The people and culture of India have had a profound impact on the island nation of Singapore for centuries; the name "Singapore" itself comes from the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit. Today, Indians form 9% of the country's population and continue to play a major role in its society-in fact, the current president, S.R. Nathan, is of Indian descent. Little wonder, then, that the ethnic enclave known as Little India remains one of the most heavily visited and culturally vibrant parts of the city-state, as well as one of the most famous. A walking tour of the neighborhood, including dinner and shopping, will be available on two nights to attendees of the ICA Conference in June. Until then, however, we offer this exploration of Little India to whet your appetite for more.

When modern (colonial) Singapore was founded in 1819, its founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, commissioned a plan for the city that would separate it into ethnic pockets. Little India, however, was not a part of that plan-Indian immigrants mostly lived in an area known as the "Chulia Kampong," north of Chinatown. After a few decades, however, the Chulia Kampong became overcrowded, and the rising Chinese population began overtaking its boundaries, forcing many of the Indian residents to move across the Singapore River and build the neighborhood now called Little India. Although Indian Singaporeans are no longer concentrated there (they have dispersed throughout the city), it remains a stronghold of Indian commercial businesses and ethnocentric activities. Scores of Indian Singaporeans refer to it affectionately as their "home away from home."

A visitor can find Little India, so they say, by following the smells of incense and spices that emanate from its shops and restaurants. For practical purposes, though, the neighborhood is eight blocks northwest of the Suntec Convention Centre, just up Rochor Road; or, if you prefer, two stops on the MRT train (take the Red Line from City Hall to Dhoby Gaut, and transfer to the Purple Line to the Little India station). From either access, however, the wafting aromas will be immediately noticeable-and so will the colorful buildings and homes that fill the district.

At the foot of Little India, the corner of Serangoon and Bukit Timah (which Rochor becomes when it meets Serangoon) Roads, sits the Tekka Centre, one of the focal points in the neighborhood. Though its architecture is closer to a shopping mall, it is much closer in spirit and function to an indoor marketplace, with full-scale shops but many more open stalls with vendors who sell clothes, food, housewares, and other goods. Notably, however, the Tekka Centre is not a specifically Indian commercial center: It is an intersection of all the ethnic groups in Singapore, with merchandise sold by and for the Chinese, Malay, Indian, Arab, and other subcultures in the city-state. There are even hawkers who cater to the specific religious interests of Singaporeans.

For a marketplace with a more explicitly Indian flavor, look no further than across Serangoon Road from Tekka, at the Little India Arcade. Actually a cluster of shophouses built nearly 100 years ago, the Arcade primarily dwells in the maze-like passageways through those houses. Musicians perform traditional and popular Indian music in those corridors while pedestrians look through and purchase silk saris, gold, jewelry, silverware, furniture, electronics, arts and crafts, knick knacks, and medicine, while munching on curry served in banana leaves and other ethnic fare. There's also an Indian Cultural Corner within the Arcade, which provides visitors an introduction to Little India. Admission to the Cultural Corner is free; it's open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, but closed Sundays and public holidays.

The cross street at Serangoon Road for the Little India Arcade is Campbell Lane, named for one of the British administrators of Colonial Singapore. This small side street is celebrated as a "Little India" all its own, packed with stalls and merchants who are carving wood, constructing furniture, polishing and shaping jewelry, and making vegetarian food. It is a favorite haunt of tourists from the Indian subcontinent itself. Most famously, Campbell Lane features a number of flower garland makers, who weave multicolored flowers-jasmine, marigold, and rose-into dense, brilliant, wearable pieces.

As alluring as the shopping and the artisans of Little India may be, nothing catches the eye like the dozen or so Hindu temples that populate the neighborhood. Small and large, and dedicated to various Hindu deities, the temples are united in their ornate decoration and vivid colors. The most spectacular, assuredly, is the Sri Veerama Kaliamman Temple. Built in 1881 by Bengali immigrants, the temple is dedicated to Kali - the Hindu goddess of death. Embedded within the glorious interior of the temple are graphic images of the goddess destroying the living, so a tour of the inside may not be for the sensitive. Fortunately there are plenty of other temples and places of worship to see, including Buddhist temples (such as Leong San See Temple )mosques (the large Masjid Abdul Gaffoor) and Christian churches (Kampong Kapoor Methodist).

Finally, what would a visit to Little India be without the experience of authentic Indian cuisine? It should come as no surprise that Little India is flowing with options for all budgets and varieties, although vegetarian food enjoys an advantage in quantity. Among the great veggie options in Little India are Saravana Bhavan, a chain based in southern India; Jaggis North Indian Cuisine, which also has tandoori (meat) dishes; and Komala Vilas, a neighborhood institution with on-the-go fast food served downstairs and and full South Indian meals upstairs. Nonvegetarians, however, may want to experiment with a dish that draws on Indian traditions, but is indigenous to Singapore: fish head curry. It's not as intimidating as it sounds: the head itself is not eaten, but it is filled with succulent meat and spices. Among the most popular is at the highly acclaimed Banana Leaf Apolo, where participants in ICA's walking tour will eat dinner.

Although that tour will focus on dinner and shopping, make it a point to explore the life and culture that pops out of every seam of Little India. Even visitors from the Subcontinent itself find unique treasures in the neighborhood, making it an essential corner of Singapore no matter what part of the globe you may hail from.