Tara Books

Chennai (Madras)


Producers of beautiful hand-printed books, this publishing company is based in southern Chennai. Visit its Book Building showroom, where you can browse, buy and maybe catch a talk by an author or artist. You can also check out the printing shop, AMM Screens, and watch pages being silk-screened and hand-bound into finished volumes. The Book Building is conveniently visited together with the nearby Kalakshetra Foundation, just 700m north. The print shop is about a 10-minute autorickshaw ride southwest.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Chennai (Madras) attractions

1. Book Building

Within this mural-covered space, Tara Books stages free exhibitions, author talks and workshops with visiting artists, and displays its own highly…

2. Kalakshetra Foundation

0.23 MILES

Founded in 1936, Kalakshetra is a leading serious school of Tamil classical dance and music (sponsoring many students from disadvantaged backgrounds), set…

3. Theosophical Society

1.74 MILES

Between the Adyar River and the coast, the 100-hectare grounds of the Theosophical Society provide a peaceful, green, vehicle-free retreat from the city…

4. AMM Screens

2.45 MILES

The printing workshop of Tara Books, where you can watch pages being silk-screened and hand-bound into books.

5. Sri Ramakrishna Math

3.15 MILES

The tranquil, flowery grounds of the Ramakrishna Math are a world away from Mylapore's chaos. Orange-robed monks glide around and there’s a reverential…

6. Little Mount Church

3.25 MILES

For part of his South Indian sojourn, St Thomas supposedly lived in hiding in a cave just south of the Adyar River. This grottolike space can be entered…

7. Kapaleeshwarar Temple

3.34 MILES

Mylapore is one of Chennai's most characterful and traditional neighbourhoods; it predated colonial Madras by several centuries. Its Kapaleeshwarar Temple…

8. San Thome Cathedral

3.45 MILES

This soaring Roman Catholic cathedral, a stone's throw from the beach, was founded by the Portuguese in 1523, then rebuilt by the British in neo-Gothic…

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