Vivekananda Ashram: Preserving one man’s legacy for over 100 years

While records show that it was the lush traveller’s palm tree and mangosteens that stole the heart of Swami Vivekananda during his travels through Asia in the late 1800s, it was really his teachings that would go on to capture the hearts and minds of thousands in the region for over a hundred years.

More than a century after his Malaya visit, the Vivekananda Ashram — built in 1904 —  continues to be the calm in the middle of bustling, modern-day Brickfields.

But one announcement from the ashram’s board of trustees recently has resulted in a fiery debate.

Citing a lack of funds to continue their charitable works in the name of Vivekananda, the board revealed that it would redevelop the iconic 110-year-old ashram’s land by allowing a 23-storey residential tower to hang over it.

This idea was met with intense backlash, with a public outcry that has now gone on to become a movement against the proposed redevelopment. 

We took a step back to revisit the story behind the ashram. 

PHOTO FEATURE: Outside its locked gates, the daily assembly to save Vivekananada Ashram
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Vivekananda, known in his pre-monastic life as Narendranath Datta, was on his way to the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. 

Vivekananda had taken notes while moving through Asia. He wrote, “The beautiful fan-like palm, called the traveller’s palm, grows here in abundance and the bread-fruit tree everywhere.”  

He had visited Penang and Singapore and was immediately enchanted by the landscape of this region, observing how Penang was once faced with the threat of pirates, and how he found the people of Singapore “not half so dark as the people of Madras.”

His writings – taken from “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda ( Vol 1-9 )” – in full: 

“The next station was Penang, which is only a strip of land along the sea in the body of the Malaya Peninsula.  The Malayas are all Mohammedans and in old days were noted pirates and quite a dread to merchantmen.  But now the leviathan guns of modren turreted battleships have foreced the Malayas to look about for more peaceful pursuits.  

The people here are not half so dark as the people of Madras, although so near the line.  Singapore possess a fine museum too.”

And while this revered individual was charmed by Southeast Asia’s landscapes, his teachings had inspired thousands to continue his work in improving the lives of the disadvantaged and the poor. 

His teachings had become so great an influence in local communities that followers paid tribute to him through the establishment of the Vivekananda Ashram in Brickfields in 1904.

The ashram is said to have been built by Sri Lankan (Jaffna) Tamil migrants to pay tribute to Vivekananda.  This building was part of an expansion of the Ramakrishna Mission in Singapore in 1896. 

Although there was no evidence of him visiting Kuala Lumpur at that time, the movement was driven to continue his work in educating and supporting the underprivileged through this ashram.  

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A disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Vivekananda had founded the Ramakrishna Missions in order to spread his mentor’s teachings to the world.  

According to their meeting reports, these missions are still active and Malaysia is listed as one of the countries in which the missions serve. 

But while researching this iconic ashram, we learnt that current links between Vivekananda Ashram and the Ramakrishna Mission are unclear. 

A source, who wished to remain anonymous, told us that ties between the two institutions had been severed over political reasons and factional disputes. This was said to have taken place sometime between the early 1920s and 1960s, and our source tells us that there’s been no record of their relationship since then until today.

Other centres are located in Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa and Switzerland. All these centres carry out cultural work, meditation sessions, medical aid and educational initiatives.

Today, the Vivekananda Ashram is managed by a trust which also oversees these schools; SJK (T) Thamboosamy Pillai in Sentul, SJK (T) Vivekananda, Brickfields, the Vivekananda primary and secondary school in Kuala Lumpur.

The mission also supported the setting up of Malaysia’s first Tamil kindergarten in the 1920s, while in the 1950s, a hostel was constructed for students from rubber estates, so that they have a place to live in when they attended school in urban areas.

Did you know…?

• Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes were flown from Singapore to the Vivekananda Ashram on March 21, 1948. A short service was then held by Swami Sathiananda of the Ramakrishna Mission. The urn containing Gandhi’s ashes then left Kuala Lumpur for Kota Bahru and, later, Penang on March 25. It then returned to Singapore where part of its ashes were scattered into the sea off Connaught Drive at the end of March. (Source: Singapore Straits Times)​
• The ashram hosted many types of talks in the 1940s and 1960s. One that we found on record was about the Geetha – an Indian classical instrument — by leading authority N Jridhari Prasad . There were also spiritual lectures by Swami Satyananda Bharathi, on Sri Ramana Maharishi’s teachings. (Source: Singapore Straits Times)
• The Ramakrishna Mission in Malaya, which was part of the movement to set up the ashram, was prominent in the early part of the century, but was relatively inactive during the postwar years. It gained greater influence in the 1960s onwards. Those years of inactivity saw the mission not managing any ashrams in Kuala Lumpur and not stationing any one of its swamis in Kuala Lumpur. (Source: Cage of Freedom: Tamil Identity and the Ethnic Fetish in Malaysia, by Andrew C. Willford)