Visit to Buddhist Temple

On Tuesday morning we set out to visit the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum in nearby Chinatown. Buddhism is the largest religion in Singapore, with about 45% of the people. In comparison, Christians are only about 15%. Our hotel room has a Teaching of Buddha book, in Chinese and English, and a good old Gideon Holy Bible, in English only.

This temple is a new one, a flashy red and gold mega temple completed in 2007 at a cost of over 50 million dollars. To enter the temple, you have to be dressed modestly. If you are wearing a sleeveless top or shorts, you can borrow a shawl or scarf from the stack by the door to cover yourself. ( I didn't have to.)


When we arrived, there was a service in progress. A monk stood at the front and all of the people sat with books in front of them as everyone read (chanted) in unison. It was a dramatic main hall with lots of Buddha images everywhere.

(If you look closely, you can see the monk behind the podium in the bottom.)

The temple has 6 levels. We spent time in the bookstore/tea room/gift shop. It reminded me of an Oriental Chapters store. We visited the rooftop garden and saw the giant prayer wheel. Many of the doorways have a little barrier across the bottom that you have to step over. I read somewhere that this forces you to look down and automatically bow your head in reverence.

Shows part of the prayer wheel. Notice the little barrier across the doorway.

Finally, we went in to the Sacred Buddha Tooth Relic Chamber. which we cannot show you because photography is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. We had to remove our shoes before entering. We were there at the right time, when the curtain was raised, to see Asia's largest stupa, a rounded monument holding the relic. It is 2 metres tall, made of 420 kg. of pure gold, adorned with 201 rubies and surrounded by 35 statues of Buddha. It has a gold canopy over it and the floor is gold. I read that all of that gold was donated by devotees. Only the monks can go into that inner chamber.

That's it for this temple visit. Jim is interested in visiting other places of worship here, such as Hindu temples and Muslim mosques.