Kwan Kung Chinese Temple | Hidden Gems of Mumbai

China Town in Mumbai !

Hey you must be mistaken, China Town  Woh toh  Kolkatta mai hai ,

Well that was my  immediate reaction when one of my friend spoke about this place to me.The Weekend Wanderer soul in me got stirred up and I was all set to check out this place, I was wondering, how could I miss out on something so unique in my home city.

PC: Nikhil Chandarana

Talking about Mumbai city, what I love about my city is its varied cultures, whereby I was able to explore some exquisite churches, beautiful mosques, amazing temples and gurudwaras and now here I was getting an opportunity to visit a Chinese Temple!

Can you believe this !

A little help from Google and friends, I was all set to go. You will be surprised to know that what today is a sidelined suburb i,e, Mazgoan, at one time was home to See Yup Koon community who were actually from Canton in Southern China. Due to work opportunities with East India Company these people moved to India to work and eventually settled here.

Dekha aapne chinese connection kitna purana hai, Tab bhi chinese apne yahan kaam karte the, aur aaj bhi, Even World Tallest statue of Sardar Patel ke liye humko chinese workers and technology lagi. Lagata hai china se humara rista Saas bahu wala hai -- Pyar mahobat aur zarorat lagi hi rahti hai 

(Hardliners Chill and don't see red in this statement of mine. 😜😜😜)

The Chinese who had settled in India were traders,merchants,workers and sailors.However when in 1962  the war broke out between India and china, as expected many of these people migrated back to their homeland China, however few of them stayed back here in their existing homes, which we now know as China Town. It seems because they were of See Yup Koon community ,the house near the temple had See yep koon written on them. (I wish someone was around to explain this to me)

Chinese Legacy..Houses bearing the name SEE YUP KOON

Phew! I was so overwhelmed with this historical fact, imagine a small temple or a place can have a legacy, a history.

Harbor Train From Andheri To Dockyard Station

I took Harbor train to CST local from Andheri and got down at Dockyard station. ( This been the nearest station to Mazgoan). 

Dockyard Railway Station

We came out from the front end of the station, if you are coming from Andheri, which is connected with the foot over bridge which takes you on the other side of the road.

Getting down from this bridge you need to walk straight

Keep walking straight, till you reach the wall of mazgoan dock, take a left and again first left and on your right side you will see this Chinese temple.

The google map was showing that this place is around 1 kms away from the station. So I started to walk. Now here a very interesting thing happened as we were searching for the way to go to this temple I saw an old Chinese walking towards our direction. For a second I felt that he looks like the owner of the temple but then again doubt got created in my mind Socha sare Chinese ek jaise hi dikte hai, so don't get excited. I went up to this person and asked him whether he is Albert, No reply came from him, Then I asked  where is this Chinese temple, he simply looked at me and said its closed. I was very dissapointed to hear this. Per mai umeed chodne walo me se nahi hu, socha yahan tak aaya hu to Mandir dekh kar hi jaunga. 

The iron stairs that we took

A small walk over the footover bridge and we saw a iron staircase going down on the left side, we took that stairs and came across a small postbox and took right turn, which brought us to a desolate lane, we kept walking till we came across an old 2 storied building. 

Temple you can easily pass by, thinking to be a residence

I could have easily missed this place for any other residence apartment.What caught my attention was the wooden door painted in red, the picture of which I had seen in one of the FB  post of my friend. I realised that this is it , that I have come to see. "The 100 year old Chinese temple, The Kwan Kung Temple.

Red Painted entrance door

We entered the Temple through this gate. There was a red door in front of us which was locked, I had read this was a room for one of the lady goddess. we moved on the right and started to climb the green coloured stairs when I came across a mural painted on the wall. This mural was of three gods FUK LUK SAU

Fuk:

The Chinese character Fuk means blessings of good luck, health, and happiness. This is the wise man that is often depicted holding either a scroll or a child. There is a popular belief that Fuk is the personification of planet Jupiter, with all its associated energy of good luck and auspiciousness. The child is there to symbolize the transmission of this good luck to future generations, and the scroll can be perceived as the importance of knowledge/learning.

Three Wise Man FUK, LUK, SAU

Luk

The meaning of Luk character in imperial China was an official's salary. It goes without saying that the energy of it is stability, fame, and success, as well as financial abundance. Luk is often depicted holding either a ru yi (symbol of power and authority) or a golden ingot, a popular wealth symbol.

