Category Archives: Culture & Lifestyle

A Visual Tour of the (new) Asian Civilisations Museum’s Galleries

This gallery contains 16 photos.

Our new ACM Treasures – Collection Highlights publication just hit the shelves! It serves as our interim “Best of Asian Civilisations Museum” catalogue, until our permanent galleries are completely finished and re-opened in end 2019.  In my Introduction to the … Continue reading

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Pettah – Dutch and Multi-cultural Colombo

This gallery contains 35 photos.

The name “Pettah” is derived from the Sinhalese “pita-kotuwa”, which means “outside the fort”.  This exactly describes what Pettah was and is today. In the Dutch era, this area was known as the “oudestad”, or Old Town.  Where the Fort … Continue reading

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A Wander through Colombo Fort

This gallery contains 35 photos.

Fort, or Colombo Fort, is one of the oldest built-up areas in downtown Colombo, having been established by the Portuguese in the early 1500s as a fortified port settlement. Once there were actually walls that surrounded the city.  Part of … Continue reading

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The Grand Tour III-6: Colombo, Sri Lanka… Southern Fort

This gallery contains 32 photos.

Setting sail from Danish Tranquebar, we wend our ship southward to the jewelled isle of Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka), situated at the southern tip of the Indian Subcontinent. We are bound for the port city of Colombo, on the southwestern … Continue reading

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One Year at the Job – Maritime Silk Route and ‘Ilm علم

This gallery contains 10 photos.

A year into the job, I’m convinced, more than ever, that a museum needs to be relevant. Not just to its local community, but also to the world. What I mean is that a museum also needs to respond to … Continue reading

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A Walk Through Danish Tranquebar

This gallery contains 28 photos.

In this first of two walking tours of the historic Danish town of Tranquebar, Dream Of A City literally takes you, the reader, down King’s Street – the high street in Tranquebar – where we point out the main sights. … Continue reading

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The Grand Tour III-5: Tranquebar (Tharangambadi)… Danish India

This gallery contains 22 photos.

To the south of Pondicherry sits a somewhat laidback and half-forgotten port city, which for more than 200 years, was the capital of a modest Danish colonial empire in India. This is the city of Tranquebar, or Trankebar in Dansk. … Continue reading

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Cities and Travel… at the Museum

This gallery contains 2 photos.

When I first started work one of the things I was determined to do was to take my love for cities and for travel into the museum, on the understanding that CITIES and TRAVEL were two things that resonated strongly … Continue reading

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Le Grand Hôtel d’Europe et Hôtel de l’Orient, Pondichéry

This gallery contains 17 photos.

La grande dame de l’ancienne scène d’hospitalité à Pondichéry, c’était le Grand Hôtel d’Europe, établi par Monsieur E. Magry (qui était un de la communauté créole de la ville) en 1891. Malheureusement l’hôtel a été fermé en 1996 et puis, … Continue reading

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The Tamil Quarter, Pondicherry

This gallery contains 27 photos.

The Tamil Quarter (or erstwhile “Black Town”) of Pondicherry sits to the West of the French Quarter. It was separated from the latter by a Grand Canal that bisected downtown Pondicherry, and still runs through the city today. In size, … Continue reading

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