Bibliothèque Publique (1827) – public library

The Manakkula Vinayagar Temple in the French Quarter dates from before the French arrived in 1666. It is the only Hindu Temple in the French Quarter.

Travaux Publiques (1766) – Public Works Department

École primaire – primary school

Administration Générale Inspection du Travail

Foyer du Soldat

Jardins Botaniques (1826)

Palais de Mahé

Rue de Bussy

Vielle maison française

Golconde, the Modernist dormitory for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, built in 1942.

Vieille maison française belonging to the Sri Aurobindo Society.

Hindu Temple in the Tamil Quarter.

The Tamil Quarter (or erstwhile “Black Town”) of Pondicherry sits to the West of the French Quarter. It was separated from the latter by a Grand Canal that bisected downtown Pondicherry, and still runs through the city today.

In size, the Tamil Quarter dwarfs the French Quarter, being a good 3 – 4 times larger.  In typical colonial fashion, the quarter is further segregated into a Hindu Quarter to the North, and Christian (Catholic) Quarter west and centre, and a Muslim Quarter to the South, each of which have their own unique architecture and places of worship.

Notably, the Hindu Quarter boasts the city’s most important Hindu Temples, with their soaring, majestic gopurams; while the Christian and Muslim quarters host the city’s oldest mosques and most exquisite churches.

The most interesting walks in the Tamil Quarter are to be taken along Vysial Street (also known as Chetty Street) in the Hindu Quarter and Mullah and Cazy Streets in the Muslim Quarter, where one can see dozens of historic Tamil residences in good condition.  The city’s Grand Bazaar (also known as Goubert Market) sits in boundaries between the Christian and the Hindu Quarters.

This tour first takes us North to South from the Hindu Quarter, through the Christian Quarter to the Muslim Quarter.

The former grand canal, which divides Old Pondicherry into the French and Tamil Quarters.

The Hindu Quarter

Collège Calvé Soupraya Chettiar was opened in 1875 to educate Hindus of caste and Muslims. Today it is a Government High School. Note the eclectic East-West architectural style.

Kamatchi Amman Kovil is known for its pink gopuram.

Unfortunately, during my stay in Pondicherry, the major temples appeared to be undergoing extensive restoration. This is Perumal Kovil, along Gandhi Street – one of two great temples that dates from at least the early 1700s.

Just down the street is Isvaran Dharmaraja Kovil, built in the late 1700s and also under restoration.

A typical Tamil house along Vysial Street, with a thinnai, or verandah on the ground floor with masonry along the sides for visitors to sit on. Wooden pillars hold up a terracotta roof.

INTACH Pondicherry Headquarters, in a typical Tamil House.

Ecole Soussilabai, established in 1940 on Vysial Street, was a gift of M. N. Selvaradjalou Chettiar. Vysial Street itself was home to the Chettiar community.

Historic Tamil house facades, Vysial Street. The street, also known as Rue Calve Subraya Chetty, is named after the gentleman who established the Calve College.

Sri Aurobindo Street, Hindu Quarter.

The Christian Quarter and Bazaars

The Cathedral of our Lady of Immaculate Conception was built in 1791, in the style of the Jesuits.

The bright interior of the Cathedral.

Société Mutuelle des Créoles, established 3 July 1883 in Pondicherry.

The Grand Bazaar, today’s Goubert Market, was established in 1826.

The Modéliar Clocktower was built in 1851 in the Grand Bazaar.

Chinna Mani Kundu, donated by Cou Latchoumanasamy Chettiar in 1892, stands at the site of the former Petit Bazaar.

Sacré-Coeur de Jésus Cathedral was built in 1902 in the Neo-Gothic style.

The Interior of the Cathedral, with stained glass windows made in Alsace in 1908.

The Muslim Quarter

The Muslim Quarter boasts traditional Tamil houses with variations to ornamentation and adornment to reflect the religion of their inhabitants.

Moullah Street, Muslim Quarter.

Exquisite Tamil house dating from 1933 in the Muslim Quarter. Inscription at the top reads “C.M.S. 1933”.

The Meeran Mosque dates from the late 1600s and is the oldest mosque in the city.

The Jama Masjid (Friday Mosque), also known as Kutpa Mosque, also dates from the 1600s and predates the French arrival.

Moullah Mohammed Mosque.

Tower in the Muslim Quarter, at the junction of Cazy and Mullah Streets. Inscription reads “C.M.S. 1936”.

And finally, another beautiful Tamil house in the Muslim Quarter.

The Grand Hotel D’Europe, established by Mr E. Magry (a French creole) in 1891.

La grande dame d’ancienne scène d’hospitalité à Pondichéry, c’était le Grand Hôtel d’Europe, établi par Monsieur E. Magry (qui était un de la communauté créole de la ville) en 1891. Malheureusement l’hôtel a été fermé en 1996 et puis, abandonné. Aujourd’hui il continue à se tenir à son adresse originale à lui, mais ses meilleures jours lui étais terminé depuis longtemps; et il a perdu même les vestiges d’un lointain passé glorieux.

A vintage view of the Grand Hotel d’Europe.

A view of the hotel today, with its overgrown bougainvillea. The hotel closed its doors in 1996, after more than 100 years in operation.

A view into the inner courtyard of the Grand Hotel d’Europe, bereft of any vestige of its former glory.

Et donc, au lieu de ce grand établissement fané, j’ai choisi à me dépositer à un autre très bon hôtel qui avait l’atmosphère forte de lointain.

Hôtel de l’Orient se tient sur la très pittoresque Rue Romain Rolland, qui se trouve au centre du quartier français.  Le bâtiment remonte aux années 1760, quand Pondichéry a été fondée par la Compagnie française pour le commerce des Indes orientales. Il était une maison privée, habitée par une famille française pendant le 19ème siècle. Puis, la maison avait été occupée depuis 1952 par le département de l’instruction publique dont le panneau se trouve encore au-dessus de la porte d’entrée.

La maison a été vendue en 1998 à Neemrana Hotels, qui l’ont fait restaurée jusqu’a ce que l’atmosphere du 18ème siècle a été recréé, et qui l’a transformé à un hôtel de charme. Et alors, c’est dans une très belle atmosphère dont j’ai passé une demi-semaine à la ville français dans l’Inde.

The Hotel de L’Orient, on the pictoresque Rue Romain Rolland. It was built in the 1760s as a private residence. 

From 1952, the building was home to the Department of Public Education. It was sold to the Neemrana Group in 1998. 

The building was extensively restored to its former splendour by the Neemrana Group.

The courtyard of the hotel.

The historic property evokes Pondicherry in the 1800s.

This is a view of my room – the Balassore.

Another view of the simple but comfortable Balassore Room.

The Neemrana Shop sells exquisite merchandise and a small but fascinating array of French-language novels set in Pondicherry and Goa.

Another view of the historic facade.

At night, the hotel’s restaurant – Carte Blanche – comes alive and has magical, nos

The food, like this steak, was to die for. The restaurant specialised in French-Tamil Creole food too.

I bid farewell to Hotel de L’Orient, and to Pondicherry.

References: 

• http://hotel-de-lorient.neemranahotels.com/history

View of the Taj Mahal from the Mehtab Bagh, across the Yamuna River. Author’s photograph taken February 2017.

When I first started work one of the things I was determined to do was to take my love for cities and for travel into the museum, on the understanding that CITIES and TRAVEL were two things that resonated strongly with the contemporary Singaporean visitor, who loves travel and who – living in a major city – would understand and be further curious about the condition of urban living.

