Pei May Chinese School Temple, Kolkata加尔各答培梅中学天台庙
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- India · West Bengal · Tangra, Kolkata · P1-2, Ishwar Mondal Lane, Kolkata 700046; a rooftop temple, visits require advance application
- First built
- 1929 · Once Kolkata's largest Chinese-language school; now teaches mainly Mandarin
Overview
The rooftop temple of Pei May School stands on Ishwar Mondal Lane in the new Chinatown of Tangra, established in 1929 and dedicated chiefly to Guandi and the God of Wealth. Pei May was once Kolkata's largest Chinese-language school, and a temple was set up on the roof of its schoolhouse for worship by teachers, students, and the community — a typical case of the symbiosis of Chinese-language education and popular religion: the school sustained the language and script, and the temple sustained the deities and festival customs, the two together forming the twin pillars of the immigrant community's cultural reproduction. After the Sino-Indian conflict of the 1960s, large numbers of Kolkata's Chinese emigrated to Canada, Australia, and the United States, and enrollment at Chinese-language schools fell sharply; Pei May has now shifted chiefly to teaching Mandarin, and worship at the temple has likewise declined, with visits now requiring advance application. It should be honestly noted: this is a temple attached to a school, not an independent Daoist institution. Tangra is the new Chinatown formed in the mid-twentieth century by the Hakka tanning community, standing alongside the old Chinatown of Tiretta Bazar.
Highlights
- Established in 1929 on the rooftop of a Chinese-language school
- Once Kolkata's largest Chinese-language school
- Dedicated chiefly to Guandi and the God of Wealth
- Symbiosis of Chinese-language education and popular religion
- Now teaches mainly Mandarin, with worship in decline