Calcutta Chinese Buddhist Temple, Lake Town加尔各答华人佛寺（湖城）
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- India · West Bengal · Lake Town, Kolkata · 426 Sree Bhumi, Jessore Road, Kolkata 700048; the temple is on the second floor
- First built
- 1962 (according to one account, 1972) · The northernmost Chinese religious site in Kolkata; photography requires permission in advance
Overview
The Calcutta Chinese Buddhist Temple is located at 426 Jessore Road in Lake Town in the northern suburbs; its founding year is given variously as 1962 or 1972. The temple occupies the second floor and is the northernmost Chinese religious site in Kolkata; photography requires permission in advance. It should be honestly noted that this is a Buddhist temple, not a Daoist temple. The temple's location is significant: Lake Town lies far from both the old Chinatown at Tiretta Bazar and the new Chinatown at Tangra, reflecting the outward residential dispersal of Kolkata's Chinese community in the late twentieth century — the temple moved outward along with the population, an example of how the geography of overseas Chinese religious sites has been reorganized by community migration. Kolkata's Chinese community's circumstances changed sharply after the Sino-Indian border conflict of 1962, when some were detained at the Deoli internment camp in Rajasthan; in the following decades large numbers relocated to Toronto in Canada, to Australia and to the United States, and the local community shrank from tens of thousands at its peak to a few thousand.
Highlights
- Founding year given as either 1962 or 1972
- The northernmost Chinese religious site in Kolkata
- Located on the second floor; photography requires permission in advance
- Reflects the residential dispersal of the Chinese community from the traditional enclave
- A Buddhist temple, not a Daoist temple