Today began with a sunrise visit to a government subsidized laundry housed in a former British stable. Dalits (untouchables) rent stalls which includes a cement wash tub, running water and a storage closet for storing the clean folded items. Locals and/or hotels and businesses either drop off or the Dalits pick up and deliver the laundry. They wash every item by hand, solar dry on vast lines, fold and deliver. Fifty men and ten women are the last of Kochin’s Dalits to labor in this way washing machines and dryers replace them.
Following breakfast and before the sultry heat overcomes us, we visit remnants of the melting pot culture that emerged here as a result of the spice trade all located in the blend of Dutch and English architecture for which Cochin is known. We started with St. Francis Church, original burial place of Vasco da Gama. We then walked around the corner to the old Jewish quarter, Jew Town, once the center of the spice trade and home today to one of the world’s oldest Jewish populations. The Pardesi Synagogue, which was founded in 1568, today is abandoned as a result of Indian independence and the establishment of Israel. The main sanctuary has a gorgeous Cantonese floor tiled with 1,500 hand painted blue and white “blue willow” tiles laid about 200 years ago. An odd variety of Venetian glass chandeliers hang from the high false ceiling. This odd potpourri was donated by wealthy Jewish families over life of the synagogue.
The Mattancherry Palace, commonly known as the Dutch Palace is a stones throw away and represents yet another caste or group existing side by side. Originally built for the local maharaja by the Portuguese to create a buffer between their Portuguese commercial sea trading interests and the Nair dynastic interests, it has walls covered with vibrant Hindi murals and a fascinating gallery of oil portaits of a series of ten or more Maharajas mimicking European royalty of the same period.
Another informative exhibit explained that saris as they are worn today is fairly recent style in the stifling climate of south India. Before the reign of Queen Victoria, native women and men went bare breasted.