The means by which I have introduced CITIES and URBAN LIVING as a theme, is to ensure that in each special exhibition we have done so far, there is a (perhaps voyeuristic) window onto life in the city at the time.

This was certainly the case for our exhibition, Port Cities – Multi-cultural Emporiums of Asia, 1500 – 1900, wherein our Guest Curator (whose own love for port cities and lives therein aligned with mine), did not shy away from depicting everyday life, messy or beautiful, in the dozen or so historic Asian port cities we featured.

This was also case for Cities and Kings – Ancient Treasures from Myanmar, where the over-arching curatorial narrative was a journey through Burmese history with stops at five of its major cities – Sri Ksetra (Pyu city-states period), Bago, Bagan, Mandalay and Rangoon.

Finally, the recent Joseon Korea – Court Treasures and City Life also featured a section on everyday living in Hanyang – the Joseon capital, which has become today’s Seoul.

The reader would notice that my particular commitment to CITIES has also meant that all three special exhibitions at the museum I’ve opened as director thus far have had the word “cities” in their title.

What about TRAVEL?

The interesting thing about Asian Civilisations Museum, is that a visit to the museum is akin to travelling across Asia, or – in the case of special exhibitions like Joseon Korea or Cities & Kings – a journey to one particular nation or civilisation in Asia.

Every visit to ACM is tantamount to a virtual-tangible trip (“virtual” because you’re not actually there, but “tangible” because you’re viewing actual, physical artefacts) to one of the great historic sites and monuments in our grand continent; or, alternatively, a journey by sailboat, steamship or camel caravan across oceans or deserts.

Step into the Tang Shipwreck Gallery and be swept away on an Arab dhow journeying 1000 years ago across the Indian Ocean from the Arabian Peninsula, bound for the port city of Yangzhou on China’s glittering coast, where it would pick up its precious cargo of more than 60,000 pieces of ceramics, silver and gold.

Continue on to our Trade Galleries where you experience being on a Dutch or English East India Company sailing ship, departing from the port cities of Nagasaki or Canton or Calcutta or Batavia, cargo holds laden with exquisite goods like Chinese porcelain, Japanese namban lacquer, Ceylonese ivory caskets or Batavian ebony chests.

Explore our soon-to-be-opened Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Ancient Religions Galleries and relive the epic journey Buddhist monks in the Tang and later dynasties took to India to study Buddhist scriptures and take them to the Far East.  One of these journeys would be immortalised as the novel, Journey to the West 西遊記 featuring the exploits of familiar characters, Tripitaka 玄奘, Monkey 孫悟空, Pigsy 豬八戒 and Sandy 沙僧, and the benevolent gaze of Guanyin 觀世音菩薩 (the Goddess of Mercy).

To underscore my commitment to travel in the years to come, the museum will be introducing greater contextual material and design in the permanent galleries.

By contextual material, I mean historic maps, paintings, photos and other views of ports, urban settlements, historic monuments, ships and people, so the visitor would get a vivid sense of where the artefact or work of art he or she is admiring would have hailed from.

By contextual design, I mean introducing elements of architecture and intangible heritage into the interior design and captioning of the permanent galleries; so that the physical experience in the museum would be more immersive.

Thus will I “engineer” museum visit as actual intrepid travel to ancient and faraway lands where one learns, first-hand, about the cultures and civilisations of Others, and therefore of one’s self.

Stay tuned…

View of the Taj Mahal from the Mehtab Bagh, across the Yamuna River. 1800s Indian Company School watercolour.

Channeling Denmark in Tamil Nadu – Fort Dansborg, commissioned by Over Gjedde in 1620. It has undergone successive restorations, most recently in the 2000s.

To the south of Pondicherry sits a somewhat laidback and half-forgotten port city, which for more than 200 years, was the capital of a modest Danish colonial empire in India. This is the city of Tranquebar, or Trankebar in Dansk.

The Danish East India Company, established in 1616, arrived on the shores of the Coromandel Coast in 1620. At a settlement known by the local Tamils as Tharangambadi, they would set up shop literally, leasing a tiny waterfront plot of land from the ruling Tanjavur Kingdom; and from this waterfront settlement, exporting pepper and other Indian and later, Southeast Asian goods back to Europe.

One of the first things the Danes – led by Danish Admiral Ove Gjedde, whose name is still commemorated in the city – then proceeded to built here, was a large medieval fort and castle known today as Fort Dansborg. For a time, this was the second largest Danish fort and castle in the world, after Kronborg Castle in Helsingor (the basis for Elsinore in Shakespeare’s Hamlet).

Around the castle, they would built a walled Danish town, with orderly gridlines and European houses. The entrance, or Landporten, of the town still stands – this was built in 1792, and very recently (over-)restored – but the rest of the wall no longer exists.

Landporten – City Gates, circa 1792. This is the side of the Gates facing Tranquebar. The gates have been (over-) restored.

View of Trankebar, 1658, with Fort Dansborg at left. [Public domain.]

Model of a Danish East India Company sailing ship, in the Danish Museum (housed in Fort Dansborg).

Another important Danish import was the Tranquebar Mission, established in 1706 not by the Danes but by two German Lutheran missionaries, the Herrs Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau. The former gentleman is perhaps the most important personage associated with the city.  He it was, who established the city’s main church – the New Jerusalem Church in 1718.   The church still stands today – and Herr Ziegenbalg’s remains are interred in its premises, alongside those of other Danes who had lived in the city.

Memorial to the landing of Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau in 1706. The memorial was erected in 1906.

Another memorial, erected in 2006, commemorating the Ter-centenary of the Tranquebar Mission – today’s Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church. The memorial incorporates a statue of Ziegenbalg.

The New Jerusalem Church, built in 1718 in a Danish-Indian eclectic style. The Royal Monogram on the main facade is that of King Frederick IV of Denmark, who reigned from 1699 to 1730.

View of the interior of the church

Danish gravestones in the church.

At its peak, Tranquebar was the capital of a Danish India that included Serampore in Bengal, the Nicobar Islands, and a few other, shortlived outposts.  Tranquebar itself was the heart of a larger Danish settlement that extended landwards to the town of Porayar. In Porayar, today sits another important Church established by the Danes – the Bethlehem Church – the second Protestant Church in India, established in 1746.

Bethlehem Church (1746), in Porayar.

Danish tombstone in the grounds of the Bethlehem Church.

The Danes would sell Tranquebar to the British in 1845, after having occupied it for 225 years.  This transfer of sovereignty sealed the city’s fate, and it dwindled from a major port and transhipment hub, to a sleepy backwater town. The Tranquebar Mission remained, however, and continues to cater to the local Christian community to this very day.

Since 2002, significant efforts have been made by the Danish Tranquebar Association and the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) to restore major monuments and historic buildings in Tranquebar.  And so many of the major monuments – not just the European buildings but also some Hindu temples and Tamil houses – have been immaculately restored.

In my view, however, some of the buildings have been overly restored – a case in point is the 14th century Masilamani Nathar Temple, the oldest temple in the city, which stood in ruins a few years ago, part of the temple complex having been swallowed by the sea. The remaining structures have been repainted so vividly that the temple feels brand new.

The town was hit hard by the 2004 tsunami, and a new granite breakwater was also constructed off the coast, where local fishermen continue to take their boats out to sea daily to fish.  Restoration and reconstruction continues to this day.

