One day a week or so ago I had the day to myself and wanted to see a little more of Chinatown. The central parts of Singapore are all very walkable, especially if you wear an activity tracker and you are in competition with other people who walk a lot, not naming names, but you still know who you are. Anyway, it really isn’t far and I found myself in front of the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple on Sago Lane within 15 minutes of leaving our place.
Looking directly up
The Temple is quite new and a popular destination for tourists. It is a huge building with 5 stories and a basement, housing a lovely garden on the roof. When I arrived there were lots of people paying their respects out front and services underway on the ground floor.
Making an offering
I looked in on the service in progress, appreciating the beauty of the interior as well as the service taking place. But my real interest was in the rooftop garden, so took I the stairs, stopping at each floor to see the chambers, including the Buddha tooth relic, whose authenticity is hotly debated. On the fourth floor there is a very nice meditation area on either side of the room looking out onto the city.
The rooftop garden, you can see the prayer wheel just inside the opening
Arriving on the top floor you walk into a lovely garden with seating along the sides and covered colonnades, sitting in the middle and elevated is a room housing an enormous cloisonne prayer wheel.
detail on the prayer wheel
The garden is loaded with beautiful orchids in an array of colors, if you visit, be sure to make it up to the garden, there is a lift for those who would rather not hoof it up 5 flights of stairs.
I spent quite a while wandering around the temple, but eventually moved on and passed the Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple on my way back through China town. This time there were fewer guests leaving their shoes outside, but still plenty. Hunger dictated that I pass the temple by again in favor of lunch, but I’m looking forward to spending more time checking it out rather than taking pics from the outside, colorful and beautiful as it is.
Shoes in front of the Sri Mariamman Temple
In my search for a restaurant I passed by this place and while I loved the name for it’s own sake, I wasn’t sure what might be on the menu, so for this time at least, I passed. Maybe next time.
Yeah, it’s already captioned
Libby Scofield 