Wellington Street comes alive with traditional winter market

Kolkata: Every year, starting from November till the end of January, a footpath at Wellington Street transforms into the Tibetan Market, popularly known as Bhutia Market with 80-90 stalls displaying colourful jackets, vest, mufflers and woollen kurtis from Kashmir. Locals call it Bhutia Market but the traders prefer to call it the Tibetan Market.

For the last 50 years, Tibetan traders from different parts of the country, including Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim have been coming down to Kolkata with woollen garments. The president of the Tibetan Sweater Seller Association Kolkata, Tenzing, who has been taking part in the seasonal market for 15-20 years, remembers coming with his parents to the city for three months to put up a stall and sell. The sellers come to the city at least four days ahead to set up the temporary stalls and arrange their collection. For these three months, most of them find rooms for rent in the Tiretta Bazar area.

According to him, the market may be older than 50 years and earlier used to be set up at Dharmatala. Later, he said, it was shifted to Wellington Street and they took permission from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation for three months.

“It is better here as it’s on the main road and passersby can check out the market and spread news about it

through word of mouth. This is how we get most of our customers,” he said.

Another woollen garment seller, Kalsang Bhutia has been putting up stalls at the market for nearly 30 years. The 62-year-old joined the trade run by her grandfather at the age of 13 years. She used to visit with them to the market and later after her father, she took over the business.

“In the past 10 years, business has reduced because of erratic winter. The sales in November have dried up considering it’s still warm during that time. Whatever business we get, starts coming in by the end of December and first week of January,” she said. A customer at Kalsang’s shop agreed with her. “This year, the temperature started dropping earlier this week. It does not get much cold in the city and hence we prefer not to buy a lot of woollen unless we are planning to visit colder places,” the customer said.

However, Tenzing claims that even if the locals are not very enthusiastic about buying warm clothes, people from the outskirts are buying as they say that the temperature drops there.

The temperature in the city had dipped after the downpour earlier this week. However, according to news reports, winter is yet to come as the temperature has not dropped below 15 degree Celsius.

According to the Regional Meteorological Centre in Alipore, Kolkata recorded a minimum temperature of 16 degree Celsius and maximum temperature of 16 degree Celsius.

However, both Kalsang and Tenzing are hopeful that the sales of woollen wear will start to pick up from mid-December.

“Leaving home for three months and coming to Kolkata to sell our garments is a struggle but also an incredible experience. As a child when I accompanied my parents to Kolkata, it felt like an adventure,” Tenzing said.