Restored Danish-Indian style houses on the main street of Tranquebar.

The former summer Residence of the British Collector has been restored as today’s Bungalow on the Beach (a boutique hotel where I stayed).

The former Danish Graveyard.

Lovely waterfront esplanade leading to Goldsmiths Street – a restored row of traditional Tamil Houses.

View of the granite breakwater towards Masilamani Nathar Temple.

Close-up of Masilamani Nathar Temple. This is the city’s oldest temple, dating back to the 1300s. It is in ruins, part of it having been swallowed up by the sea. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at it.

Fishermen taking their boats out to sea in the morning.

Chinta Durai Pilayar Kovil Hindu Temple.

Probably Vinayakar Kovil.

And a final view of the Landporten – this time from within Tranquebar looking out. The gate sports the Danish Royal Seal.

The New Jerusalem Church, consecrated in 1718, during the reign of King Frederick IV (whose royal monogram adorns the facade of the building), is one of the most important Danish monuments in the town of Tranquebar.

In this first of two walking tours of the historic Danish town of Tranquebar, Dream Of A City literally takes you, the reader, down King’s Street – the high street in Tranquebar – where we point out the main sights.

And now if you’re ready, let’s enter the town through it’s Landporten, or Town Gate…

Enter Tranquebar through its historic Landporten, or Town Gate. This gate was built in 1792 and replaced an earlier gate built in the 1660s, the same period the city’s fortifications – now almost all gone – were built.

Immediately to your left on King’s Road you see a building that houses a ladies’ hostel.

To your right on King’s Road sits the former Gatehouse – a Danish-Tamil style building, today a bed and breakfast managed by The Neemrana Group.

Down from The Gatehouse is St Theresa’s Convent.

Rehling’s House dates to the early 1700s, and housed two Danish Governors, including Johannes Rehling.

Just next door on King’s Road is Van Theylingen’s house, with a similar Danish-Indian architecture.

Next comes the New Jerusalem Church, famous for Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg, the German Lutheran preacher who founded the church and is today still buried in its premises.

Memorial to Ziegenbalg, in the New Jerusalem Church.

Gravestones to former Danish residents of the city.

The Ziegenbalg Spiritual Centre.

The Tamil Evangelical Luteran Church (TELC) Teacher’s Training Institute for Men.

The Zion Church is the oldest Protestant Church in India. It was consecrated in 1701.

The Church of Sweden Mission Bungalow

Turn right on Queen’s Street and take a detour to the Old Danish Cemetery, where former Danish colonials were buried.

Take a right on Queen’s Road and make another detour to Borgan Street to view Gruendler’s House.

Go further down Queen’s Street to Admiral Street to view Ziegenbalg’s former Printing

Just down the road is a complex of European buildings that supposedly houses a Church Hall and a Museum.

Return to the junction of Queen’s Street and King’s Street, with the Parade Ground and Fort Dansborg in the near distance.

Back onto King Street, to the left of the Parade Ground stand three important buildings. The first is the former Commander’s House, also known as Halkier’s House, dating from the early 1700s.

Next stands the Governor’s Bungalow – the official Danish Governor’s Residence, dating to the late 1700s.

Finally there is the former Summer Residence of the British Collector, restored as Bungalow on the Beach, a luxury hotel managed by The Neemrana Group.

The British-built Post Office sits just around the corner from The Bungalow on the Beach, on Post Office Street.

Cut across the Parade Ground to the entrance of Fort Dansborg, today a Danish Fort Museum.

Spend some time inside the museum, which houses some artefacts from the era, and presents a history of Tranquebar and Danish India

View of the imposing Fort Dansborg.

Fort Dansborg from the shore.

View of Bethlehem Church, the second Protestant Church built in India, in the suburb of Porayar – not strictly in Tranquebar at all.

And finally, we leave the way we entered, through the Landporten.

Reference:

• INTACH Tranquebar Heritage Walk Map.

Masilamani Nathar Temple, on the waterfront, dates to the 1300s, and is a major landmark in Tranquebar.

From the Danish Quarter of Tranquebar, we amble down Post Office Road to explore the Tamil Quarter.  Like in Pondicherry, the Tamil Quarter is also segregated into a Hindu Quarter and a Muslim Quarter.

The walk down Post Office takes us to the waterfront of the Tamil Quarter, which is where the Hindu community resides. We turn up Goldsmiths Street, which has been immaculately restored by INTACH, to visit and admire traditional Tamil House architecture.

Goldsmiths Street becomes Mosque Street, and along both sides of the street stand Muslim variations of traditional Tamil houses. Personally, I found these houses – in a variety of styles, traditional and Art Deco – far more interesting.

We drop by New Mosque and the nearby Muslim School, before heading down Nagutha Street to Queen’s Street, back into the heart of the Old Town.

But before returning to our hotel, we take a detour outside the gates of Tranquebar to Tharangambadi proper, to visit the Holy Rosary Church, also known as the Goan Church. The present building dates from 1854, but there has apparently been a Catholic Church here since before the Danes came.

Post Office Road to Goldsmiths Street

Old residences along Post Office Street.

Buildings along Post Office Street.

A quaint square at the end of Post Office Street and at the edge of the sea presents a map of Tranquebar.

Hindu Temple.

Residents on the beach, near Masilamani Nathar Temple.

Masilamani Nathar Temple again…

View along the beachfront of the Tamil Quarter.

Goldsmiths Street – this building in the INTACH Heritage Centre.

Another Hindu Temple

Across the street is Nayak House.

Tamil House on Goldsmiths Street.

Tamil House on Goldsmiths Street.

Tamil House on Goldsmiths Street.

Tamil House on Goldsmiths Street.

The Muslim Quarter and Queen’s Street

Tamil House, Mosque Street.

Tamil House – view down Maraicar Street.

Art Deco

Tranquebar’s New Mosque.

The Old Madrasah.

Flora Cottage, a B & B on Queen’s Street.

Rundown house along Queen’s Street.

Holy Rosary Church, or the Goan Church, in Tharangambadi, beyond the walls of Tranquebar.

And finally, another view of a Tamil House, before we return to our hotel.

Reference:

• INTACH Tranquebar Heritage Walk Map.

Entrance to Bungalow on the Beach

In Tranquebar, I stayed at the excellent Bungalow on the Beach, run by The Neemrana Group. It was the closest one could get to a Grand Hotel in the town, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The origins of the building aren’t very clear – it was probably built in the early 1800s during the Danish era. From 1845, when the British took over, the building then became the former British Tax Collector’s Summer Residence. Architecturally, it was designed in an eclectic style, with a basic, European, Neo-classical form and large verandahs going all around the building on the first and second floors to take account of the weather.

Originally in an advanced state of dilapidation, it was acquired by Neemrana Group in the early 2000s, and after extensive restoration, opened as a hotel in 2004. Unfortunately, the 2004 tsunami struck soon after, and it required more restoration before being re-opened again.

The interiors of the building are designed to evoke the Danish era, with aqua-blue highlights on the walls, and rooms named after Danish Monarchs and princes. The highlight of my stay was the swimming pool, set in a spectacular location right by the waters of the Bay of Bengal.

Another highlight was the delicious food served in the hotel’s restaurant – which, being Tamil cuisine, was something I was extremely familiar with. One evening I ordered the “Special Tharangambadi Fish Curry”, only to find out – after having a taste – that it was essentially the same as Muthu’s Fish Curry back home in Singapore.

