Our Reflections

Shi Qin's Reflection

My previous trips to Little India were all for academic purposes. However, this was the first time that I went to Little India with the purpose of finding out about its history and heritage in mind. I would have to admit that Little India is not a place which I will chose to visit when I am free. Rather, like any other young adults, my choice would of course be somewhere with air-conditioning, new, hip, and full of young people like me.

However, this trip down to Little India struck something in me. I realized how much I have missed out about Singapore’s heritage, which is especially important now because I am a history student.
The trip to Little India was enriching. Footsteps were slowed down, eyes lingered longer than they normally would, and time was spent wisely on each heritage site that was visited so that we could learn. The knowledge I have acquired was not something that will come to be during any other normal trip down to Little India.

It is intriguing how the history of sites in Little India piece together to tell the story. Roads were named after activities that were held in that area, or after important people who had contributed to Singapore’s history in one way or another. The exterior design of the shop houses there were European in style, which was probably infused because of Singapore’s rich history as a British colony.

Many will think that visitors of Little India are predominantly Indians and Hindus. However, from the trail, I found out that non-Indians and tourists do visit Little India as well. People from all walks of life visit Little India for many purposes; for worship, for shopping, for food, for tourism purposes, for education. All these are seen from the places of worship for different religions, endless shops offering products and services, the famous Tekka Market, restaurants, and hotels.

There are many factors that contributed to the conservation and commercial reuse of historical sites in Singapore, and one of which is tourism. From the presence of hotels and motels in Little India to Singapore Tourism Board’s (STB) promotion of Little India as a heritage-rich area, Singapore can earn tourist dollars by conserving the area. For example, the buildings in where Little India Arcade is situated now are conserved and repackaged by naming it Little India Arcade. Tourists will visit the area, hoping to catch a glimpse of the old buildings. Furthermore, heritage boards explaining the history of the site could be found throughout the trail. These heritage boards were collaborations of STB with other organizations such as National Heritage Board. The explanations on the boards were in English, Chinese, Indian, and Japanese. During our visit, the House of Tan Teng Niah was closed for renovation and preservation works. This shows evidences that historical sites are being preserved, even until now.

Therefore, I think that conservation and commercial reuse of historical sites in Singapore were successful in preserving certain our historical heritage if the place still has commercial value.

However, looking from another perspective, preserving our heritage will also attain educational purpose, such as passing on the rich heritage Singapore had to the future generation.

As for the heritage that was lost, I feel that because Singapore is always progressing, these losses are inevitable because of changes in people’s lifestyles and way of life.

Jaspreet's Reflection

Singapore has been successful to an extent in conserving the historical sites because the sites are still existent today and are available for any of us to just visit. There are many reconstructions going on in the areas that sort of demean the actual value of the historical sites. However, I understand that the need to preserve it is the reason why they are being reconstructed. The reconstruction, as good as it is, doesn’t gives us the feel that this was built years ago and that it has historical value. Many Singaporeans don’t think of little India as a historical site because they just feel that little India is a place where only Indians mix and not any other race. They also don’t think that any place in Singapore, other than fort canning has any historical value. Hence, only the foreigners who visit Singapore with a tour guide actually realize that Singapore has a lot of historical value.

Therefore, when it comes to ensuring the place is “alive”, Singapore has done a good job conserving it but it when comes to keeping people aware about it, they have not done a good job.

I learned so much about little India that I didn’t know before. Like for example, I myself didn’t know that little India had many sites that were historical sites for the Chinese and the Muslims. One example would be the mosque and the Chinese villa. It was very interesting to know that a Chinese pharmacist was giving free medicine as well as doing free treatment for everyone in the area.

I also learned about the different cultures that were situated in little India and spent their lives there. This was evident from the amount of non-Indians roaming around little India.
The last thing I want to say is that, I shouldn’t always think about Singapore as a place with no history behind it but rather one with a lot of history. My views about the historical sites in Singapore has definitely changed for the better.

Amanda's Reflection

I would have never gone to Little India if I was not given this assignment. This is the very first time I have explored Little India like this and not in a tour bus with a huge group of people. With just the four of us, we were able to see more of what Little India has to offer. We started with the Church of True Light and ended the journey with the Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple, so from Little India, we travelled and explored all the way up to Farrer Park. Even though it was a really hot day, I think I had fun going to all the stops or stations that we wanted to go. We started really early in the morning and ended around the evening time just nice when the Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple was closing. We were lucky enough that the person in charge allowed us to take photos from the gate itself. And also, luckily that temple was rather small. When we were going through the different stops in Little India, I was most impressed and intrigued by the Chinese elements or places that existed in this all so culturally different environment. I did not expect to see a Chinese temple or the villa, or even a mosque in the area itself. This showed how stereotypical I was about Little India even before I stepped into the area itself. The stop that gave me the most lasting impression was the Leong San See Temple or the Dragon Mountain Temple. That was the temple I researched on but was not awed by it till I was really there. I could not really understand why I felt so proud of my roots being in that place. And the fact that the temple itself existed in Little India (or somewhere close to it), made me feel really special being in Singapore where multicultural elements exist close to each other.

