Kolkata’s Cheenapara Heritage Gallery preserves the city’s 248-year-old Chinese history

The newly inaugurated Cheenapara Heritage Gallery sits on Kolkata’s Blackburn Lane alongside the hum of Central Avenue, in the deep folds of Tiretta Bazar. It shares a wall with the old Chinese restaurant Sei Vui.

Inside, under warm yellow lights, objects from Kolkata’s Chinese past fill the rooms. Outside, September rain draws a grey curtain across the afternoon.

Between the two is a portrait, more than five feet tall, of Sun Yat-sen — physician, revolutionary and founder of the Republic of China. A street near Tiretta Bazar’s Poddar Court is named after him.

Cheenapara Heritage Gallery | Photo Credit: Agnibha Chowdhury