Talk about home away from home.

View of The Bungalow on the Beach from the entrance of Fot Dansborg.

Side view of The Bungalow on the Beach, from its grounds.

The Main lobby.

The second floor

My room, with its

Ornamentation on the walls.

Idyllic view of the verandah and the Bay of Bengal just beyond.

The outdoor dining area

The indoor dining area.

Poriyal – a vegetable dish involving various different kinds of vegetables lightly fried with shaved coconut. It’s absolutely delicious and extremely healthy.

Downstairs verandah.

Stairway to the second floor.

Goodbye The Bungalow on the Beach and goodbye Tranquebar!

Next stop on the Grand Tour III: Colombo, Sri Lanka

Promoting our Permanent Collections

A year into the job, I’m convinced, more than ever, that a museum needs to be relevant.

Not just to its local community, but also to the world.

What I mean is that a museum also needs to respond to contemporary global developments at the macro-level, whether geopolitical, economic, socio-cultural or security-related.

And so this October, taking advantage of the fact that we are installing new permanent galleries, and therefore have no special exhibitions planned, we are experimenting with the way we promote our Permanent Collections.

Collections which, in my view, can contribute relevant and important perspectives on prevailing global economic and geo-political issues.

Let me illustrate.

MARITIME SILK ROUTE – ASIAN TRADE FROM 800 – 1900 AD

Years before China’s One Belt One Route (OBOR) initiative and its associated rhetoric as to how the overland and maritime silk roads have connected civilisations for thousands of years through trade, we have – at the Asian Civilisations Museum – already been on to it.

The Museum’s very MISSION conveys an important message to the world about how civilisations have never existed in isolation, but have always connected, interacted and mutually enriched each other.

And we have had the opportunity to build up a magnificent collection of artefacts and works of art that tangibly, viscerally illustrates this point.

For example, on the ground floor of the museum, we display our very important and comprehensive collection of Asian Export Art. These are masterpieces of ceramics and porcelain, furniture and other decorative arts (e.g. clothing chests, reliquary caskets, fans, pen cases, etc), lacquer and enamel, textiles and paintings, that were produced in China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia for the global market.

Taken together, our collection of Asian Export Art tells a 1000-year history of maritime trade within Asia and trade between Asia and the rest of the world. In other words, the history (and art history) of the Maritime Silk Route, from 800 – 1900 AD.

Being produced primarily for export, Asian Export Art is cross-cultural, in that it is “East-West” (Asian-European), or “East-East” (Asian-Asian) in essence.

Dragon-headed ewer, Tang Shipwreck Collection. 9th century. China.

Take this magnificent green-glazed ceramic dragon-headed ewer, for example, which comes from the Museum’s Tang Shipwreck (or Belitung Shipwreck) collection – a National Treasure and treasure of World Heritage. This is dated to the late Tang Dynasty. While the piece was made in China, its form is not Chinese at all but Sasanian Persian. It’s thus an “East-East” piece made by China for the Middle Eastern market in as early as the 800s AD!

Kraak blue and white dish with Persian ladies. 大型加橹瓷盘. Porcelain. Mid 17th century. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China.

Similarly, this blue-and-white kraak porcelain dish, made about 800 years later in the mid-1600s AD in China’s famed Jingdezhen 景德镇  kilns, features a pair of Persian ladies at centre, and was also probably made for the Middle Eastern market, i.e. “East-East”.

Canton Hong Bowl, c. 1785. Porcelain. China.

Here’s a third piece – our Canton Hong Bowl. It was made in the 1700s AD for export by way of China’s great entrepôt port city of Canton (today’s Guangzhou 广州). In form, it is European – this is a punch bowl used at banquets in stately homes (the likes of Downton Abbey).  But this is Chinese porcelain. And it depicts a Chinese…well, a cross-cultural scene of European factories (or “hongs” 行) on the bustling Canton waterfront. This is classic “East-West” – Chinese export art made for the European market.

Up until recently, the Chinese museums and collectors were not quite so interested in collecting this stuff at all because it was seen as not being “Chinese enough”. But since the OBOR initiative, collectors and museums alike have been encouraged to get into the act.

There is now a proliferation of exhibitions in China featuring Chinese export porcelain and the Maritime Silk Road. In the past year, Chinese museums have also expressed tremendous interest in collaborating with the Asian Civilisations Museum on research and exhibitions featuring Chinese Export Ceramics 外销瓷, in particular, our Tang Shipwreck Collection.

As a matter of fact, at the recent Belt & Route Forum in May 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping preambled his OBOR speech with a reference to the Tang Shipwreck (which he referred to in Chinese as the 黑石号).

The speech was titled “Work Together to Build the Silk Road Economic Belt and The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road”

And it’s worth quoting the specific passage in which the Tang Shipwreck appears (bold text mine):

“Over 2,000 years ago, our ancestors, trekking across vast steppes and deserts, opened the transcontinental passage connecting Asia, Europe and Africa, known today as the Silk Road. Our ancestors, navigating rough seas, created sea routes linking the East with the West, namely, the maritime Silk Road. These ancient silk routes opened windows of friendly engagement among nations, adding a splendid chapter to the history of human progress. The thousand-year-old “gilt bronze silkworm” displayed at China’s Shaanxi History Museum and the Belitung shipwreck discovered in Indonesia, bear witness to this exciting period of history.

Spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient silk routes embody the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit. The Silk Road spirit has become a great heritage of human civilization.”

Unfortunately, the English version sounds far more functional than the sweeping and evocative Chinese version, also worth quoting:

“2000多年前，我们的先辈筚路蓝缕，穿越草原沙漠，开辟出联通亚欧非的陆上丝绸之路；我们的先辈扬帆远航，穿越惊涛骇浪，闯荡出连接东西方的海上丝绸之路。古丝绸之路打开了各国友好交往的新窗口，书写了人类发展进步的新篇章。中国陕西历史博物馆珍藏的千年“鎏金铜蚕”，在印度尼西亚发现的千年沉船“黑石号”等，见证了这段历史。

古丝绸之路绵亘万里，延续千年，积淀了以和平合作、开放包容、互学互鉴、互利共赢为核心的丝路精神。这是人类文明的宝贵遗产。”

Why are China and the Chinese suddenly interested in Asian, or rather, Chinese, Export Art (particularly the Tang Shipwreck)?

ONE: Because the millions of pieces of Chinese Export Art that exist in the world today are tangible proof of trade having taken place at a global scale for at least a millennium. In particular, the Tang Shipwreck is proof that huge volumes of trade took place within Asia long before the Europeans came with their colonialism and gunboat diplomacy.

TWO: Because China sat at the very centre of this global trade.  An overwhelming proportion of world trade in the past millennia was driven by worldwide demand for luxury goods produced in China – porcelain, in particular, but also lacquer, ivory, enamels and naturally, silk. This is notwithstanding China’s own traditional disdain for trade and for merchants. The maritime (and overland) silk routes were all about getting to China, and sourcing and buying as much as one could of its luxury products for resale elsewhere in the world.

THREE: When it comes to global trade in the historical longue durée, China, the Middle Kingdom, or 中国  was, as its proper name suggests, right at the centre.  China is keen to reclaim this central  position, and Chinese Export Art – and Asian Export Art in general really – provides tangible historical justification in the millions to support their claim.

