The birthday of Mazu, the goddess of the sea and the queen of heaven, is one of the major festivals that is celebrated at temples dedicated to the protector of seafarers and fishermen, Mazu, who is also known as Tian Hou. Mazu temples in Singapore include the Thian Hock Keng, Wak Hai Cheng Bio and the Kheng Chiu Tin Hou Kong — all of which are located close to former landing points for Singapore’s early Chinese immigrants. The festival thus, not only celebrates the 10th century Song Dynasty maiden turned well-loved deity, but also the links to our past. The photographs that follow, are from the Thian Hock Keng’s Excursion for Peace during the birthday festivities on 1st May 2024 (23rd day of the Chinese lunar month).
A celebration of old ties
5 05 2024Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: Birthday of Mazu, Colours of Singapore, Events, Festivals, Old Singapore, Photographs, Photography, Singapore, Telok Ayer, Telok Ayer Street, Thian Hock Keng
Categories : Devotion, Events, Festivals, Photography, Photography Series, Singapore
Singapore Heritage Festival 2024: paying homage to the building blocks of our nation
2 05 2024Difficult as it may now be to imagine, but the sea once washed right up to Telok Ayer Street which today has the largest concentration of National Monuments in Singapore. It was along the street that some of the first waves of settlers to the new East India Company factory of Singapore came ashore. Feeling great relief at completing a journey filled with fear and uncertainty, many would have felt the necessity to offer a prayer of gratitude at the shrines and altars set up by those who came before them. Most in the collection of monuments that we see today, house or housed the religious institutions that these places of prayer grew into.
One monument that stands out because of its location at the corner of Boon Tat and Telok Ayer Streets in is the former Nagore Dargah, which has a fascinating tale to tell. It was where immigrants arriving from Nagapattinam – one of the major ports of embarkation in Tamil Nadu offered prayers of thanks to the Sufi saint and protector of seafarers, Shahul Hameed.
The former dargah or shrine is modelled after another in Nagore near Nagapattinam, which was erected around the burial site of the saint. The dargah in Nagore would have been where would be travellers stopped at before making their sea journeys, attracting both Muslims and Hindus. Today, the dargah has become the Nagore Dargah Indian Muslim Heritage Centre, a showcase of Indian Muslim history.
For many of the Chinese coming ashore, it was to Mazu, that prayers would have been offered to. Also known as Tian Hou — the Queen of Heaven, Mazu has a wide following amongst members of China’s coastal communities, who revere her as the protector of seafarers and fishermen, and by extension, the protector of to those embarking on sea journeys. The old waterfront in way of Telok Ayer boasts of two temples dedicated to Mazu, erected by two of the largest communities of Chinese in Singapore, the Hokkiens and the Teochews.
The two temples, the Thian Hock Keng and the Wak Hai Cheng Bio or Yueh Hai Ching, are the oldest temples of the respective communities, as well as a point of focus. They are where the traditions of the immigrants are kept alive, and are filled with colour and celebration during festive occasions. One occasion that they both share is of course the birthday of Mazu, which falls on the 23rd day of the the 3rd Chinese lunar month – 1st May this year, 2024. A photograph of the celebration on 1st May at the Thian Hock Keng featuring the Mazu Excursion for Peace, is shown below.
The monuments along Telok Ayer Street, are an important link to Singapore’s past and established who we are today. This year’s Singapore Heritage Festival (2024)with its focus on built heritage celebrates them and many others. The festival also offers an opportunity to learn more about these monuments and much more through the Hop-On, Hop-Off (HOHO) Bus Experience and site specific tours such as Secret Singapore Pathways, Telok Ayer Trail of Faith, Nagore Dargah – The Endearing Icon of Telok Ayer, Remembering Singapore’s Old Waterfront, and Thian Hock Keng: Discover & Marvel. I am myself involved in two sets of tours, Cashin House Heritage Tour, A Journey through Time, and the mysterious Undisclosed.
There are many other interesting programmes and installations, two of which are highlighted below. For a full list of programmes for Singapore Heritage Festival 2024, which runs from 1st to 26th May, kindly visit https://www.sgheritagefest.gov.sg/.
