Bowbazar & Old Chinatown
বৌবাজার ও পুরনো চিনাপাড়া
Goldsmiths, Buddhists and a Chinese breakfast
Bowbazar is the city’s old jewellery street, with a temple where a Portuguese-descended poet once worshipped Kali, a Buddhist monastery and the brick barracks of the Anglo-Indian community. Next to it, Tiretta Bazaar is the original Chinatown, with clan temples called "churches".
Did you know
- Tiretta Bazaar is named after Edward Tiretta, an eighteenth-century Venetian who owned the market.
- The Chinese temples here are called churches, a habit that goes back to the nineteenth century.
A short walk to try
Start with the early Chinese breakfast at Tiretta Bazaar, see Sea Ip and Toong On churches, then walk to Bow Barracks and Firingi Kalibari.
Getting there
- Metro
- Central (Blue Line)
Places to visit in Bowbazar & Old Chinatown
- Tiretta Bazaar Chinese Breakfast: Momos, pork buns and fish-ball soup sold on the pavement at dawn.
- Sea Ip Church: A Chinese clan temple from 1905, called a church.
- Toong On Church: A red-brick Chinese temple that once housed the city’s first Chinese restaurant.
- Bow Barracks: A lane of red-brick blocks, home to an Anglo-Indian community and its Christmas.
- Bauddha Dharmankur Sabha: The 1892 monastery that gave Buddhist Temple Street its name.
- Firingi Kalibari: The Kali temple linked to a Portuguese-descended poet of Bengali song.
- Bhim Chandra Nag: An 1826 sweet shop, home of the ledikeni.