Why should Singapore and Singaporeans be interested in Asian Export Art? 

FIRST: To understand our heritage and thus our competitive advantage better. The heritage of Asian Export Art is the heritage of trade and a cross-cultural heritage. So too, the heritage of Singapore. Each piece of Asian export ceramic mirrors us as a people – the product of trade and the crossing of cultures.

And a heritage of trade and a crossing of cultures can only be a competitive advantage in a new world order emphasising trade and – this is the crux of the matter – ALSO strongly emphasising the crossing of cultures.

SECOND: To get into China’s “mind”, so to speak. To understand China’s motivations better and strategise Singapore’s response. The Chinese are couching their contemporary global role and world order in terms of history and heritage, going so far as to get museums into the act.  Singapore must do the same – we must couch our own specific role and value to China and to the world in terms of history and heritage.

To secure our relevance (and survival), we have to bank on our history and our heritage.

This history and heritage is sitting at the museum.

‘ILM علم  – SCIENCE AND IMAGINATION IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD

I am tired of how all news and discourse pertaining to Islam and the Islamic world is overwhelmingly negative. I am tired of hearing about fundamentalism, about ISIS (Islamic State) and about terrorism.

I am not trivialising terrorism. It is important to stand vigilant and united against any acts of indiscriminate violence against the innocent.  I respect and salute security officers in the airports and public buildings of the world for keeping us safe.

But Islam and the civilisations of the Islamic World deserve better press. And really, ISIS and terrorism doesn’t NEED anymore publicity.

That’s why at Asian Civilisations Museum, we have decided, this October, to use our Islamic Art collection to turn around stereotypical notions of the Dar-al-Islam  دار الإسلام, or the Islamic World.

We want to remind our visitors, and the world, that the Islamic world, which at its height spanned the entire Eurasian continent from Spain to the Malay Archipelago, was a crucible of scientific invention, artistic excellence and intellectual progress.

In fact, Islam does not differentiate between sacred and secular knowledge. The word for knowledge – ‘ilm علم – refers to both. For centuries, the Islamic world was far superior to that of Christian Europe, in the fields of mathematics, science and astrology and also in terms of architecture, craftsmanship and the arts.

In the lead-up to the re-opening of our permanent galleries dedicated to Islamic Art, Asian Civilisations Museum is presenting highlights from our Islamic Art collection; masterpieces that recall the brilliance and beauty of Islamic civilisation in Asia.

Here is a sampling.

Planispheric astrolabe. Iran, 18th century. Brass alloy.

The astrolabe as a scientific instrument, was invented by the Greeks around 220 BC, and inherited by the Arabs and the Persians. An astrolabe is a computational device that represents the three-dimensional sky as a two-dimensional model. The positions of different celestial bodies, including stars, are marked on the plates. By aligning different parts of the astrolabe, one can calculate the time, as well as past and future events, and determine geographic locations.

Medieval Muslim scientists developed new features which can be observed on this specimen: shadow squares for solving trigonometry problems and a universal plate with markings for both equatorial and ecliptic coordinate systems.

Parts of the astrolabe I. Note beautiful, and elaborate tassel-like details.

Parts of the astrolabe II. The names of constellations are etched on the surface in Arabic script.

Aside from being a scientific instrument, this astrolabe is also a magnificent work of art. When it’s taken apart, one can observe the remarkable precision and craftsmanship that went into its casting and creation.

Casket. India, Gujarat, late 16th or 17th century. Mother-of-pearl, mastic resin, wood, metal mounts.

This is a casket made in Gujarat, India in the late 16^th – 17^th centuries.  It is an exquisite jewel of a piece, consisting of a wooden base, inlaid with shimmering mother-of-pearl. The decoration of this casket is testimony to the materials and specialised skills used by artists in western India who made objects for Islamic markets in the Middle East and Mughal India, as well as for Europe. Finely cut mother-of-pearl was regarded as a wonder in Renaissance Europe and the Islamic world. Pieces in shades of pink, green, and silver were carefully selected to create variety and colour gradations.

Around the four sides of the object, a Persian love poem is inscribed in sensuous, curling nasta’līq نستعلیق script.

Qur’an, probably Java. 18th century. Paper, ink, gold, pigments.

Nowhere are the sacred and the secular arts more wondrously combined than in the tradition of illuminated Qur’ans. Here we have a splendid 18^th century illuminated Qur’an with Arabic calligraphy contained within an exuberantly coloured and ornamented double frame.

This Qur’an comes from the Malay Archipelago – we know this because the specific technique of using a double embellished frame features in Javanese Qur’ans. Decorated double-spreads such as these occur at the beginning and end of the Qur’an, and frequently, a third decorated spread appears in the middle.

These and more are on display at the museum till mid 2018.

In the meantime, I celebrate my first full year on the job, and look forward to the next.

Come to the ACM!

The iconic Galle Face Hotel, on the equally iconic Galle Face Green.

Setting sail from Danish Tranquebar, we wend our ship southward to the jewelled isle of Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka), situated at the southern tip of the Indian Subcontinent. We are bound for the port city of Colombo, on the southwestern coast of the island-nation.

The Greeks, Persians and Arabs knew of this port, and frequented its shores in late antiquity. The former – in particular, Greek geographer Ptolemy – referred to the island as Taprobana, the latter as Sarandib. In the course of a millenia and a half, the island would be ruled by a succession of Hindu kingdoms, culminating in just under a century of occupation by the mighty Chola Empire in the 11th century.

When the Portuguese arrived in 1505, first at Galle and onwards to Colombo, the island was split into some half a dozen kingdoms, chief of all being the Kotte and the Kandy Kingdoms.

‘De Stadt Colombe’ c. 1775, after original engraving by Johannes Kip c. 1680. [Public Domain]

Baedeker Map of Colombo, 1914. [Public Domain.]

Chola-era bronze statue of Shiva Nataraja. Collection of the National Museum of Colombo.

Detail of the Royal Throne of Kandyan Kings. Collection of the National Museum of Colombo. Kandy was a Buddhist, Sinhalese-speaking Kingdom, and the last of Sri Lanka’s local Kingdoms.

From the coastal Kotte Kingdom, the Portuguese extracted the rights by treaty to establish a coastal settlement and fort at Colombo. From thence, they would grow in power, eventually annexing Kotte and the northern Kingdom of Jaffna, and expanding the rule to including all of the western and northern coast of the island they called Ceilao (from which the English word Ceylon is derived).

Hardly anything remains of Portuguese Colombo today.  The fort the Portuguese built has all but vanished, but the area on which the fort used to stand, is still known as Fort, and was the administrative and commercial centre of British Ceylon. Elsewhere, a few Portuguese tombstones continue to stand in the galleries of the National Museum of Colombo.

A stone slab with a Portuguese inscription, probably fixed to the main doorway of a Portuguese chapel in Colombo fort. “The Chapel of the brethren of confraternity of the most Holy Rosary”. Collection of the National Museum of Colombo.

Portuguese tombstones from Colombo. The tombstone on the right was found in Colombo Fort and bears a family coat of arms. It reads “This tomb is of Joana Godinha and heirs, which was made by one named Joao de Fonseca, 1646.” Collection of the National Museum of Colombo.

The Dutch United East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) arrived in Ceylon in the early 1600s and swiftly made an alliance with the Kingdom of Kandy – the last Sinhalese Kingdom in Ceylon. King Rajasinghe II of Kandy would sign a treaty in 1638 with the VOC, seeking aid in wrestling control of Ceylon back from the Portuguese, in return for a monopoly on trade.

