The Buddhist Temple in Singapore

No visit to a new country is complete without going to a church of some type. We’d need to visit several here, to cover all the bases. One of ones we hit in Chinatown was a Buddhist Temple.

This one differed somewhat from those we saw in Thailand in that it was decorated in more of what is “Chinese” in our minds – obviously! There were services going on, and we were invited to take pictures and video.

At the time, there was a service going on as you can see from the video -- turn your volume down, it's a bit loud. 

Our thought is that this was "Just as I am" in Buddhist, given that it apparently has 4,000 verses that sound exactly the same.  You'd think someone would come up and redicate their life just so the pastor would move on and everyone could hit the Sonic for a burger.  That didn't seem to be happening , though.

Seriously, the chanting could be heard outside the temple for quite a distance, and it went on for quite a while.  In the congregation, there appeared to be monks on the right and congregants on the left, and we had the impression that it was something of a responsive reading more than a hymn.

You got to admire the fact that these people could worship, though, with all the chaos going on around them, tourists in and out, etc.  The cathedrals in Europe certainly wouldn't have tolerated it, which seems to speak to the Asian psyche to some extent.  They just don't seem to get ruffled about a lot.

After you left the ground floor, you went up several flights in the tower. At the top, there was another prayer room. In this room there was yet another space called the “Golden Room of the Tooth” or something along those lines. It was glassed off, so you couldn’t actually go in the room although you could go in the anteroom where a monk was offering prayers and blessings.

The relic contained in the golden room is a tooth from the Buddha.

Now, before the Christians go getting all judgmental on us, think about this.

We have TONS of relics in the Christian Church, some real, some imagined. Most are in the possession of the Catholic Church, but all Christian churches have some ties to them.

In the alter of Catholic and many Episcopal churches, there is always a relic – a bit of a bone, or a splinter from the cross or something. In many European churches (especially those in Rome, but across the entire area) there are dozens of things on display like this.

So before you start gettin’ all “Ewww. That’s not right,” think about what you’re saying and what’s goin’ on in your own churches.

You can’t see the tooth up close, but they have “toothcam” on and tied to a couple of flatscreens, so you can see it better. As a movie, it’s about as exciting as watching the Apollo Moon Missions waiting to take off was in the 2nd grade. Hours and hours and hours of nothing happening. A still shot might have been about as good.  On the other hand, I guess if something happened you'd want to be sure to catch it.  Better safe than sorry.

Interestingly enough, they didn’t seem to offer a postcard of that shot, either.

The temple was amazing, and we want to try to go back to have a better look. It was Saturday afternoon and there were about a gazillion school kids around, so it didn’t really lend itself to quiet contemplation. Maybe it never does, but we want to try again.

Up in the top of the tower was the "10,000 Buddhas".  There were little statues, probably 2 inches tall, and numbered, in little checkerboard-like niches all over up there.  Just like buying a brick for the sidewalk, you could adopt a Buddha as a part of the Temple Maintenance Fund.
 
There was also a great bell up there.  You walked in a circle with this big cylinder -- think a small grain silo on a lazy susan -- every time it went around, a bell rang.  The bell meant your prayers were being heard.