Sau

Sau means longevity. This is the wise old man that is usually depicted with a very high forehead and a warm smile on his face. He is holding a staff, as he is old (thus the symbol of longevity). He is also holding a peach (considered a symbol of immortality).

we reached first floor where the owners of this place stay. The son of the owner handed me the keys to the temple which was one floor above this. We went upstairs and opened the door and entered the Chinese temple. The moment I opened the door I could feel the strong aroma of incense sticks. 

Burnt Incense sticks ashes aroma could be felt in the temple

The whole room indeed transports you to china with splash of red everywhere, the room is decorated with all the requisite paraphernalia of a typical Chinese temple, including fortune scrolls, paper money and incense sticks.

Paraphernalia of a typical Chinese temple (PC Nikhil Chandarana)

The temple pays homage to the Chinese God of protection, justice and courage Guan Gong. The colourful decoration and the photograph nestled in that, declared that the God worshipped here is Confucius. The wise man of the Chinese history, who has been a great teacher, politician and a philosopher, is worshipped here as Kuan Kung.

Kwan Kung 

Who Was Confucius?
Confucius (551 B.C. to 479 B.C.), also known as Kong Qui or K’ung Fu-tzu, was a Chinese philosopher, teacher and politicalfigure. His teachings, preserved in the Analects, focused on creating ethical models of family and public interaction and setting
educational standards. After his death, Confucius became the official imperial philosophy of China, which was extremely influential during the Han, Tang and Song dynasties.

 It was once asked to Albert Tham, The person who founded and owns this place as to why he selected Kwan Kung as his god of worship. His reply was“I like this God as I have chosen him to be the one.I don’t believe in him just because I am forced to do so. I have learned a lot about  him. I respect his morals values and teachings that do not emphasis much on any rituals but helps you lead a life of balanced personal and social ethics. He is more like a friend and a guide to me. I frequently spend time with him and discuss the things that bother me.”

Pooja and myself with Mr Albert Tham

There was this one wall which has slips hanging, I couldn't make of it much because everything written on them was in Chinese. They were fluttering under the fan breeze beckoning me to solve the mystery.

As there was no one in the temple to explain to us their unanswered. Few of them were half burnt and then there was ashes in the drum below these paper slips all added to my inquisitiveness but Alas ! no answers for me , if you get to know about these rituals please do comment and let me know.

Paper slips Hanging ,Are they predicting the futures ?

PS: As regards to the paper sheets let me add here. Those sheets are actually a way of  reading fortunes.

The Chinese believe that the Gods will guide you for any important decision of your life through the oracles written in Mandarin on the bamboo sheets. They light up the candles and then pick up the wooden sticks kept on the table as a part of offerings to the lord. Then they refer to the sheet containing the suggested number on the stick. The bamboo sheets contain the fortune written in the Chinese Script and are referred by the followers of the faith once in a year.” 

Fortune sticks

We spent some time here and then moved on to the ground floor to visit the temple of  Kuan Yin, an Empress that embraced spirituality and led a life to relieve the humans of their sufferings she is also known as goddess of Mercy.

 Kuan Yin

We returned the keys to Mr Albert Tham.(So the old man I met on the road was actually this gentleman ).

Mumbai meri Jaan !!!

Tu sach me meri jaan hai...

roz kuch naya dikhati hai ....

Thanks for reading my blog, Your comments ,your suggestions are most welcomed , therefore do comment in the comment section below this blog. Please do join my site so that you get regular updates for a new story so posted by me. 

Given below is the Link to the video of our entire journey. 

Our Team 

Solapur in a day | Part 3 | Bhuikot aka Solapur Fort

Bhuikot Fort means a fort that is built on flat land and not on a mountain.In Marathi language Bhui means Land and Kot means Killa or Fort. Thus the name Bhuikot.  Currently this fort is converted into a  garden and is under the ASI departrment, Located very adjacent to Siddeshwar temple pond, this place offers enthralling view. One Gets a good view of this fort in the backdrop from the Siddeshwar temple.

Bhuikot Fort in the backdrop can be seen from
Siddeshwar Temple

The Solapur Fort, also known as the Bhuikot fort is said to have been built during the reign of the Bijapur Sultanate of which Solapur was a part. Emperor Aurangzeb resided on this fort for a year between 1685-86 AD. Between 1795 and 1818 this fort was in the hands of the Maratha rulers. Bajirao Peshwa II lived in the fort.

