You won’t need an address. Ask anyone in Pala for the gate illatha veedu — the gateless home — and they will point you in the right direction. The Kottukapally family has lived in Pala since 1736. Their roots in the Nazrani community go back to AD 52. Their home is one of the most extraordinary places to stay in Kerala, and Thressi’s cooking is the reason people who have stayed there still think about it.
The story of the Nazarani community — the Syrian Christians of Kerala, also called Saint Thomas Christians — is one of the most extraordinary stories in the history of world Christianity. It begins, by tradition, in AD 52, when Thomas the Apostle, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ, arrived on the Malabar Coast of India and found a community of Jews already settled there. He preached to them. They converted. Their descendants, over two millennia, became the Nazranis — a community that maintained the Syriac liturgical tradition, adapted the social customs of Kerala’s Brahmin aristocracy while remaining Christian, and created a culture that is, by any measure, entirely its own.
The Kottukapally family traces its roots to the Nampoothiris of Kottakavu Illam — the Brahmin household that, among the earliest, embraced Christianity through St. Thomas in AD 52. In 1736, when Angadi Pala, the commercial hub of the small hill town of Pala in what is now the Kottayam district of Kerala, was being established, members of the Kottukapally family arrived from Mevada at the invitation of the local administrators to engage in the pepper trade. They settled. They thrived. They became, over nearly three centuries, one of the founding families of modern Pala — traders, planters, community leaders, and eventually parliamentarians.
The home they built in the heart of Pala’s town was constructed in 1736. It was relocated to its current two-acre compound in 2011, its original materials preserved with remarkable care. Today, managed by Thressi John and her husband John Thomas Kottukapally, it operates as Nazarani Tharavad — one of the most culturally specific and personally warm homestays in all of India.
The Compound and Its Buildings
The Nazarani Tharavad compound announces itself, first, by what it lacks: a gate. The gate illatha veedu — the gateless home — is how locals refer to it, and the absence of a gate is not accidental. It reflects the Kottukapally tradition of open, unconditional welcome. Past a row of towering palm trees, a two-acre compound of green lawns and plantations opens up, and three buildings stand in relationship to one another, each carrying its own distinct history.
The standout is the ancestral home — an L-shaped structure over 300 years old, relocated in 2011 from its original position in the heart of Pala town. It is a perfect amalgam of traditional Kerala architecture and colonial European influence, shaped specifically by the Nazrani way of life: this is a community that adapted Western customs into their domestic architecture in a way unlike any other group in Kerala. The façade is classic Indo-Dutch, from the 1930s — balanced symmetry and tall white pillars — while the interior reflects the accumulated domestic culture of a family that has been living well for three centuries. Three bedrooms accommodate up to eight guests. The rooms are furnished with antique furniture, brass vessels, literary works from the 1800s, and encyclopaedia editions from the 1930s. Air conditioning, study tables, wardrobes, and bedside tables ensure modern comfort within the old bones.
The Thekkini — the southern portion of the ancestral home — is believed to be the oldest part of the compound, built when the family’s ancestors first arrived in Pala for the pepper trade in the 1730s. Its trading room, with sliding doors and original commercial equipment, now houses the onsite museum: money-counting boards, weighing scales, and vintage kitchen utensils, all with a story to tell. When the home was relocated in 2011, the Thekkini was preserved in its original form without modification.
The Spanish Mansion stands across the compound from the ancestral home: a 60-year-old bungalow of six rooms with exquisite arches and curved windows, built by John’s father, George Thomas — who represented Muvattupuzha in Parliament. This is the current family residence, where John and Thressi live.
Thressi’s Kitchen
Thressi John is, in the words of everyone who has experienced her cooking, the heart of Nazarani Tharavad. She is known across Pala for her authentic Syrian Christian cuisine. She has cooked for Gordon Ramsay. She has authored a cookbook, Syrian Christian Favourites. And every morning at Nazarani Tharavad, she oversees a breakfast that functions as both nourishment and education: appam and stew, idiyappam and egg roast, fresh fruit juice, butter and bread, green gram curry — the food of Kottayam-style Syrian Christian kitchens, prepared with the authority of someone who grew up eating it and has spent decades refining it.
The full range of Nazarani Tharavad’s culinary experience extends considerably further. The traditional Nazarani Sadhya — a full lunch served on a banana leaf, reflecting the community’s ancient tradition of communal feasting — is available for those who want it. A seven-course sit-down dinner of continental dishes is served at a beautifully set table, in the British-era tradition that the Syrian Christian aristocracy of Kerala maintained through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This is not a recreated tourist experience. It is a living tradition, available to guests who want to understand the full breadth of the community’s culinary culture.
Cooking classes with Thressi are available for those who want to learn: duck roast, fish cooked in fresh banana leaves, the techniques of a Nazrani kitchen that has been producing this food for generations.
Thressi as Storyteller
Perhaps more than the food itself, it is Thressi as a storyteller that guests describe as the defining experience of Nazarani Tharavad. She leads guests through the Thekkini, introducing each artefact with the context of a family historian and the warmth of a woman welcoming you into her home. The family’s connection to the Nampoothiris, the arrival in Pala, the pepper trade, the colonial encounters that shaped the architecture, the community’s relationship with St. Thomas himself — all of this comes alive in her telling.
