SSA1208/GES1005 Everyday Life of Chinese Singaporeans: Past and Present (Taught in English) Temple Visit Essay to Phoh Teck Siang Tng ( 普德善堂 )

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Tng ( 普德善堂 ) Tutorial Group D4 Group Members: Chua Zheng Wei Tan Xue

1 SSA1208/GES1005 Everyday Life of Chinese Singaporeans: Past and Present (Taught in English) Temple Visit Essay to Phoh Teck Siang Tng ( 普德善堂 ) Tutorial Group D4 Group Members: Chua Zheng Wei Tan Xue Er Michelle Tan Hui Jun Xie ShiYing A J A M A R A H

2 Introduction Phoh Teck Siang Tng ( 普德善堂 ) is founded by 许崇焕 ( pinyin: Xu Chong Huan ) back in 1959 at Braddell Road. After land requisition by the government for urban redevelopment, the temple is currently located at 106 Pasir Panjang Road with a lease of 99 years. As the temple is situated away from residential areas and being surrounded by office buildings, most of the visitors are office workers. While worshippers from various dialect groups, such as Hokkiens, Hakkas and Teochew, the latter form the majority who would visit the temple. The word Siang Tng is generally known to be a Teochew temple. After the passing of the founder, his daughter took over the role of managing the temple. As managing a temple is tedious, she had a tough time taking care of it alone. Furthermore, since temples cannot be sold, the founder s daughter decided to transfer the ownership of the temple to Blue Cross Charitable Institution (BCCI). In 2002, the BCCI took over the temple. The management team decided to keep the temple in its original condition but they engaged in minor renovation works, such as re-coating of the Gods to provide the temple a fresher look. Phoh Teck Siang Tng was officially opened in 2004, and is currently the main headquarters of BCCI. Phoh Teck Siang Tng places great emphasis on their main gods birthday and hold large-scaled ceremonies during these occasions. It is also noteworthy that at Phoh Teck Siang Tng, it is the Taoist priests whom will come to recite scriptures, instead of monks. Currently, the caretaker of the temple is Mr Liu and he has been looking after the temple for the past 8 years. His daily duties include simple house-keeping, providing invoices for donations and collecting any letters that are sent to the temple. However, the main cleaning of the temple is done by a third party company. Blue Cross Charitable Institution The BCCI was established back in 1942 during the period of Japanese Occupation in Singapore (BCCI, n.d.). It was a period of bad economy accompanied with limited resources. This resulted in many becoming homeless and unemployed. Moreover, insufficient medical services resulted in diseases and death. Corpses were left lying along the streets. 1

3 During that period, almost all of the organisations and associations were prohibited from functioning. However, only BCCI was given the permission to continue its operations in providing accommodation, food and care for people in need as well as burial services for the unclaimed bodies. The aim of BCCI is to aid the less fortunate in integrating with the community, living with dignity and helping to make the society a better place. According to Mr Yang from the BCCI management, they will be celebrating BCCI s 75th anniversary in November this year. He further shared that due to their shortage in manpower and that they have several temples to run under the organization, minimum efforts have been placed on managing Phoh Teck Siang Tng. However, this time they are planning for a change and the anniversary celebration will be a large scale event held at Phoh Teck Siang Tng. Furthermore, the BCCI management is attempting to raise public awareness about its organization by introducing more events in their temples as well as publishing a book on BCCI with the aid of a NUS professor. Temple s Layout The temple is a one-storey building that is divided into multiple sections. The layout of the temple can be seen in Figure 1 under the Appendix. As we enter the temple from the main entrance, we arrive at the First Hall where most of the secondary gods are placed. These secondary gods are namely; 天后圣母, 弥勒佛祖, 如来佛祖, 庙山大娘佛祖, 庙山二娘佛祖, 庙山三娘佛祖 and 南海佛祖. On the right hand side of the building, there is an Ancestor Hall where the tablets of the founders can be found. There is also a kitchen located at the back of the temple, towards the right. The Main hall and the First hall is separated by an open space. This space allows worshippers to conduct minor rituals. The main gods of the temple are located in the Main Hall of the temple. In Phoh Teck Siang Tng, there are 3 main gods, namely: 宋大峰祖师, 华陀祖师 and 护天元帅. There are other secondary gods located in the main hall - 观音菩萨, 土地公 and 梅山七聖公. On the left hand side of the building, there is an area dedicated for placement of tablets. Devotees can purchase a tablet for their deceased loved ones. Further down the corridor from this area, it is where the management office is located. Next to it is 崇峰善堂 ( Chung Hong Siang T ng), more details about this temple will be further elaborated at a later part of this essay. 2