External wall of the Solapur Fort

There are few very interesting stories about this fort which involves Dowry Theory. It is believed that Burhan Nizam Shah ruled Ahmednagar and Ismail Adilshah was in power in Vijapur , Inorder to strengthen the relationship between two states they decided to marry Adilshah's daughter with Nizam Shah of Burhan. The marriage was performed at this Solapur fort with great pomp.At that point of time(1523) Solapur fort was under the control of Adilshah of Vijapur and he declared that this fort shall be given as a dowry to Nizamshah. But after marriage he refused to give the fort which resulted in a war between the son in law Nizam Shah and his father in law Adilshah. Nizamshah lost the battle and fort remained with Adilshah. ( I am just wondering what happened to the wife of Nizam when her father cheated on her husband)

I think enough of history for the time being, now lets move on to our journey of exploration of this fort.

One of the bastion as seen from outside

Our Journey:

Early morning we finished our visit of Siddeshwar temple and moved out of the temple complex but not before trying our hands on the local sugarcane Juice machine. Travel me aise chote chote majje zaroor lene chaiye. Washing down two glasses of the sugar cane juice and listening to olden melodies blaring from the antique transistor was another highlight.

A small walk of 5 minutes we were at the gates of the Bhuikot. There was this ticket counter of ASI , we paid Rs 25 per person and entered the Fort Complex.

Entrance point with the ASI office

The moment you enter you are welcomed by the neat Garden and 2 Cannons pointing at you.

Cannons pointing toward the entrance door

The Cannons are well polished and you have the year of manufacturing on them, Monogram of the rulers. 

Year of manufacturing carved on the cannons

Monogram of the Rulers on the cannon

Over the years I have made it a practice to first explore the fort along the top of the Fort walls, which gives me good birds-eye view of the place and later I explore from within.Hence we moved toward the right side and climbed the stairs to reach the top of wall of the fort.

We climbed these stairs to reach the flag post platform.

Grass has grown at most of the places hence the watchman told us to be careful of the creepy reptiles.We smiled and nodded and went on our way.The outer side of the fort walls had lots of shrubs grown but the inside portion was easily walk-able.

Way towards the Flag post (PC: Dr Neha Mehta)

moving to the left from the stairs we reached the highest point of the fort ie. the Flag post platform. Standing here we could see the Siddeshwar Temple across the lake.

Siddeshwar temple as see from Solapur Fort

We spent some time here enjoying the breeze, absorbing the beauty around us and of course clicking lots of pictures

Today we realised what does the term leaping in joy meant 

Until pooja and me drew Nikhil Crazy😆😆and he has to throw his arms high in despair as if saying Kamino ab bas karo aur aage bhi badho. And both of us were like Hum nahi sudharenge, Ek photo aur Please 😛😛

 

Bola tha na... ki Hum nahi sudherenge 😆😆

Talking about the construction of the fort, there is a moat around the fort thus this creates Two layer of fortification one outer wall then moat and then the main fort wall. This main Fort wall is around 30 metres broad.Due to overgrown grass and bushes it was difficult to circumvent the entire fort. Hence we descended down the same stairs from where we had come and moved toward an other attraction of this fort, 32 Minar ki masjid .

32 Pillar Mosque

This masjid is on left side near the back end of the fort. Its an old masjid with 32 pillars. Basically its in ruins, Not maintained at all.

Low roof supported by the pillars

Moving inside the masjid you realise  that the roof is quite low and the pillars standing are all more identical in shape.

Identical Pillars

 We spent some time here and moved towards the Shiv Temple which is next to this masjid.

The structure is in complete ruins. Had it not being for the shivling at the lower base, Its difficult to make out that this structure was a temple.

Ruins of shiv temple 

The brown grill that you are seeing in the picture above, the shivling is place below that and we could see fresh flowers on it which meant that its used for worshiping. 

Shivling with fresh flowers

What I found strange about this temple was that the pillars here too looks quite similar to the one that I saw in the masjid. The question in my mind was did the  same ruler made both masjid and temple or this structure was something else and now shown as temple...

Please note the design of pillars

History often leaves so many questions open.I would like to have your views in comment column what is your take on this. 

From here on we moved towards the teen Darwaza which the ASI guy at the ticket counter reminded us not to miss. Actually the entrance of the fort in ancient times were from these Darwazas or Gates. But ASI had changed the entrance from the road side.

Main Gate of the Fort

The Entry gate of the fort is quite formidable, two bastion like pillars with a windows  along top is something typical of the architectural  designs of those times.

This was the last site that we visited at the Bhuikot or Solapur fort.  Generally one hours is enough to explore this fort but it took nearly 2 hours for us.( too much time spent on photos and masti)  We were now quite hungry hence we planned to sit in the lawn of the fort and munch some biscuits and chips before moving on to our next destination Naldurg Fort.

To read about our journey from the beginning click here