Amidst our urban Kolkata, the city of joy, there lies a small locality which was once home to 20,000 ethnic Chinese in the eastern part of the city. Interestingly, it is the only Chinatown in India. Sadly, now the population of Chinatown has ceased down to approximately 2,000. The traditional occupation of the Chinese community here was to work in the nearby Chinese restaurants and in the tanning industry.
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The area is still noted for its Chinese restaurants where many people come to taste real Chinese foods and Indo-Chinese cuisines. Bustling with energy, Tangra Chinatown is Kolkata's very own mini-China. Chinatown still tries to preserve old Chinese traditions and customs with much pride. This mini town has a distinct culture of its own and is a favourite amongst locals and tourists alike for the food it has to offer – the foods that make our tongues droll. Fusions of Chinese and Indian traditions have given birth to a widely available form, Indian Chinese cuisine.
If this is your first visit here, it would be wiser decision to explore the narrow, crowded lanes before you step inside a restaurant to have a wonderful meal. Take a walk by these lanes and soothe your eyes by the views of numerous Pagoda like temples, take snaps of the dangling paper lamps and take an approximate-journey into the mystic lands of China even when you are in Kolkata. One can rediscover the charms of the Chinese society, culture and heritage in Chinatown, with Buddhist temples and an age-old Chinese pastry shop.
The Chinese today work as tannery-owners, sauce manufacturers, shoe-shop owners, and restaurateurs. A number of Chinese women run beauty parlours in the city.
The Chinese New Year still is celebrated by the Calcutta Chinese community. Chinese New Year or the Lunar New Year is the most important festival in the Chinese calendar. In Calcutta, Chinese New Year cannot be detached from Chinese sausages and the fish and prawn wafers.
Sadly, the once prosperous Calcutta Chinese community is now clearly in decline. Under direction from the Supreme Court, the West Bengal Government recently moved all tanneries of Chinatown to Bantala, a suburb in the eastern Kolkata. However, Tangra has been an integral part of the Chinese community in India.
Kolkata’s Chinese community has been a key part of the city’s culture for more than 200 years. But now the Chinese community is disappearing rapidly. However, Tangra's unique Indian-Chinese food is attracting a lot of attention these days and the cuisine will probably live on in Kolkata.
A visit to Chinatown is certainly a wonderful experience in itself.
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