4 One interesting phenomenon that we have observed about the temple is that all its furniture and artifacts are slightly tilted. This is due to the Chinese belief of Feng Shui, where the temple is built facing the South direction ( 坐北向南 ). An example can be seen in Figures 2 and 3 under Appendix. 崇峰善堂 (Chung Hong Siang T ng) Chung Hong Siang T ng has an altar located in a small room at Phoh Teck Siang Tng. This temple worships Song Da Feng as their main god as well. The original temple was closed down as the government decided to reclaim back the land for redevelopment purposes. Furthermore, with insufficient funds to set up another temple, the organization has decided to loan this space in Phoh Teck Siang Tng and relocate the temple within it. This allow devotees from Chung Hong Siang T ng to continue to worship Song Da Feng from the original temple. Main Gods As mentioned earlier, Phoh Teck Siang Tng worships three main gods: 华陀祖师 (Pinyin: Hua Tuo Zu Shi), 护天元帅 (Pinyin: Hu Tian Yuan Shuai) and 宋大峰祖师 (Pinyin: Song Da Feng Zu Shi). Hua Tuo Zu Shi s birthday ( 神诞 ) falls on 四月十八, the eighteenth day of the fourth month. The temple will celebrate the god s birthday on the Sunday before the actual date so that most of the members will be able to make it. Similarly for Hu Tian Yuan Shuai, whose birthday falls on 十二月初二, the second day of the twelve month, the birthday will also be celebrated on the Sunday before the actual date for the same reason. Lastly, Song Da Feng Zu Shi s birthday falls on 十月二十九日, the twenty-ninth day of the tenth month. The celebration of Song Da Feng Zu Shi s birthday is different from the two other main gods, as his birthday will be celebrated on the first week of the tenth month instead of the Sunday before the actual date. The reason behind this is because Song Da Feng Zu Shi is one of the main gods in all of the temples across the BCCI. Hence, it is mandatory to have Song Da Feng Zu Shi as one of the main god in the individual temples. An important point to take note is that all the dates mentioned above are based on the lunar calendar. Since Song Da Feng Zu Shi is an important god in all of the temples under the organization, we will share a brief description about him. Da Feng is his name and the word Song is derived from Song Dynasty, 3