Dutch Ceylon was established in 1640, but it wasn’t till 1658 that the Portuguese were driven off the island.  Colombo was taken in 1656 and served as the capital of Dutch Ceylon for more than 100 years.  The Dutch, having ousted the Portuguese, defied the terms of their treaty, and in the ensuing decades, would continually add to their territory, eventually taking control of almost all of Ceylon’s coastline, rendering Kandy landlocked and helpless.

Most of Ceylon’s Dutch heritage remains in Galle – which was the Dutch stronghold for much of their occupation of the island. That said, Colombo still retains a few important Dutch-era buildings, chiefly the former Dutch Hospital in the Fort and the Dutch Museum and Wolvendaal Church in Pettah.

The descendants of the Dutch – the so-called Dutch Burghers, or Dutch Eurasians also still maintain their presence in today’s Colombo; and have contributed a distinctly Malay tinge to the city’s unique cuisine.

The Dutch VOC – Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (United East India Company) logo, circa 1795. This was one year before the British conquered Dutch Ceylon.

The Old Colombo Dutch Hospital is the oldest building in the Fort area, and probably dates from the late 1600s. Today it’s a shopping and F & B precinct, kind of like Chijmes in Singapore.

At the former Dutch Hospital is where you find the hugely popular Ministry of Crab, which serves…guess what? Sri Lankan crabs cooked any way you want them. Delicious!

The Dutch Museum, in Pettah, occupies the former Residence of the Governor of Dutch Ceylon, Thomas van Rhee. It was probably built in the late 1690s.

Wolvendaal Church (Wolvendaalse Kerk) is a Dutch Reformed Church built in 1757 in Pettah.

The Dutch Burger Union was established in 1907. Its headquarters, built in 1917, sit in the suburb of Cinnamon Gardens.

Lampreis (served at the cafe of the Dutch Burgher Union) is a distinctly cross-cultural Sri Lankan dish with Dutch, Malay and Ceylonese influences. Rice in stock and mixed meat curry is cooked in a banana leaf, served with frikkadels (meatballs), garnished with pol sambola, or spicy prawn floss (which we Singaporeans know as hay bee hiam), and taken with sambal belachan. Absolutely scrumptious.

Dutch Ceylon became British in 1796. Twenty years later in 1815, the Kingdom of Kandy finally succumbed and was absorbed into British Ceylon.

Much of the city’s European colonial heritage dates from the British era, in particular, the Fort area contains some of the buildings most monumental civic and commercial edifices.

To the East of Fort sits Pettah – the older, Dutch city centre, which today retains a bustling air and entirely multi-cultural outlook. Here sit the city’s most important mosques – including the Red Mosque – Hindu temples and churches, alongside the city’s old British City Hall.

To the south of Fort sits Cinnamon Gardens, laid out by the British in accordance with Garden City principles in the late 19th century.  Here is a leafy, verdant landscape of bungalows and villas, sitting along broad boulevards. Here too one finds the residence and offices of one of British Ceylon and Sri Lanka’s most important exports – the late Geoffrey Bawa, pioneer of the “Tropical Modernist” style.

The Port of Sri Lanka

Sri Sambuddhaloka Vihara Buddhist Temple, just off Fort.

Lloyd’s Bank Building, Fort.

The iconic Cargills Building (1906) on York Street, Fort.

Strolling through the arcades of Cargills Building.

The entrance to bustling Pettah Market and the multi-cultural Pettah city centre.

The Old Town Hall was built by the British in 1873. It sits in Pettah and sports a Neo-Gothic architectural style.

The iconic Red Mosque, or Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque is one of the oldest mosques in the city and dates from 1909. It is built in an Indo-Saracenic style.

New Kathiresan Temple, Pettah.

Sri Muthu Vinayakar Swamy Temple, Pettah.

Colombo Town Hall (1928), Cinnamon Gardens.

The National Museum of Colombo, in Cinnamon Gardens. The purpose-built museum building dates from 1896.

Paradise Road Cafe in Cinnamon Gardens occupies Geoffrey Bawa’s former offices.

Ceylon became independent Sri Lanka in 1948, and many of its colonial-era government buildings were repurposed as civic and administrative centres for its fledgeling government.

By 1983, Sri Lanka had plunged into Civil War, with the Tamil Tigers in the northeast fighting for an independent Tamil Eelam state in the northern region of Jaffna.  Those who grew up in the 1980s and ’90s would remember the violence associated with Sri Lanka during this time. A Peace Accord was only signed in 2009.

Independence Memorial Hall (1953) sits on Independence Square (formerly Torrington Square) in Cinnamon Gardens.

Old Parliament Building was completed in 1930and today houses the Presidential Secretariat. It sits near the Northern edge of Galle Face Green.

Since then, Sri Lanka has wasted no time in getting back on its feet. Any visitor to Colombo today would find it a modern and thoroughly clean city, reminiscent of Singapore in the late 1980s and even the early 1990s.

The best experience of the city can be had taking a stroll along the lovely seaside promenade known as Galle Face Green. In the distance stands the iconic Galle Face Hotel, one of the oldest and greatest hotels in the Far East and the grande dame of the city’s hospitality scene for more than 100 years.

Laid out in 1859 by the British and initially used for cricket and other sports (it was the equivalent of the Padang in Singapore), today, Galle Face Green is popular with ordinary Sri Lankans, who emerge en masse in the early evenings to picnic, fly kites, take in the sea breeze and look to the future.

Hoppers (also known as appam), freshly made for breakfast at the Galle Face Hotel, are typical Sri Lankan food.

Evening at Galle Face Green, a 500 metre-long esplanade by the ocean.

A backward glance at Galle Face Green and the iconic Galle Face Hotel.

The iconic Cargill’s Building on York Street was built by Walker, Sons & Co in 1906 in an Edwardian style. It occupies a former Dutch military commander’s residence, which had been built in 1684.

Fort, or Colombo Fort, is one of the oldest built-up areas in downtown Colombo, having been established by the Portuguese in the early 1500s as a fortified port settlement.

Once there were actually walls that surrounded the city.  Part of these walls were destroyed and others reinforced to when the Dutch V.O.C. conquered the city in 1656,  then all of it was demolished when the British took control in the 1800s.

This part of the city has always been its administrative centre, be it during the Portuguese, Dutch or British eras. Even though the Fort proper was abolished in the 1800s, this part of the city still retains the name “Fort” in reference to its fortified past.

Today, much of Fort consists of monumental civic and commercial buildings erected in the late 1800s and early 1900s during the British era, with painfully little remaining from the Dutch period and nothing at all from the Portuguese.

This post takes us on a leisurely jaunt through Fort, taking in the most significant of these buildings, many of which have been immaculately restored as Colombo and Sri Lanka – benefiting from political stability – restores its economy and its interest in its heritage.

From the Old Parliament Building sitting just outside where the ramparts of Fort used to sit, we dive into Fort proper, taking in the key landmarks along the thoroughfares in the area, chiefly Chatham Street, York Street and Main Street.

Oldest known map of Colombo Fort with fortifications still intact, dated 1888, by John Leonard Kalenberg van Dort, a Ceylonese Dutch Burgher.

The former Ceylon Legislative Council Building was erected in 1930 in a Palladian style. It houses the Presidential Secretariat today.

