S'pore's largest Tamil literary collection opens to the public

The country's largest Tamil literary collection, made up of 20,000 resources including 17 translations of Thirukkural, or sacred verses, was opened to the public yesterday. Called Tamil Cholai (Tamil Garden), the collection is housed at Woodlands Regional Library.

Highlighting the 17 translations of Thirukkural and other resources in English, Chinese and Malay, guest of honour Josephine Teo, Minister for Communications and Information and Second Minister for Home Affairs, said at the launch: "Tamil Cholai is not only for the Tamil community. It will also be another step forward in strengthening Singapore's social cohesion - each community celebrating their own language and culture while learning about other cultures too."

Quoting a couplet from Thirukkural, Mrs Teo also highlighted three key aspects that relate to the role of libraries in Singapore - lifelong learning, learning widely from other cultures and perceiving libraries as institutions of learning.

Tamil Cholai offers contemporary and classical Tamil works. Around 1,000 specially curated works in English, Malay and Chinese have also been added to it.

National Library Board (NLB) chief executive Ng Cher Pong said at the launch: "Tamil Cholai is a treasure trove of books, stories and other materials we're delighted to share with patrons as part of LAB25 (Libraries and Archives Blueprint). Through the collection, we hope to add on to the learning marketplace we are developing so that everyone can read more and learn, gaining a deeper understanding of our multicultural heritage."

NLB senior head of Tamil language Azhagiya Pandiyan hopes Tamil patrons will make full use of the materials in the collection to read regularly in their mother tongue. "This will help Singapore keep our bilingual competitive edge. At the same time, we hope patrons will gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of their Tamil heritage when they visit the space and the exhibition," he said.

Mrs Teo also announced a partnership between NLB and the Centre for Singapore Tamil Culture to develop an online encyclopaedia on Singapore Tamils.

The launch of Tamil Cholai is part of more than 40 programmes of the annual Tamil Language Festival organised by the Tamil Language Council. The festival kicked off on April 1 and ends on May 1.

To complement the launch, NLB is organising reading programmes for readers of all ages. Details can be found at https://go.gov.sg/tamilcholaiprogrammes