HOMEGROUND: We Built This City
Also, held in conjunction with the festival is the Homeground installation, HOMEGROUND: We Built
This City. This year, it is laid out on the lawn of the National Museum of Singapore and coveS the themes of Nature, Commerce, Community, Residential and Governance. The installation features five displays that detail the evolution of Singapore’s public housing, and a landmark of Singapore’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Singapore Botanic Garden s’ bandstand gazebo and also features the whimsical artwork of Cheryl Teo.
A Rare Opportunity to visit a Living Architectural Conservation Laboratory in a 1880s Shophouse, and get some hands on!
- ArClab: Heritage in Motion Tour
- ArClab: Decorative Tiles Hands-on Cleaning Workshop
- ArClab: 3D Laser Scanning in Heritage Conservation
More on ArClab:
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Tags: 141 Neil Road, Architectural Conservation, Architecture, ArClab, Birthday of Mazu, Changing Landscapes, Colours of Singapore, Conservation, Events, Festivals, History, Nagore Dargah, Neil Road, NUS ArClab, Old Places, Old Singapore, Photographs, Photography, Singapore, Singapore Heritage Festival, Telok Ayer, Telok Ayer Bay, Telok Ayer Street, Thian Hock Keng, Traditions
Categories : Architecture, Changing Landscapes, Chinatown, Event Previews, Heritage Sites, Heritage Trails, National Mounments, Photography, Photography Series, Reminders of Yesterday, Singapore, Singapore Architecture, Traditions
Homage to the goddess of the sea
5 04 2024The view from a reimagined sea … to an earthly abode of the goddess of the sea.
It may be difficult to imagine it now, but there was a time when the sea washed right up to Telok Ayer Street.
Those were times when the street was a landing point. Many who came ashore here would have left home and family to embark on a journey that was filled as much with hope and promise, as it would have been with apprehension and uncertainty.
Coming ashore having survived a passage across tempestuous seas, the newly arrived had much to be grateful for. Shrines placed so homage could be paid to the heavenly beings whose powers of protection had been called upon were a necessary first stop. As the communities grew, in both numbers and wealth, these shrines of gratitude were made more elaborate, and serving as focal points for the communities that erected them.
One such shrine turned elaborate place of worship was the Thian Hock Keng, a focal point for the Hokkien community and the subject of the photograph. Dedicated to the protector of seafarers, Mazu, the temple is a joy to photograph in its various moods.
More on the temple, its activities, and Telok Ayer Street can be found in these posts:
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Tags: Architecture, Changing Landscapes, Chinatown, History, Hokkien Community, Old Places, Old Shoreline, Old Singapore, Photographs, Photography, Reminders of Yesterday, Singapore, Telok Ayer Street, Thian Hock Keng
Categories : Architecture, Changing Landscapes, Chinatown, Devotion, General, Heritage Sites, National Mounments, Photography, Photography Series, Reminders of Yesterday, Singapore
Sar Kong’s fire dragon visits the Heavenly Jade Emperor
3 02 2020Photographs from the eight night of Chinese New Year – when the Hokkiens gather to welcome the Heavenly Jade Emperor. The occasion this year was graced by the fire dragon of Sar Kong, who paid a visit to the Singapore Yu Huang Gong.
More on the Hokkien practice :
And, on the Fire Dragon of Sar Kong :
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Tags: Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year Celebrations, Chinese New Year in Singapore, Fire Dragon, Photography, Sar Kong, Singapore Yu Huang Gong, Telok Ayer Street, Traditions
Categories : Chinatown, Devotion, Photography, Photography Series, Singapore, Traditions
A defining moment in photographs: the 1959 elections that propelled the PAP into power
17 02 2018Thanks to LIFE Magazine’s John Dominis, we are able to get an interesting look back to a defining moment in Singapore’s history – the momentous 1959 elections that saw the People’s Action Party propelled into power.
The elections, held on 30 May, was to elect the first Legislative Assembly of a fully self-governing Singapore. The PAP claimed 43 of the Assembly’s 51 seats. While their victory was not unexpected – with the PAP the only party contesting all 51 seats – the manner and margin of its victory had alarm bells ringing with many, especially in Britain, concerned about the PAP’s leftist leanings.
Photographs: © Time Inc. for which Personal and Non-Commercial Use is permitted.
