Kamini sets the scene. Just click to make your way to the next part of the history.

AUDIO TEXT: Serangoon Road is known for its many shops selling food, fabric, jewellery, and all sorts of different things.Let me tell you about the history of Serangoon Road and how it's linked to cattle – especially to cows and buffaloes!

Serangoon Road

TEXT OF AUDIO: Did you know that in the early 1819s all the way to 1860, buffaloes and bullock carts were a common sight along Serangoon Road?Close by to where Serangoon Road is located, there used to be a harbour, and ships and boats would come, and they would unload all their goods and cargo. The bullock carts were the only mode of transport to bring down from Johor, spices like black pepper and gambier.In these early years, Serangoon Road was just a buffalo-trodden dirt track.

Buffalo Cart Statue

AUDIO TEXT: The busy activity surrounding cows and buffaloes and all of the trade that was going on, resulted in enclosures to keep all the cattle safe. And in the Malay language, the name for a buffalo enclosure is kandang kerbau. This name may be familiar to some of you because there's a hospital named after Kandang Kerbau - known today as the K.K Hospital.If you look around the Serangoon Road area you will find plenty of road signs named after the cattle industry - Kerbau Road or Buffalo Road is named after the buffalo.

How Kerbau Road got its name

AUDIO TEXT: The Serangoon Road area had a flourishing dairy trade with milkmen who sold milk to the residents. These milkmen carried large containers full of cow’s milk or even buffalo’s milk, and they would go from house to house to deliver milk. The women used to make curds or yoghurt. And they would carry them in pots on their head or sometimes in big pails and deliver the cold, fresh yoghurt to all the different households.

The Milk Trade

AUDIO TEXT: Did you know, in the middle of Serangoon Road, there stands an old, wooden, colourful house that used to be a sweet factory? The House of Tan Teng Niah made sweets from sugarcane. And when all the juice had been extracted out of the sugarcane, the fibres were left outside the house. And ... the cows that roamed around would eat these sweet tasting sugarcane fibres!

House of Tan Teng Niah

AUDIO TEXT: Road signs are not the only way that cattle are remembered as connected to the deep history of Serangoon Road. Once a year, in January, during the harvest festival of Pongal, cows are celebrated as an important part of agricultural society. The cows are given a good bath and beautifully decorated with flower garlands, a pottu marking their forehead, and adorned with jewellery. Cattle are revered because they are the animals that work hard in the fields helping farmers to harvest the crops and to plough the land. And so, during Pongal, especially on Cow Pongal or Mattu Pongal, cows are celebrated.

Nandi Statue & Pongal

AUDIO TEXT: I hope you've enjoyed getting to know a bit of the history of Serangoon Road and how closely linked it is to cattle, especially to cows and buffaloes. The wall murals around Serangoon Road continue to pay tribute to the history of cattle in this area. If you're in the area, you can explore these murals and look out for cows!