Sunday, April 4

Temple Outing 

The outing seems surreal, four twenty something year old guys meeting for the first time to go temple visiting on a Sunday morning. I have met Jave a couple of times but it was the first time meeting Phoenyx and Bernard.

After a hearty breakfast, we went to Telok Blangah to visit the first two temples. Both temples have the same name of Wan Shou San Guan Yin Tang, dedicated to The Goddess of Mercy. One is at he foot of the hill nearer to the main road and the other on top of the hill. I observed that if there are more than one temple on a hill, the one higher up would attract more devotees. Is it due to the human mentatly that the higher the temple is built, the nearer to Heaven it is? The architecture of both are similar colonial style built around WWII, spent some time admiring the images and building structure.

The next temple we went to is Yu Huang Dian dedicated to The Jade Emperor, The Temple is old but they have renovated sometimes back so the architecture is not as appealing. Stayed a short while as both Jave and Phoenyx felt a bit strange.

Then its to the Temple that we originally wanted to visit for this outing, also known as Yu Huang Dian as its one of the few temples - or it might be the only one - that prays to Nu Wa, who in very ancient times made coloured stones to patch up the sky when it has hole. She is sussposed to be the Mother of All Humans, so we as her children, please stop destroying the Earth. From the layout of the temple, could tell that its has certain Buddhist influence although its a Taoist temple. The Temple also has a shirne dedicated to Dou Mu Yuan Jun and Jiu Huang Xing Jun, the personification of the nine planets in the solar system, at the rear hall.

The last temple on the itinary is Xian Gu Dian at Old Tampines Road dedicated to He Xian GU, but we didn't really go into the temple, only went as far as the front door as the medium was in very dramatic trance on the floor singing something that sounds like Hokkien Opera. We weren't sure how would she or her devotees react if we go in so we just stayed outside for a while.

The outing ended with us having lunch at Tampines S11 foodcourt.

[Will fill in more details if I have time]

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andi at 23:39