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Tags: 1959, 1959 Elections, Chong Hock School, History, John Dominis, Lee Kuan Yew, LIFE Magazine, Old Singapore, PAP, Photographs, Self-Government, Singapore, State Legislative Assembly, Tank Road, Telok Ayer Street, Tuan Mong High School
Categories : Forgotten Places, Photography, Reminders of Yesterday, Significant Moments in Time, Singapore
What’s propping a mid 1800s pagoda up on Telok Ayer Street
27 09 2016A curious sight found at one of Telok Ayer Street’s two beautifully restored mid-19th century Chinese pagodas, the Chung-Wen pagoda or Chong-Wen Ge (崇文阁), are eight figures that are seen propping up the pagoda’stop tier. Referred to rather disparagingly in colloquial Hokkien as “dim-witted foreigners”, these figures carved from wood have no structural function and are purely decorative features. Similar figures, which are also sometimes made of clay, are apparently quite commonly used in Minnan architecture. The practice is thought to have their origins in the Tang Dynasty, when they were said to have been used to commemorate the efforts of foreign labourers who were often involved in building projects.
The eight wooden cravings are just some of an amazing array of decorative work found in the incredibly beautiful pagoda. Built between 1849 and 1852, the pagoda, besides it features that define a strong Chinese flavour, also has features that speak of the influences present in the 18th century Singapore such as a wrought iron sprial staircase that was put in during a restoration effort in 1880 and encaustic floor tiles, which can also be found in other Chinese buildings in the country.
Linked with the Hokkien community, whose spiritual centre was at the next door Thian Hock Keng temple, the Chung-Wen pagoda apparently also had the support of other groups within the wider Chinese community. This is evident in one of three steles found on the site. The stele, which commemorates the pagoda’s construction, sees the names of Teochew leader Seah Eu Chin as well as that of a Hakka, Liew Lok Teck, alongside names associated such as Tan Kim Seng, Ang Choon Seng, Wee Chong Sun and Cheang Sam Teo from the Hokkien community.
We also see on the stele that a shrine dedicated to Zitong Dijun (梓潼帝君) was placed on the pagoda’s second tier. Zitong Dijun, also known as Wenchang (文昌), is considered to be the Chinese god of culture and literature, and is a patron deity of scholars. This is a clear indication of the Chung-Wen pagoda’s intended purpose as a place given to promoting learning, although not all experts agree on the manner in which it was done. What is clear however, is that the Chong-Wen Ge was where the written word was venerated. This was carried out through the practice of the burning of papers on which words have been written, in honour of the inventor of Chinese characters, Cangjie (倉頡). The installation of a small paper burning pagoda on the site for this purpose is also recorded on the stele.
The practice of burning the written word ended in 1910 when the trustees of the Chong-Wen Ge handed control of it over to the Thian Hock Keng temple, although it can be said that the written word was then celebrated in a different manner with the founding of the Chong Hock School for girls in 1915. The school operated in the simple but lovely two storey building adjacent to the pagoda and only moved out in 1985 as Chongfu School. The school’s building have seen several uses since and now houses the Singapore Musical Box Museum on its upper level. An encaustic tile shop and a Peranakan café is also now found on its ground level.
The Chong-Wen Ge, which translates as the Institute for the Veneration of Literature, was gazetted as a National Monument in 1973 with the Thian Hock Keng. Its wonderfully restored state is the result of its last major restoration effort which was undertaken between 2001-2003. More information on it and other conserved former school buildings can be found in a URA Heritage Schools Pamphlet.