5 as Da Feng was born during that period. Da Feng loves to help the poor, and would travel to different parts of China to build bridges in poor communities, assisting the residents to commute easily. Besides helping the poor, he would assist in the burying of corpses for the deceased that do not have families to bury them. Furthermore, he would also go knocking on the rich families homes to ask for donations for the poor. As this is Song Da Feng s belief when he was alive, the BCCI continued this belief till the present day by providing aid to the poor and doing charitable work. Also, due to this belief, worshippers who come to Phoh Teck Siang Tng, would pray for good health from him instead of wealth and fortune. Secondary Gods In Phoh Teck Siang Tng, the various secondary gods include the following: 天后圣母 (Pinyin: Tian Hou Sheng Mu), 弥勒佛祖 (Pinyin: Mi Le Fo Zu), 如来佛祖 (Pinyin: Ru Lai Fo Zu), 庙山大娘佛祖 (Pinyin: Miao Shan Da Niang Fo Zu), 庙山二娘佛祖 (Pinyin: Miao Shan Er Niang Fo Zu), 庙山三娘佛祖 (Pinyin: Miao Shan San Niang Fo Zu), 南海佛祖 (Pinyin: Nan Hai Fo Zu), 观音菩萨 (Pinyin: Guan Yin Pu Sa), 土地公 (Pinyin: Tu Di Gong) and 梅山七聖公 (Pinyin: Mei Shan Qi Sheng Gong). Amongst all the secondary gods, we tried to find out more about the following gods which we identified as unique - 庙山大娘佛祖, 庙山二娘佛祖 and 庙山三娘佛祖. It is interesting to discover that there are not much information available about these gods. However, we deduce that these deities could be avatars of the Guan Yin Pu Sa. When Guan Yin Pu Sa was still a princess, her name was 妙善 (pinyin: Miao Shan). This results in the possibility of the 庙山佛祖 being associated with her. Tablets One uncommon sight at the temple is the setting up of new tablets. Despite being a temple with a long history, they started setting up this area only recently. The tablets will be placed for families to pay their respect to their deceased loved ones. According to the caretaker, it costs three thousand dollars for a middle slot and two thousands per tablet for those at the sides. This involves a one-time payment. The reason for setting up of this area is because more families are becoming less willing or able to set up an ancestral area in their home, hence, the temple has decided to provide a space for the families to pay respect to their loved ones. Four Main Censers The temple has four main censers, namely one for the 天公 ( pinyin: Tian Gong ), the three main gods, 观音佛祖 ( pinyin: Guan Yin Fo Zu ) and 土地公 ( pinyin: Tu Di Gon g). They are all similar in their designs. 4

6 观音 Guan Yin Portrait There are several drawing portraits hung on the walls around the temple. These portraits are imported from China dated many years back. One of the portraits depicts Guan Yin standing on a dragon, which allows the worshipper to infer from the drawing on the magical powers that the Goddess has (Figure 4). Conclusion Our team observed that the temple looks rather new even after many years. The temple is relatively huge which provides sufficient space to hold events such as the god s rituals. In addition, it is very peaceful and quiet in the temple, mainly due to location. An important aspect that we learnt about the temple is the lack of young and capable members to manage the organization. The current management team needs to find successors in place of them as they age. However, there are no available young candidates to take up this role. As a result, the management is unable to hold large scale events that require large manpower. This problem is not only faced by Phoh Teck Siang Tng, many temples are also facing the same issue. Hence, these temples are also doing their best to attract new and young members to join them. We feel that there is a need for the Buddhist society to deliberate on this matter and find ways to resolve this issue. Otherwise, more and more temples would slowly disappear from Singaporeans life. One particular challenge that our group faced while carrying out this project is that detailed information about the temple was initially hard to obtain. The caretaker, Mr Liu, does not have much information about Phoh Teck Siang Tng. He mentioned that he has started this job not too long ago, thus does not have that much knowledge of the temple s history. As he was the only one at the temple, there was no one else we could approach to ask for more details. However, we were lucky to have obtained one of the BCCI management personnel s contact number through Mr Liu. We met with this management personnel, Mr Yang, and gathered more facts of the temple. As Mr Yang is also rather new to managing this temple, he tried his best to provide as much information as possible. All in all, we are very grateful to Mr Liu and Mr Yang for spending their time in sharing with us about the temple s history. Overall, the trip to Phoh Teck Siang Tng was an eye-opener for all of us. Not only did we learn more about the temple s history, we gained more insight about the organisation, BCCI, and its contribution to the society. 5

7 Appendixes Figure 1: Temple Layout of Phoh Teck Siang Tng Figure 2: Tilted artifacts due to Feng Shui 6

8 Figure 3: Tilted furniture Figure 4: Guan Yin portrait 7

9 References Blue Cross Charitable Institution. (n.d.). Retrieved from Thank you for reading! 8

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