WMF Celebrates Watch Day at the Historic Chinatown of Tiretta Bazaar, India

For over 200 years, Kolkata, India, has been home to a vibrant Chinese community centered around an area known as Tiretta Bazaar. This January, the neighborhood played host to Watch Day festivities in honor of the rich heritage of this historic Chinatown, which was named to the World Monuments Watch in 2022 to call attention to Tiretta Bazaar’s uncertain future in the face of demographic shifts and encroachment from developers.

The celebrations, which featured a lantern-making workshop, a dragon dance, and educational heritage walks through the neighborhood, capped a four-month research project on the history of Kolkata’s Chinese community by local students under the header of Know Your Cheenapara (Chinatown). The goal of this program was to foster dialogue around heritage and cultural diversity among young people. The results of the students’ research were exhibited in the historic Nam Soon Temple in Tiretta Bazaar. The event was written up in The Telegraph and The Times of India in articles that also feature interviews with conservation architect Sohini Pyne, a coordinator for the day's events alongside the local nonprofit Own the Past.

The oldest Chinatown in all of India, Tiretta Bazaar is a valuable testament to the pluralistic society that flourished in India’s former capital. 

Watch Days like this one are celebrations by local communities held at World Monuments Fund (WMF) Watch sites to honor the preservation of these places. For more information on the 25 sites named to the Watch in 2022, click here.

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World Monuments Fund safeguards cultural heritage around the globe, ensuring our treasured places are preserved for present and future generations. 

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