Chatham Street

The Old Colombo Lighthouse on Chatham Street was built in 1857. It still stands today but as a mere clocktower.

The former National Mutual Life Association of Australia Building was built in 1911 in a Neo-classical style reminiscent of New York City. Today it houses a museum and government offices.

Right beside it stands Brown & Co, circa 1897.

Chatham Street is also home to the For Jumma Mosque, established in the 1800s.

Restored colonial edifices on Chatham Street.

Another institution – two, in fact! – on Chatham Street. These are the De Mel Building, this version dating from 1925, and the Pagoda Tea Rooms, in operation here since 1884.

Leaving Chatham Street we arrive at York Street, perhaps the most important street in Fort. This is the York Building, probably dating from the early 1900s.

Across the street from the York Building, sitting on Bristol Street, is the YMCA building, in a Moorish-influenced Art Deco style possibly dating to the 1920s or ’30s.

Beside it is the Bank of Ceylon building, also in an Art Deco style possibly dating to the 1920s or ’30s.

A little further down from York Building on York Street are the Moorish-influenced Edwardian-style Australia buildings, built in 1900. They stand at a spot previously occupied by VOC offices from 1687.

Having already admired Cargills, we left on Sir Baron Jayathilaka Mawatha Street. This is the former Imperial Bank of India building, erected in 1928. Interestingly, half of it (the left half) is now used by HSBC, while the other continues to be used by the State Bank of India, just next door.

The State Bank of India Building.

A quaint old low-rise building just beside the State Bank of India Building.

Across the street sit a trio of lovely edifices – the first is Lloyd’s Building, built in 1908.

The second is the Whiteaway and Laidlaw Building, built in 1907.

The third is the Macan Markar Building, built in 1915.

The General Post Office Building, built in 1895, with the Republic Building to the left. Both sit on Janadipathi Mawatha.

Next door is the Chartered Bank of India, China and Australia Building, with its distinctive elephant heads.

Back on York Street, we stop off at the historic Grand Oriental Hotel, originally built in 1875. This is the city’s other grand hotel.

Leyden Bastian Road to Main Street

Here’s a front view of the Grand Oriental Hotel – the front facade was built in 1926.

From the terraces of the Grand Oriental Hotel, one can get a magnificent view of today’s Port Authority Building. This used to be the Passenger Jetty, built in 1928.

The Victoria Arcade comes next. It was built in 1900, and housed the offices of Mackinnon Mackenzie & Co, alongside other shoppes.

The Art Deco Walker & Sons offices.

At the intersection between Leyden Bastian Road and

Back onto Baron Jayathilaka Mawatha, we have the State Pharma Building.

…and the earlier offices of Walker, Sons & Co, built in 1881 – this is probably one of the oldest British buildings in Fort.

Lotus Road

The Central Telegraph Office (1911) is today’s Sri Lanka Telecom Building.

Across from it is the Colombo Fort Police Station – this is a side view as the building is closed off.

The Negris Building on York Street.

Warehouses on York Street.

And finally, the Dutch Hospital, where we take a breather…

A backward glance at Cargills, on York Street.

The Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque, or “Red Mosque”, in Pettah, Colombo.

The name “Pettah” is derived from the Sinhalese “pita-kotuwa”, which means “outside the fort”.  This exactly describes what Pettah was and is today.

In the Dutch era, this area was known as the “oudestad”, or Old Town.  Where the Fort held the civic and commercial buildings, the oudestad was where the Dutch colonials had their villas and residences, erected along a tidy grid of verdant, tree-lined streets.

When the British took over, much the “Dutch-ness” of Pettah was gradually lost, and the district became what it is today – a multi-cultural hodgepodge of communities and religions; as well as the location of the city’s main marketplace or bazaar – Pettah Market.

All that remains of the Dutch in Pettah are two buildings. The first is the former residence of Dutch Governor, Thomas van Rhee (1692-1697), which sits somewhat awkwardly on Prince Street (formerly Prinsestraat).  It was built in the late 1600s and houses the Dutch Period Museum today.

The other Dutch-period building is the Wolvendaal Church, also known as the Dutch Reformed Church. It was built in 1757 and was the primary place of worship for the Dutch. On its grounds and inside the church building lie the graves of many Dutch residents of Colombo.

Elsewhere, Pettah is also home to some of Colombo’s most important places of the worship, one of which is the Red Mosque, or Jami Ul-Alfar Mosque, a surreal, Indo-Saracenic, red and white, wedding-cake confection of a building completed in 1909 during the British era. The Mosque serves the spiritual needs of a sizeable Tamil Muslim community that has historically made Pettah their home.

Another important place of worship is St Lucia’s Cathedral, erected in 1881 just beyond Pettah in the suburb of Kotahena. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Colombo, and it dominates the skyline where it stands with its imposing dome and soaring Palladian facade. This is the biggest church in Sri Lanka and it was inspired by St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

There are also civic buildings here that are not to be missed. The first is the Old Town Hall at the junction of Main Street and Dam Street. Built in 1873 by the British, it boasts a Gothic architectural style entirely out of sync with the rest of the landscape around it today.

Not so far away stands the Khan Clocktower, which marks the entrance to Pettah Market. It was erected in 1923 by a wealthy Bombay Parsi family, and attests to Colombo being a bustling cosmopolitan trading hub in the early 1900s.

We begin our walk at the Dutch Hospital, in Fort…

From the Dutch Hospital, we head East towards Fort Station, and Pettah proper.

Along the way… the Sri Sambuddhaloka Vehara Stupa stands at the junction of York Street and Lotus Street.

Headquarters of The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited, also known as the Lake House. 1920s.

Regal Cinema, 1930s.

Regent Building.

Fort Station, built in 1908 in a Victorian-style, sits on the edge of Fort and Pettah. This marks the southern entrance to Pettah.

St Philip Neri’s Church, 1862. On Olcott Mawatha.

The Dutch Period Museum, on Prince Street. The building is a former Dutch Governor’s Residence and dates from the late 1600s.

Entrance to the Museum.

The museum displays examples of Dutch-Ceylonese furniture.

Satinwood Settee.

Dutch-Ceylonese furniture

Ebony armchair.

View of the interior courtyard of the Museum, a former Dutch Governor’s residence.

The Red Mosque, or Jami Al-Ulfar.

View of Red Mosque set against blue sky

The Khan Clocktower, 1923

Bustling Pettah Market.

The Old Town Hall in Pettah, built by the British in 1873.

Green Clock Tower Mosque.

Wolvendaal Church (1757) is the only other major landmark from the Dutch era still standing in Pettah. It was built in the shape of a cross.

VOC insignia on the building.

The church grounds are home to a few Dutch-era tombstones.

Annai Velangani Church on Sri Kathiresan Street in Gintupitiya.

Old Kathiresan Temple, Sea Street, Gintupitiya.

New Kathiresan Temple, Sea Street, Gintupitiya.

St Anthony’s Shrine (1828), Kochchikade, in the suburb of Kotahena.

Sri Kathivelayutha Swamy Temple (probably…)

St Lucia’s Cathedral (1902), in the suburb of Kotahena.

And finally….a backward glance at the Dutch Period Museum on Prince Street.

Colombo Town Hall, in Cinnamon Gardens was completed in 1928. It draws reference from the Capitol Building in Washington D.C.

