Tiriti Bazaar 蒂雷塔集市 টিরিটি বাজার Tiretta Bazaar, Old Chinatown, Kolkata Chinatown, Tereti Bazaar | |
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 Chinese New Year celebrations in Tiriti Bazaar in 2014 | |
 Interactive map of Tiriti Bazaar | |
| Coordinates:22°34′26″N88°21′18″E / 22.57389°N 88.35500°E /22.57389; 88.35500 | |
| Country |  India |
| State | West Bengal |
| City | Kolkata |
| District | Kolkata |
| Metro Station | Central andMahakaran |
| Municipal Corporation | Kolkata Municipal Corporation |
| KMC ward | 44 |
| Elevation | 36 ft (11 m) |
| Population | |
• Total | For population see linked KMC ward pages |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 (IST) |
| PIN | 700073 |
| Area code | +91 33 |
| Lok Sabha constituency | Kolkata Uttar |
| Vidhan Sabha constituency | Chowranghee |
| Tiriti Bazaar | |||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 蒂雷塔集市 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 蒂雷塔集市 | ||||||||||
| Hakka | Di luiˇ tabˋ xib sii | ||||||||||
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| Old China Market | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 舊中國市場 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 旧中国市场 | ||||||||||
| Hakka | Kiu zungˊ guedˋ sii congˇ | ||||||||||
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Tiriti Bazaar, also known asChinatown,[1][2][3] & also spelled asTiretta Bazaar is a neighborhood nearLalbazar in CentralKolkata. It is usually calledOld China Market. The locality was once home to 20,000 ethnicChinese Indian nationals, but now the population has dropped to approximately 2,000.[4] Most of theHakka Chinese people in the area moved closer toTangra.[5][6] The traditional occupation of the Chinese Indian community in Kolkata had been working in the nearbytanning industry as well as in Chinese restaurants. The area is still noted for the Chinese restaurants where many people flock to taste traditional Chinese andIndian Chinese cuisine.
Thebazaar is named afterEdoardo Tiretta,[7] an Italian immigrant fromVenice, who was a land surveyor and owner in the area during late 18th-century.[8]
During the time ofWarren Hastings, the first governor-general ofBengal, a businessman by the name of Tong Achew established a sugar mill, along with a sugar plantation at Achipur, 33 kilometres (21 mi) from Calcutta, on the bank of theHooghly River near the town ofBudge Budge.[9] A temple and the grave of Tong Achew still remain and are visited by many Chinese Indians, who arrive from the city to celebrateChinese New Year.[9]
One of the earliest records of immigration to India from China can be found in a short treatise from 1820. This records hints that the first wave of immigration was ofHakkas but does not elaborate on the professions of these immigrants. According to a later police census, there were 362 Chinese in Calcutta in 1837. A common meeting place was the Temple ofLord Guan, the Martial God of Loyalty & Righteousness, located in the Chinese quarter nearDharmatolla.[10] A certain C. Alabaster mentions in 1849 that Cantonese carpenters congregated in the Bow Bazar Street area.[10] As late as 2006,Bow Bazar is still noted for carpentry, but few of the workers or owners are now Indians of Chinese origin.
According to Alabaster, there were lard manufacturers and shoemakers in addition to carpenters. Running tanneries and working with leather were traditionally not considered "respectable" professions amongupper-casteHindus, and work was relegated to the so-called "lower caste"muchis andchamars. Nevertheless, there was a significant demand for high quality leather goods incolonial India, which Chinese Indians were able to fulfill. Alabaster also mentions "licensed"opium dens, run by "native Chinese" and a "Cheena Bazaar", where "contraband" was readily available. Opium, however, was not illegal until afterIndia's Independence from Great Britain in 1947. Immigration continued freely through the turn of the century and duringWorld War I partly due to political upheavals in China, including theFirst andSecond Opium Wars, theFirst Sino-Japanese War and theYihetuan Movement. Around the time of the First World War, the first Chinese-owned tanneries sprang up.[10]
Chittaranjan Avenue (C.R. Avenue) and Rabindra Sarani pass through the area from north to south.Bepin Behari Ganguly Street (B.B. Ganguly Street) andKshirode Vidyavinode Avenue (New CIT Road[clarification needed]) pass through the area from east to west. Many bus routes follow these roads.[11]
Sealdah Station andB.B.D Bag railway station are the nearest railway stations of Tiretta Bazaar.
