Do You Know This Kali Temple In Kolkata Serves Noodles And Momos As Prasad?

In the bustling Tangra area in East Kolkata, the city's 'mini China Town', a lone traveller braving the heat will also happen upon a small Kali temple that symbolises the confluence of two unique cultures. Located on Matheswartala Road, the Chinese Kali Temple has a special origin story. Interestingly, it also serves noodles and momos as prasad. Here's all you need to know.

Who takes care of the shrine?

Inside the Chinese Kali Temple in Tangra, Kolkata | Image: Telegraph India

According to?Telegraph India, a man Sanjay Prasad looks after the shrine. Also the owner of a Chinese restaurant located behind the temple, Prasad told the paper, “Pujas are offered daily at 9.30 am and 7 pm every day. Bhog is offered on selected days normally the day after the new moon.”

Saturdays at the temple see larger ceremonies in honour of Goddess Kali. On Diwali each year, special paper and incense are used to ward off bad spirits. Both Goddess Kali and Lord Shiva statues are housed inside the temple run by a priest named Arnab Mukherjee who said,?“The puja follows strict Vedic rules and since the temple houses a Narayan?shila,?the bhog is vegetarian.”??

Chinese worshippers who flock to the shrine are said to have even given up beef. In keeping with the spirit of the way things are run here, the temple offers momos, noodles and sticky rice as prasad to eager devotees.

Do you know noodles and momos are served as prasad at this temple | Unsplash/representative image

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How did the Chinese Kali temple come to be?

Sometime in the 1930s or the 1940s, during World War II, Chinese people are reported to have sought refuge in Tangra, Kolkata.? ?

The story goes that one day the parents of a gravely ill 10-year-old boy, with nowhere else to go, laid his body in front of this shrine | Image: Atlas Obscura

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For six years, Hindus revered a local shrine--two granite stones smeared with vermillion--under a tree. Legend has it that one day the parents of a gravely ill 10-year-old boy, with nowhere else to go, laid his body in front of this shrine. They prayed and prayed at the shrine hoping for their child's recovery. Like most miracles, this one had worked its magic too. The child woke up and was as fit as a fiddle. The parents, overcome with joy, constructed a temple on that spot. With help from the community and their own faith, the temple came to be.

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