tiger hill cemetery | Tiger hill cemetery coonoor tamil nadu, history,timings,address,location,photos,tiger hill cemetery nilgiris
Tiger Hill Cemetery in the Nilgiris :
The Nilgiris, the Tiger Hill cemetery Coonoor, The name comes from the tigers that roamed during
the days of the British Prompting the British to name it Tiger Hill .
The British East India Company in 1799 came into
the possession in Ooty At that time Ooty was developed, first as a military
sanatorium and, after 1834, as the summer capital of the Madras Presidency,
away from the heat of the plains.
Tiger Hill cemetery opens :
The first European cemetery in Kotagiri, and the
ones at the St. Stephens Church and St. Thomas Church in Udhagamandalam, which
all pre-date the one in Coonoor.
Tiger Hill cemetery Constructed in 1905 with distinct Gothic-renaissance architecture, the
cemetery was designed with some beautiful flourishes ,Later it became a cemetery where the British used
to bury the dead.
Tiger Hill Cemetery was primarily used by the
British for their war burials Located amidst a tea plantation, this graveyard
has burials dating long back.
Notable burials :
Amongst those who are buried at Tiger Hill is A.
T. W. Penn, pioneering photographer who documented the people of the Nilgiris
and Southern India from the 1850s to the 1870s.
Another early photographer of Coonoor, Samuel
Boesinger is also buried here as well as Herbert Arthur Pople, one of the first
translators of Thirukkural into English,
C. M. Inglis, the curator of the Darjeeling
Natural History Society, the Reverend John Hackney, Priest Missionary to the
Karens of Burma,
who translated the Prayer Book into Karen and
compiled a Karen hymn book, and Sir Frederick Nicholson, Collector of Madras
who is considered to be both Father of Fisheries in India and of the Indian
Cooperative Movement.
Tiger Hill cemetery there are about 500 British graves. Planters
and their families predominate and there are military and government workers,
as well as many connected with the railways.
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway, now recognised as a
UNESCO World Heritage site, and its Coonoor Station, were built soon after
Tiger Hill opened; they are a draw to tourists from far and wide.
What the future holds :
The planters such as the members of the Stanes
family,the iconic fountain at the cemetery now has a broken statue of a
“mourning angel,” overlooking the entrance to the cemetery.
The statue was once a part of the grave of John
Thompson, who retired from the Madras Survey department. It has now been broken
and dumped inside a fountain at the entrance
“The mourning angel at the cemetery was just one
among a triad of similar sculptures, two of which have gone missing, and are
presumed to have been stolen,”
“There are also very unique Celtic Crosses at the
cemetery, many of which have been destroyed over the years,”
Tiger Hill has developed a mystical reputation and
has become a destination for thrill-seeking tourists and film-makers.
Unfortunately, it has also drawn in undesirables
who have deliberately or unintentionally damaged the headstones, and its lush
grassy areas have been equally attractive to huge lumbering gaur (Indian
Bison), and even to elephants, which have wreaked even greater destruction.
It is hoped that the new, higher, reinforced
perimeter wall, to which BACSA have contributed support, will provide new
protection for the foreseeable future.
population in excess of 50,000, Coonoor is
flourishing, and is now one of the most famous retirement retreats for the
wealthy in India but the local Christian community is shrinking,
so, unlike other places in India, Tiger Hill looks
set to have sufficient space for future local Christian burials It will
continue, though, to require wider support from those interested in this hidden
gem.
The entrance of the cemetery has a stone gate with
an arched gateway and a steeple,The memorials are simple, with a few of them
having ornate designs, sculptures and beautifully written epitaphs.
Though most of the burials belong to the officers
of East India Company and their family members, some of them belong to the
locals too,Quite a few people from abroad come here to trace their family
roots.
Tiger Hill Cemetery Timings
Recommended time of arrival: 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
Time required to visit Tiger Hill Cemetery: 00:30 Mins
Tiger Hill Cemetery Address : Tiger Hill, TanTea Factory Road, Coonoor, Tamil Nadu 643104, India.
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