Bilingual resource to bring Singapore Tamils’ history to life
Singapore, 2 Aug 2025 – President Tharman Shanmugaratnam today launched the Encyclopedia of Singapore Tamils (EST), a first-of-its-kind online resource documenting the life, contributions and times of the Tamil community in Singapore over the past 200 years. A collaboration between the Centre for Singapore Tamil Culture (CSTC) and NLB, the EST is available in both English and Tamil, making the resource more accessible and discoverable to the wider community, including educators, researchers, and members of the public. President Tharman was hosted by Minister for Digital Development and Information, Mrs Josephine Teo, at the launch, where they were joined by the editors of the EST, along with about 600 guests, including partners and volunteers.
Published in conjunction with SG60 and NLB’s 30th anniversary, the EST contains more than 350 entries that cover a wide range of topics, including but not limited to historical events, arts, community organisations, journalism, education, politics, and personalities. It places special emphasis on lesser-known aspects such as Tamil organisations and publications. A dedicated team of CSTC volunteers, comprising working professionals, retired educators, freelance writers, and more, collaborated with NLB on this milestone project. NLB provided technical expertise in areas such as cataloguing, image curation, and quality checks, among others.
The EST is a significant addition to NLB's existing Tamil resources and materials. It complements the material collected through the Tamil Digital Heritage Project, another successful collaboration with CSTC which concluded in 2019. This project digitally preserved meaningful aspects of Singapore's Tamil cultural heritage, including theatrical performances, musical traditions, and dance forms. The EST also builds upon Tamil Cholai, our Tamil literary collection launched in 2022, comprising over 20,000 works including classical texts, award-winning titles, and significant works by Singaporean authors. While most of the items are in Tamil, there are also about 1,000 specially-curated works in English, Chinese and Malay so that anyone keen to learn more about Indian arts, culture and traditions can access the material.
As a collaborative, community-driven project, CSTC and NLB have designed the EST to be a living document, allowing for continuous updates and new entries to ensure relevance and accuracy. Members of the public are invited to contribute to the EST. Additional information or corrections can be submitted via a feedback form for editorial review and possible inclusion. Explore the EST here: http://go.gov.sg/nlb-est.
Following the launch, a roving exhibition will tour four venues across Singapore from August 2025 to February 2026, showcasing key aspects of Singapore’s Tamil heritage through interactive panels and displays. Presented in both English and Tamil, the exhibition will include facts that may be lesser-known to the wider community about Tamil publishing, postage stamps, schools, as well as signages. More information can be found in the Annex.
The exhibition schedule is as follows:
NLB’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ng Cher Pong said: "The EST is designed as a dynamic, living document that will continue to evolve and be updated through careful curation, so that it remains relevant and meaningful to all. We are grateful to CSTC and their community volunteers whose invaluable contributions have enriched not just this project but also our broader Tamil resources. As NLB looks ahead, we hope to forge more such community partnerships, so that our collective stories of Singapore remain accessible and continue to be a source of inspiration for future generations."
EST’s Chief Editor and CSTC’s Chief Executive, Mr Arun Mahizhnan, said: “The EST marks a strong beginning in addressing the longstanding lack of a comprehensive historical record of the Singapore Tamil community, and ensures accessibility to a broad audience, both at home and abroad. Besides preserving our history, it can also inspire younger generations to appreciate and connect with their heritage.”
NLB is also collaborating with the National University of Singapore (NUS) Department of Malay Studies to showcase inspiring stories of Singapore's Malay community leaders and changemakers through a new online database called, Prominent Malays of Singapore. This will be launched in October 2025 and more details will be shared in due course.
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About NLB
NLB nurtures Readers for Life, Learning Communities and a Knowledgeable Nation by promoting reading, learning and history through its network of 28 libraries, the National Library and the National Archives of Singapore. NLB also forges strategic partnerships that encourage awareness, appreciation and greater discovery of Singapore’s history through its rich collections on Singapore and the region.
NLB achieves excellence through innovation, focusing on citizen engagement and co-creation, resource and digital innovation. This creates learning opportunities, greater access to library resources, services and archival collections, as well as a continual development of innovative library spaces. Established on 1 September 1995 as a statutory board, NLB is under the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI).
For more information, please visit the NLB website, NLB’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube channels.
About the Centre for Singapore Tamil Culture
The Centre for Singapore Tamil Culture (CSTC) was established in 2019, in conjunction with the commemoration of Singapore’s 200th anniversary of its founding. CSTC’s mission is to build bridges across Singapore‘s diverse cultures so as to foster deeper and wider intercultural exchange and understanding. As a Tamil cultural organisation, it also aims to study, sustain and share Tamil culture in Singapore.
For more information, please visit the CSTC website, and Facebook and Instagram channels.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Quah Jia Ling
Weber Shandwick
Tel: +65 9699 0830
Email: JQuah@webershandwick.com