South of Fort and Pettah sits the suburb of Cinnamon Gardens. Its name is a reference to what used to stand here in the Dutch period – acres and acres of cinnamon orchards.

Its name is also a reference to one of the most important spices in the history of the island of Sri Lanka/Ceylon. True cinnamon is indigeneous to Sri Lanka – for centuries, it grew only here.

The Romans and the Arabs traded in cinnamon with early Ceylon. And it was in pursuit of this very spice that the Portuguese, and then the Dutch arrived on these shores.  Believing at first that cinnamon could only thrive in a wild state, the Dutch finally discovered that it could grow in gardens.

By the early 1800s, trade in cinnamon (and the spice trade in general) had diminished. In the mid 1850s, the British cleared out the cinnamon gardens, and relocated Colombo’s Turf Club and Race Course from Galle Face to here.  It was then the idea of Cinnamon Gardens as a new administrative and residential centre of Colombo really took off.

The rich and influential residents of the city moved here and erected their stately bungalows and villas in verdant estates.  Elegant boulevards, thoroughfares and circles were laid between the villas, with names such as Queen Street, Albert Crescent, Maitland Place and Rosmead Place.  Schools, colleges and places of worship sprang up.

Today, Cinnamon Gardens retains much of its elegant and genteel air and is home to many of the city’s Government offices – including the Prime Minister’s Office – as well as foreign embassies and consulates . It is well worth a leisurely stroll for the intrepid visitor.

At the heart of Cinnamon Gardens is the former Victoria Park, known today as Viharamahadevi Park.  To the north of the park stands one of the most important landmarks in this district – the Town Hall, built in 1928 in a style that self-consciously references the Capitol Building in Washington D.C.  To the south of the park stands the venerable National Museum of Colombo, established in 1877 and one of the most important museum institutions in the Subcontinent.

Just south of the Museum sits the Independence Memorial Hall, completed in 1953. It sits in what is formerly known as Torrington Square and today called Independence Square. Immediately to the south is Arcade Independence Square. Occupying a former asylum converted in the 1900s into the Auditor General’s Office, a cluster of Neoclassical buildings from the British era has been immaculately conserved and re-purposed as a lifestyle precinct in the vein of the Dutch Hospital in Fort.

The former Colombo Racecourse Ground, a mere 10 minute walk away, has followed in the steps of Independent Square, in having been also restored and converted into a shopping and F & B cluster.

All in all – the prevalent use of adaptive re-use reminded me very much also of how historic buildings are conserved and re-used in Singapore.

Finally, no visit to Cinnamon Gardens can be complete without a stop-in at these two important places.

I refer, first of all, to the Dutch Burgher Union Building on Reid Street, on the southwestern edge of Cinnamon Gardens – where one may learn more about the history of the Dutch Burghers (or Eurasians), and where one may partake of a scrumptious meal of authentic lampreis.

I refer, also to Paradise Road The Gallery Cafe on Alfred House Road (admittedly some distance west of Cinnamon Gardens and the Dutch Burgher Union).  The Cafe is housed in the former offices of architect, Geoffrey Bawa, who had personally approved the takeover of the property and its conversion into a gallery and restaurant.  The cafe serves excellent local and international grub.

The former Colombo Club on Galle Face Green was built in 1872. It has been absorbed into the grounds of today’s Taj Samudra Hotel.

Just across the street from Galle Face Hotel stands Galle Face Court, built in 1923 by Macan Markar.

Commercial edifice just off Galle Face Green.

St Andrew’s Scots Kirk

National Museum of Colombo, 1877.

Shiva Nataraja, collection of the National Museum of Colombo.

Shiva and Uma, collection of the National Museum of Colombo.

Traditional palm leaf

The Royal Seat of the Kingdom of Kandy. Collection of the National Museum of Colombo.

Dutch and VOC-era relics from Colombo. Collection of the National Museum of Colombo.

The Neoclassical architecture of the National Museum of Colombo.

Stately banyan tree on the grounds of the National Museum of Colombo.

Stately residence along Albert Crescent.

Sinhala Dictionary Office.

Government offices.

The Prime Minister’s Office.

Residence.

Royal College, Colombo. The building dates from the 1920s.

Colombo Race Course Complex – back view.

Back view of Colombo Race Course Complex.

The Colombo Racecourse grounds have been converted into a Rugby Unions grounds.

Independence Memorial Hall, 1953.

Entrance to Arcade Independence Square.

Arcade Independence Square.

The Dutch Burgher Union.

The Dutch Burgher Union Building on Reid Street.

The Dutch Burgher Union was established in 1908. Its coat of arms includes an East Indiaman and the VOC logo.

Lampreis is served at the cafe of the Dutch Burgher Union. The dish is cooked in a banana leaf.

Absolutely delicious!

Entrance to Paradise Road Galleries.

The Gallery Cafe, Paradise Road Galleries.

Backward glance at Colombo Town Hall, Cinnamon Gardens.

Galle Face Hotel, on Galle Face Green.

Finally… after some thirty cities on my Grand Tour, I’m here, at last, at the grandest of the grande dames East of Suez, the Galle Face Hotel Colombo.

Built in 1864 by four English gentlemen, Galle Face Hotel is believed to be the oldest purpose-built hotel in the East. Certainly, it inspired the likes of the Raffles Hotel, which came after it in 1887.

The hotel was initially a Dutch residence called Galle Face House, that had stood here on Galle Face Green. The equivalent of the Esplanade in Singapore, Galle Face Green had been tremendously popular with the English, who would take to it for walks or rides in horse-drawn carriages.

From 1894 to 1909, the Hotel continued to expand, becoming first a two storey building, and then erecting North and South wings to the central building.

Like many other of its equivalents, the Galle Face Hotel was the centre of Colombo’s social circle, playing host to royalty, heads of state, celebrities, writers, artists, sportsmen and other luminaries in its time. And it continues to do so today.

In the 2000s, the hotel underwent a major restoration and only recently re-opened in time for its 150th birthday in 2014.  Interestingly, the Chairman of the hotel today is descended by one of the hotel’s 1911 shareholders.

Today, the Galle Face Hotel remains as magnificent as it once was in the early 1900s and I was delighted to stay here during my sojourn in Colombo.

Historic postcard of Galle Face Hotel in the 1910s.

Close-up of the central building of the hotel.

Ante-lobby with Batavian/Dutch-Ceylonese-style Burgomeister’s Chairs.

View down the ante-lobby, with langourously spinning ceiling fans.

Lobby of the Galle Face Hotel.

The second floor landing.

My guest room…

View of the hotel and the sea from my balcony.

View of the hotel from my balcony.

View of the sea from my balcony.

The famous Verandah, where for more than a century, writers and other luminaries have dined.

The swimming pool right at the edge of the Indian ocean.

Breakfast at The Verandah.

Traditional Sri Lankan egg hopper for breakfast.

String hoppers (idiyappam) with fish curry.

The Chequerboard, where one can have a meal over-looking the sea.

Sea Spray

The Hotel even has its own private beach, though swimming here is prohibited.

Vintage china with the Galle Face Hotel logo. Collection of the Galle Face Hotel Museum on the hotel’s premises.

The Travellers’ Bar

Sunset at the Galle Face Hotel.

The Galle Face Hotel and Galle Face Court, on Galle Face Green.

Another timeless view of Galle Face Hotel.

And finally…goodbye Galle Face Hotel and goodbye Colombo!

Next step on The Grand Tour: Cochin (Kochi).