A close-up of the eight “dim-witted foreigners”
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Tags: "Dim-Witted Foreigners", Architecture, Cangjie, Chong Hock Girls' School, Chong Hock Pavilion, Chong Wen Ge, Chung Wen Pagoda, Heritage Buildings, Hokkien Community, Minnan Architecture, National Monument, Photography, Religious Architecture, Religious Traditions, Singapore, Taoism, Taoist Practices, Telok Ayer Street, Thian Hock Keng, Veneration of the Written Word, Wenchang, Zitong Dijun, 倉頡, 崇文阁, 文昌, 梓潼帝君
Categories : Architecture, Architecture, Chinatown, Conservation, Heritage Sites, National Mounments, Photography, Photography Series, Reminders of Yesterday, Singapore, Singapore Architecture
Celebrating SG50 and a heritage gem
14 08 2015One of the joys of living in Singapore, a melting pot of immigrant cultures for over two centuries, is the diverse influences seen in the architecture on display across the city-state. One area where a concentration of this can be admired is in and around Telok Ayer Street, a street once fronting the bay after which it was named and a point of landing for many of modern Singapore’s earliest immigrants. Along the street, stand two gorgeously adorned pagodas, possibly the oldest in Singapore, both of which were erected by Hokkien immigrants, one of which takes one from earth to heaven and houses an altar to the Heavenly Jade Emperor within what was once the home of the Keng Teck Whay.
The Keng Teck Whay, a mutual-aid society, was founded in 1831 by 36 Hokkien Peranakan (Straits Chinese) businessmen from Malacca whose origins can be traced back to Chiang Chew (Zhangzhou), China. The association, membership of which passed from father to eldest son, erected what can be said to be a clan complex around the mid 19th century. Being a very exclusive association, the complex and the fine example of southern Chinese architecture found within it, was kept well hidden from the public eye for much of its long existence.
A National Monument since 2009, the former Keng Teck Whay building – the only surviving example of a Straits Chinese clan complex, has since been taken over by the Taoist Mission. The complex, which was in a state of disrepair when the mission took possession in 2010, was painstakingly restored over a two and a half year period by a team of experts appointed by the Taoist Mission at a cost of some $3.8 million. Having first opened its doors to the public as the Singapore Yu Huang Kong or Temple of the Heavenly Jade Emperor early this year, the newly restored complex was officially opened on 9 August, the day independent Singapore celebrated its golden jubilee.
The opening of the former Keng Teck Whay as the Yu Huang Kong, which was officiated by Mr Sam Tan, Minister of State, Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, was a celebration in many ways. Marking the the end of the restoration effort, the ceremony, which also included the commemoration of National Day, was also a celebration of Singapore’s unity in diversity with representatives from Singapore’s many faiths also in the audience.
There is also much to celebrate about the beauty of the complex and its traditionally constructed structures and decorations. Laid out along a north-south axis, the complex features two courtyards, separated by its rather interesting pagoda. The beautifully constructed pagoda, laid out on a square base with octagonal plan upper tiers, said to represent Earth and Heaven respectively, is thought to have been modelled after the pagoda structures seen in temples to Confucius. It is on the second level of the three tier pagoda that the altar dedicated to the Heavenly Jade Emperor is found. The ancestral hall, housed on the lower level of the rear two storey building, lies across the inner courtyard from the pagoda.
The ancestral hall, would have been where the main focus of the gathering of members five times a year to conduct ancestral prayers or sembayang abu, was. The hall is where a tablet inscribed with the 35 names of the association’s founding members can be found. While the name of the 36th founder, who was ejected for reasons unknown, is missing from the tablet, 36 places were still somehow set at the sembayang abu food offering table – a practice that the Taoist Mission continues with. More information on the Keng Teck Whay and the sembayang abu food offerings be found at this link: http://peranakan.s3.amazonaws.com/2005/2005_Issue_2.pdf.
Further information on the Keng Teck Whay can be also found at the following links:
- Former Keng Teck Whay building (Preservation of Sites and Monuments)
- Keng Teck Whay – Celebrating the Virtues of the Sages
- Historic building’s revamp completed (The Straits Times 22 Dec 2014)
More photographs of the Opening and SG50 National Day Commemoration ceremony
More photographs of the beautifully restored Singapore Yu Huang Kong
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Tags: Ancestral Prayers, Architecture, Heritage, Heritage Buildings, Keng Teck Whay, Mr. Sam Tan, National Day, National Day Observance, National Monument, Peranakan, Photography, Sembayang Abu, SG50, Singapore, Singapore Yu Huang Kong, Southern Chinese Architecture, Straits Chinese, Taoism, Taoist Mission, Taoist Practices, Telok Ayer Street, Temple
Categories : Architecture, Chinatown, Conservation, Forgotten Places, Heritage Sites, National Mounments, Photography, Photography Series, Reminders of Yesterday, Singapore, Singapore Architecture