The conservation and commercial reuse of the historical sites in Singapore are that successful in my opinion. Renovating the place and touching up damaged area maybe good for preservation of the monument or the place itself but it does not necessarily help in preserving our historical heritage. The fact that people do not bother to find out more about the history of this place or Singaporeans (like me) being stereotypical about the place shows that the conservation and commercial reuse of these sites did not help to preserve of historical heritage. Preservation of our historical heritage can only be successful when people are educated about the place, become knowledgeable of the place and its history. Conservation and commercial reuse is only the technical aspect of preservation but looking at it as a whole or maybe aesthetically, people are the ones who choose to preserve such a heritage, culture or identity.

The names of the roads represent different insights to what life might be like in the past, as well as the commemoration of important people who served Singapore. Some roads were named after people, like Dunlop Street that was named after Colonel Samuel Dunlop, the Inspector-General of Police of the Straits Settlement in 1875 and a member of the Municipal Commission in 1887. Other roads like the Race Course Road commerates the history of the Race Course that was built in the 1840s to cater to the Europeans that was quite a large population in the vicinity. This was the focal point of the community at that time, a popular sport for the rich. The names of the roads are significant to preserve the memory of Singapore’s history. This is the same as the buildings as well. Especially the temples where they hold significant representation not only of the religion but also of the culture and people in terms of the architecture styles and so on. And because Singapore does not really have a homogenous identity, somehow seeing all these names of the buildings showed Singapore’s unique identity of multi-cultures.

However, it came to my attention that none of the places I went has a Sang Nila Utama road or a road that has significance with Singapore’s history before Raffles. Why is it we have most of the roads in English or European names? Is it to show the world that we are globalised or that we are on par with the Western nations.

The different architectural styles suggests the different cultures. Especially the North and South Indian Hindu temples that was very significant to me. The difference in their styles where one is more elaborated and the other more simple with symmetrical shapes showed how diverse the two cultures are. Also we see the Chinese Villa in Little India that was being renovated. The colours were really vibrant and lively. A lot of the buildings that we went actually went through one or several facelifts before On the information board that was provided at each of the stops that we went, there was an old picture of the monument or place suggesting the renovation, improvement or conservation done to it. And when you compare there is actually a huge difference. Hence the buildings are old but they stand with new appearances.

Wan Ting's Reflection

When I first received the assignment to visit Little India, I was uninterested. From my past experiences, I remember vividly that Little India was a crowded place with small shop houses selling food and Indian costume – Sari. I have always thought that Little India is just a place where most of our Indian friends are situated. I expect most of the historical sites are related to the Hindu culture and religion. However, I was proven to be wrong when I did my heritage tour with my group members on Sunday.

As a group, we started our journey in the morning with a hearty Burger King breakfast in City Square at Farrer Park. We embarked on a journey to discover sites and places of historical value in Little India. The places we are required to visit are Tekka Market, Buffalo Road, Kerbau Road, Chinese Villa, Little India Arcade, Hastings Road, Campbell Lane , Dunlop Street, Abdul Gafoor Mosque, Church of the True Light, Sri Srinivasa Perumal temple and several other temples that lay situated in Little India and Serangoon area.

Once, I often lamented with the majority that Singapore lacks of its individual culture and history. We do not have specific major history or culture we could identify with. For example, many students have no idea on what to wear during the annual racial harmony day celebration in school because unlike other countries such as Japan, we do not have our very own traditional costume we can identify with. I used to believe that Singapore is a modern island with hardly any personal heritage and history. But, once again, after this heritage tour, I was proven to be wrong.

Behind the name of each street in Little India lays a small yet significant and memorable part of Singapore history. All these streets, like how they linked one another across the island, act as pieces of Jigsaw puzzle of Singapore history. We can piece them together and paint a larger picture of the history of Singapore. For example, Buffalo Street reflects the main activity – cattle trading that were once carried out in the past. Hence, just through these small road signs alone, we could learn a lot more about Singapore history that was not covered in our history textbook. Therefore, after my history heritage tour, I realized that although many of the traditional practices and sites were lost due to the development of new urban Singapore city, some part of the history stories are still preserved via the road names.

I was surprised when I saw several historical sites such as the Church of the True light and the Chinese Villa situated in Little India. Church of the True Light is a church which was built mainly for the Chinese believers in Singapore. Hence, I find it interesting because I have always thought that the church is built perhaps for the Indian Christians. Not only that, it was an eye opener when we visited the House of Tan Teng Niah. It was amazing to find a Chinese villa in the middle of Little India.The Villa’s elaborate decorative features such as the carved swinging door ("pintu pagar"), bamboo tiled roof and gilded nameplate - hallmarks of a wealthy settler's abode, were all preserved. Not only that, I would say that other than the colourful coat of paint on the building, to a large extent, the conservation and the commercial reuse of these buildings in Singapore are successful in preserving our historical heritage. As the House of Tan Teng Niah as well as other heritage sites are conserved and are opened to the public.

Just looking at the architectural styles, I realize that the each building has its own personal religion and cultural styles. For example, the Shree Lakshmi Narayan Temple, which is mainly patronized by North Indians who built it, is built in the North Indian architectural style, a style that is different from other Hindu temples I have visited. Therefore, by looking at the architectural styles, these styles suggested that although buildings may have undergone renovations, some historical values are still conserved through the architectural styles.

In conclusion, I have learnt a lot about Singapore’s history from the heritage trail, and most importantly, I enjoyed the trip.