Pope Francis to use handmade chairs by Indian-origin man on Singapore visit

During his visit to Singapore next week, Pope Francis will use two handmade chairs crafted by an Indian-origin carpenter here for his inter-religious dialogue sessions.

The chairs are made by 44-year-old Govindharaj Muthiah, who took his passion for woodworking full-time in 2019, according to a Channel News Asia report last week.

Muthiah said when he received the fortuitous call from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore around end-July, he did not expect to be presented with the coolest addition to his CV to date.

Even though he completed both "100 per cent handmade" chairs within a whirlwind month, Muthiah said the news of being assigned to do the chairs still had not sunk in.

When I got the call, the first question was: Hi, we knew you do furniture. We were introduced by someone.' And they asked if I could make a chair. I was like, Okay, do you have the dimensions? I'll work on it,' he told CNA.

Then (the caller) said, No it's more than that, there's a lot of specific ...