John, retired from his years at the centre of Kerala’s plantation circles, remains a treasure trove of stories about politics, history, and the rubber chronicles of the Kottayam region. His father George Thomas’s Parliamentary career, the family’s deep roots in the regional economy, and the broader history of Pala as one of Kerala’s most significant market towns — these are the subjects of John’s conversation over breakfast, which guests describe as one of the most unexpectedly enriching hours of their Kerala travels.
What to See and Experience
The compound itself contains the museum, the ancestral home, and the Spanish Mansion — enough for a full morning of cultural immersion. Guided interactions with local handloom weavers are available through the property. The Kottukapally rubber estate, 20 kilometres from the ancestral home, can be visited for a full-day excursion into the plantation economy that has shaped Kottayam district’s prosperity for a century.
Pala itself — a historic market town in the high ranges of Kerala, the seat of early and present-day Christianity in the region — is worth a full day’s exploration. The town’s ancient churches, including the St. Thomas Church and the various heritage denominational churches of the Syrian Christian communities, reflect the deep roots of Christianity in this particular landscape. The St. Alphonsa pilgrim centre at Bharananganam — where St. Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception, the first person of Indian origin to be canonised by the Catholic Church, is buried — is a short drive away and one of the most significant pilgrimage destinations in Kerala. The four temples dedicated to Lord Ram and his brothers in the surrounding area reflect the region’s Hindu heritage alongside its Christian one.
The broader Kottayam district — with its backwaters at Kumarakom and Alleppey easily accessible — offers the full Kerala experience as an extension of a stay at Nazarani Tharavad.
Why It Stays With You
There is a specific kind of hospitality that belongs to homes rather than hotels — the hospitality of people who are genuinely glad you are there, who have lived in a place long enough to know every story it contains, and who share that knowledge with the pleasure of sharing something valuable. Thressi and John Kottukapally have been receiving guests at Nazarani Tharavad since December 2023, and the reviews that have accumulated since describe precisely this quality: warmth, food, stories, and the specific pleasure of being received into a home that belongs to a two-millennia-old tradition of welcoming people through a gate that doesn’t exist.
You won’t need an address. Ask anyone.
Plan Your Visit
Address: Kottukapally House, Pala Town, Kottayam — 686575, Kerala Phone / WhatsApp: +91 98462 12438 Also: +91 4822 212 438 Website: nazaranitharavad.com Booking: Direct via website · Also listed on Raahghar · Google Hotels
Hosts: Thressi John Kottukapally (host, cook, storyteller) and John Thomas Kottukapally (host, plantation expert, family historian) John’s father: George Thomas — former Member of Parliament, Muvattupuzha constituency Thressi’s cookbook: Syrian Christian Favourites · Also cooked for Gordon Ramsay
The Compound: 2 acres · 3 buildings — Ancestral Tharavad (300+ years, relocated 2011) · Thekkini (trading room + museum) · Spanish Mansion (family residence, 60 years old, built by MP father)
Accommodation: 3 bedrooms in the ancestral home · Sleeps up to 8 guests · Entire property offered on single-booking (exclusive-use) basis — not sold room by room Room amenities: AC · Antique furniture · Brass vessels · Vintage books and encyclopaedias · Modern facilities throughout Check-in: 2:00 PM · Check-out: 12:00 PM
Dining: Traditional Kerala breakfast included (appam and stew, idiyappam and egg roast, fresh juice, bread and butter, green gram curry) · Nazarani Sadhya (banana leaf lunch) on request · 7-course British-era continental dinner on request · Cooking classes with Thressi (duck roast, fish in banana leaves) available
Museum (Thekkini): Money-counting boards, weighing scales, vintage kitchen utensils, antique artefacts from the pepper-trading era · Free access for guests Cultural experiences: Guided property walk with Thressi · Handloom weaver interactions · Cooking classes · Kottukapally rubber estate visit (20 km)
Getting There — Cochin International Airport: approximately 75 km — around 1.5 to 2 hours by road. — Kottayam Railway Station: approximately 30 km — around 45 minutes. — From Kottayam city: approximately 30 km — around 45 minutes via Ettumanur. — From Alleppey (Alappuzha): approximately 65 km — around 1.5 hours. — From Kochi: approximately 95 km — around 2 hours. — Pala is a well-known town — ask any driver for Kottukapally Tharavad near Kurisupally Junction. Locals will know it.
Nearby — Pala town centre: adjacent · St. Alphonsa Pilgrim Centre, Bharananganam: 10 km · Kottayam: 30 km · Kumarakom backwaters: 40 km · Alleppey: 65 km · Cochin Airport: 75 km · Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary: 100 km
Best Time to Visit: October to February for pleasant weather and the most accessible high-range roads · December for the Christmas and New Year season, when Pala’s Syrian Christian traditions are at their most visible · March to May for warm, dry days before the monsoon · June to September for the green, rain-drenched Western Ghats — the high ranges of Kottayam are among the most dramatically beautiful places in Kerala during the monsoon
