Thankfully after our 03:00 alarm we had a wonderful flight arriving at the first completely solar powered airport in the world. We travelled through palm tree lined villages and roads to the city. It has a completely different feel to anywhere we have been so far in India. It’s smaller and greener and where everywhere we have been so far feels like either a large city or metropolis, this feels like a very large town or small city. It has a very modern part with Costa and KFC etc which is standard for India, but we are staying in the old Kochi Fort area, although there is no Fort as the British destroyed it. It’s built over a few islands linked by bridges. It’s hot and humid but we expected that as Kochi has a tropical monsoon climate, hence the abundance of palm trees. And the horns are back . . .
After a quick rest and freshen up we were off out to explore Kochi. The Portuguese were the first to colonise Kochi, followed by the Dutch and then the British. It’s all to do with the spice route and they still have a pepper exchange in town – hence it was known as “black gold”. Vasco da Gama arrived here in 1503 and the Portuguese colonised the town even though he left and returned to Portugal. He returned approximately 20 years later and died in Kochi and was originally buried in St Francis’s church but his body was returned to Portugal 10-15 years later. The Dutch ruled from the mid 1600s until the British took over in 1814. Apart from the name “Fort Kochi” all that remains of the Portuguese time is the house where Vasco da Gama lived, his original tombstone and numerous churches, including the one in which he was buried, and a basilica. This is the first place we have been to that has so many churches. The Portuguese bought Catholicism and were successful at converting many Indians, particularly those of the lowest castes as it gave them equality and a community that welcomed them.
The Mattancherry or Dutch Palace has beautiful Hindu religious murals inside, sadly not allowed to take any photos. They depict various stories and the two that stuck in my memory were the sequence denoting King Dasharatha’s desire for children as none of his 4 wives had any. It goes on to show them imbibing various potions, getting pregnant and giving birth to 5 children in total as one wife had twins. The other story I remember is that Rama’s wife was kidnapped by the demon King and taken to Sri Lanka which was therefore looked upon as a demon island. Fortunately that is no longer the case!
Whilst we did visit the oldest working mosque in India (Cheraman Juma Mosque), the rest of our organised time in Kochi was on a Jewish Heritage tour. Kerala has a long and strong Jewish presence with one synagogue in Kochi itself and seven more in the state. We visited another two which were deep in the countryside 15 miles away. In all cases the area that the synagogues are in is called “Jew town” and in Kochi the main road is called “Jew town road” even though the shops now have nothing to do with Judaism apart from two – one that sells Jewish artefacts and that one stamp shop. I have no idea why there is a Jewish stamp shop in Kochi. The Paradesi synagogue in Kochi is the oldest working synagogue in the commonwealth dating back to 1568. However the exhibition dates the arrival of Jews to the year 72 and the original synagogue to 1344. They even discuss that a set of two bells for the Sefer Torah came from the second temple but were destroyed some years later in a fight. It is beautiful. That isn’t surprising. What was surprising was on walking I recognised a name on a plaque erected in memory to one of their longstanding wardens. One quick phone call later and my mum confirmed that yes this was who I thought it was and they were members of their (and my childhood) synagogue. Mum even remembers the family coming to Kochi when it was unveiled. From Kochi to south Manchester, Jewish geography at its very best. It is a small world sometimes.
The Chendamangalam Synagogue has a tombstone of Sarah bat Israel dating back to 1269, which is the oldest in India. The Paravur synagogue was built in the early 1600s but next to it you can see the ruins of a previous and larger building. It is thought that the current synagogue was built on the site of the previous larger one with the original dating back to 1100. All three synagogues have similarities, particularly in the style of the Bima and the women’s gallery. The women’s gallery in the Paravur and Chendamangalam synagogues have a curved bay at the front. Apparently that is where the Rabbi gave his sermon from and the women went to the back room. No comment. All have had some restoration work and some artefacts have been moved to other synagogues, some in Israel. They all have excellent installations and exhibits which tell more about the building and the community, which I have included in the photos. Kerala is very proud of its Jewish heritage and they maintain all the buildings. This week being national Heritage week in India it was free entry for children to national monuments and there were scores of them particularly at the Chendamangalam Synagogue. Being the only white faces we were a bit of a novelty and spent a considerable time having our photos taken with them. They were extremely polite and their English was excellent. Sadly they were more interested in whether I knew Emma Watson personally or some male YouTube star I’d never heard of than in the synagogue itself – but I guess that’s just normal for children their age. Overall we were truly touched by the way that the Indian government has preserved these ancient synagogues and by the way that people genuinely want to remember their Jewish communities from the past. Our guide was speaking with pride about the role of the Jewish community in Kochin and Kerala not just within its own community but the wider community. That was very much appreciated.
Whilst it was a long drive to these synagogues, it was fascinating. The villages we passed through seemed to have huge expensive houses. The same is true for Kochi. In the villages the main occupations are agriculture and fishing, whilst Kochi is a city and has the second largest naval base in India. However it appears that particularity in the rural areas most families have at least one family member that works abroad and sends money back to their family in Kerala who then builds a huge house. That all made sense as I had been puzzled by all the billboards in the new city advertising studying abroad when we drove from the airport, something I hadn’t seen anywhere else. New Kochi is modern and there are massive developments under construction with views over the lake. Clearly it’s a huge draw for employment and as it’s on a different island to Kochi Fort it makes for heavy congestion on the narrow bridges during rush hour. As the working day starts at a leisurely 10:00 the rush hour is much later as allegedly everyone tries to arrive at 09:59.
Kochi is famous for its Chinese fishing nets and those and the floating weed on the river remind us of Vietnam. Another similarity with Vietnam is communism. Hammer and sickle flags are easily seen and the communism party of India started in Kerala and the local councils have a significant and often ruling communist component. Our guide was also very proud of Kochi’s bright hand painted trucks, each individually named. Move over Eddie Stobart! Continuing the art theme they also have some great wall art, many with positive public health messages. I have seen many across India with messages relating to Covid and this was an innovative way of getting the message to masses. In Kochi there was one on the walls of a school relating to drugs.
Kochi was our penultimate stop, but our first in the South and the start of our great unwind. It’s a charming city balancing the urgency of the new with the vibrance and charm of the old. We’ve enjoyed walking and exploring the streets and the waterfront of the old city and have felt very safe. We’ve felt that we’ve been into authentic rural India with our excursions, more so than the Bishnoi excursion from Jodhpur. Our hotel is stunning and the perfect place to relax, although the nearby mosque calling us to prayer from 05:00 is something we could do without. Thankfully they give up quite quickly.
See a video of the hotel Lobby here
See a video of the view from the hotel Rooftop here
Fabulously interesting about the shuls and of course Jewish Geography!
You know Jewish geography always happens🤣