Buddha Tooth Temple

新加坡佛牙寺龙华院

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

The first place I visited after arriving in Singapore and checking in at my hotel was Chinatown. I had booked an early flight from Bangkok that required me to leave my apartment for DMK Airport at the unholy hour of 4:00AM, but I wanted to have a full day there after I landed. Impossible to miss, the multi-story Buddhist temple and museum dominates a full city block in Chinatown.

The temple was built in 2005 after a collapsed stupa in Burma revealed a relic believed to be a tooth of the Buddha. It's a Chinese-style (Mahayana Buddhist) temple, but faithful Buddhists from all over the world come to visit. I heard some visitors speaking Thai (Thailand is predominantly Theravada Buddhist).

two Mahayana monks having a discussion

It had been a long morning and the closest thing to breakfast I had was a caramel coffee at Starbucks Don Mueang. Hungry, I followed signs to the temple's basement to the free vegetarian restaurant (donations accepted). Although the temple was busy with tourists, it was quiet in the little restaurant. Some old Singapore-Chinese and a few white-robbed nuns sat and ate quietly. The food was very good, and the portions were really generous. I tried to speak Chinese to the lady serving the food, but after I said the word "mian" (noodles) she began talking so quickly that I immediately lost the conversation.

The ground floor of the temple was dedicated to a number of shrines surrounding the main sanctuary hall. I'll admit I'm really not familiar with the layout of Chinese-style temples as they differ so greatly from the Thai-style temples I'm used to. Chinese and Thai temples, both beautiful in distinct ways, are so different. Thai temples are often lighter and more open, and generally incorporate more gold and marble in the decorations. Chinese temples are darker, tend to be more inclosed, and use dark woods and more red.

One of the upper floors was a museum housing Buddhist art, exhibits about Singapore's Chinatown, and gifts from communities all across the Buddhist world including something I recognized from Burma and a replica of our very own Phra Kaew, the Emerald Buddha from Bangkok's Grand Palace - the most revered Buddha image in all of Thailand.

Schwedagon Paya

The Emerald Buddha

At the top of the temple, stairs led up to a rooftop garden. The garden was really lush and green, and surrounded a pagoda housing a Tibetan-style Buddhist prayer wheel.

rooftop garden

 The garden was very quiet that afternoon, but there were two worshipers slowly walking and turning the wheel. Each rotation made a small bell chime faintly.

Tibetan prayer wheel

The prayer wheels are inscribed with "Om mani padme hum," a Buddhist meditative incantation meaning "jewel of the lotus." I believe it's meant to focus the mind of one in meditation. Turning the prayer wheel is believed to send one's prayers upward to heaven.

The temple was completed only nine years ago, but was built in the style of temples from China's Tang Dynasty (618-907).

You couldn't take pictures inside the actual reliquary. In any case, that wasn't the most interesting or impressive part for me, not being Buddhist. In my opinion, the massive size of the temple and the beautiful and elegant interior made it worth visiting.

the temple at night