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Charukesi Ramadurai

Mazgaon  is one of the seven islands that were linked together, over the course of about 500 years, to form the modern city  of Mumbai. Today, it is a noisy, crowded neighbourhood, mainly known as the location of the   naval dockyard. But hidden in a small street behind the  Dockyard Road train station - and unknown to most Mumbai residents - is  Kwan Tai Shek, the city's only Chinese temple.
With its auspicious bright red exterior, the temple stands out on an otherwise nondescript street. Inside,  the hustle of the city is a distant memory and  a sense of calm prevails. The temple is dedicated to  Kwan Tai,  also known  as Guan Yu, a warrior deity  worshipped in Hong Kong by both police officers and triads, among others. 
A large Kwan idol is guarded by statues of two lieutenants while at his feet other  deities sit surrounded by joss sticks and paper offerings. The temple also offers  the familiar Chinese  practice of fortune telling, with numbered bamboo sticks.  
The temple is  nearly 100 years  old and was once  at the centre  of Mumbai's Chinese community, but its glory days are over. Funds for maintenance are in short supply and the falling number  of Chinese living in Mumbai means the temple now receives few visitors.
Thousands of Chinese from southern China, mainly traders and sailors, used to live in Mumbai. They came to work  for the  East India Company  and settled around the Mazgaon docks. There was a Chinatown  in nearby  Kamathipura,  which  is now Mumbai's red-light district. There was also a Chinese school near Mumbai Central  railway station, but now all  that remains is Kwan Tai Shek and the community's cemetery,  in Mazgaon. 
After the 1962 Sino-Indian war, the Chinese began to be viewed with suspicion and many were forced to leave the city they called home. According to  Arlene Chang, a Chinese journalist born and raised in Mumbai, the exodus has  continued,  with emigrants flocking to countries and regions such as Australia, the  United States and Taiwan.
The Chinese community in Mumbai now  numbers only a  few thousand and, as many are third- or fourth-generation Chinese-Indian, their links with their ancestors' culture can be tenuous at best. While they may look  Chinese,  many are Indian  on the inside.   
'I only visit the temple once  a year, during Chinese New Year,' says Chang. 'And this is the case for most of us.' 
The temple may be falling into disrepair,  but for the relatively few Chinese still living  in Mumbai, Kwan Tai Shek remains a link with their  ancestral homeland.




Keeper of the faith