Choonghee Dong Thien Haue Church, Kolkata加尔各答中和堂天后庙
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- India · West Bengal · Kolkata · 32 Black Burn Lane, Kolkata 700012; the temple is on the second floor.
- First built
- 1858 · Founded by the Hakka community; ancestral tablets are preserved within the temple.
Overview
Choonghee Dong Thien Haue Church is located on the second floor of 32 Blackburn Lane, founded in 1858 by the Hakka community, dedicated principally to Tianhou (Tien Hou, that is, Mazu, honored as the Heavenly Holy Mother). The Hakka were the largest single group among Kolkata's Chinese, mostly working in the tanning trade, and concentrated after the mid-twentieth century in the eastern suburb of Tangra; this temple was their early center of worship in Old Chinatown. The entrance is narrow, requiring visitors to climb a painted staircase; alongside the Tianhou shrine within the hall stand tablets for ancestral worship. The persistence of the Tianhou cult in the inland city of Kolkata is noteworthy: Hakka immigrants mostly arrived by sea via Shantou and Hong Kong, and Tianhou's function as a patron of seafarers gradually shifted, after their arrival, toward a more general symbol of blessing-seeking and community identity. It must be honestly noted that this temple is a clan-association community temple rather than an independent Daoist establishment.
Highlights
- Founded in 1858 by the Hakka community
- Dedicated principally to Tianhou (Mazu)
- Located on the second floor, reached by a painted staircase
- Ancestral tablets stand alongside the shrine within the hall
- The Hakka were Kolkata's largest Chinese group, mostly in the tanning trade