Chinatown Part 2

Remember these lit candles I mentioned in the first part of this series? I think they weren't just wishes in general. Some of them might even be well-wishes for a couple, which will go through a traditional Buddhist ceremony right here, in 佛牙寺, or Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.

Anyway let's get started with part 2 of our Chinatown trip!

Here's the main city from the 3rd floor of the temple:

And some other old, restored buildings in Chinatown.

Lots of people were also getting ready for Chinese New Year. As of now, Chinese New Year is 5 days away and I'm definitely looking forward to it! Snacks, red packets (containing cash)...

And yes, back to our main focus, the temple. Gosh, I'm getting carried away with the thoughts of Chinese New Year!

3 pictures of the exterior, and of course, more pictures of the interior will be coming up!

When we entered, we didn't know that there was going to be a wedding in the temple, and we thought it was some ordinary Buddhist ceremony. We were fascinated, nevertheless, so we decided to stay and find out what was going on.

I think we entered in the middle of the ceremony, as the monks were already chanting prayers and getting ready.

And there were rows and rows of devotees and nuns surrounding the altar (where the monk and the couple will kneel in front of later on).

That's less than half of the number of people within the main hall on that day, minus the photographers and tourists of course. We were desperately snapping away and walking around the entire place again and again.

The monk leading the ceremony then heads forward, from the golden sculptures, and walks towards the altar,

Where he says a few prayers, some of which were echoed by the devotees,

And kowtows a few times before the couple heads into the hall.

Ah yes, here's the couple, walking towards the golden sculptures...

And later on, they make their way back to the front of the altar, where the monk starts with the ceremony. He mainly wished them well, prayed for them, and of course, congratulated them and gave them tips for a long-lasting marriage. And later on, he mentioned that the bride was his niece or something.

There was also a lion dance performance during the ceremony.

And the prayers then continued. The lions look pretty cute when they kneel down! :3

After that they headed to the area where the Buddha tooth relic was, for more ceremonies, and didn't head back to the main hall after that.

And yes, that concludes our Chinatown adventure! Our next stop will be the YOG Park and DNA Bridge!

Chinatown Part 1

Welcome to Chinatown! Chinatown is located within the city, and is pretty easy to get to. As its name suggests, it features primarily Chinese-influenced stuff, including architecture, merchandise and is known as 牛车水 (literally ox-cart water in Mandarin) or Kreta Ayer (literally ox-cart water in Malay), as its water supply used to be supplied by animal-driven carts in the 19th century.

I'm going to divide my Chinatown pictures into 2 parts. The first part will focus on some of the street scenes in Chinatown and some pictures of the temple we visited. As for the second part, I'll load more of these pictures - mainly focusing on a wedding and prayer ceremony within the same temple, as well as the exterior of the temple.

It wasn't that close to Chinese New Year yet (Chinese New Year is in early February), so it wasn't as busy as we expected. When people start shopping for Chinese New Year stuff, it gets extremely crowded. Oh, and lots of Chinese New Year stuff has been put up already!

Near one of the chestnut stalls, there was a camera-shy kitty who kept hiding away from us. It was pretty hard to get a good picture of her. She wasn't doing much, and was enjoying the street scenes as much as we were.

Dried sausages on sale for Chinese New Year.

And some Chinese New Year decorations outside a shop.

There were a number of shops selling traditional Chinese herbs like ginseng, wolfberries, danggui, red dates and so on. I really love traditional Chinese herbs, especially when they're boiled in soup. It's just so yummy!

This boy was waiting for his mother to finish buying her herbs, and he was pretty bored by then. He tried getting her attention but failed, so this is what he ended up doing...

Not too far away, some tourists were eyeing Chinese New Year ornaments and decorations.

And there was also a shop selling chopsticks with surnames on it! Here is my surname: 吕.

Nearer to the HDB flats, some guys were enjoying themselves - playing chess, relaxing, having conversations, and even napping!

Clothes shop on the void deck of a HDB block.

We then headed to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (佛牙寺), where most of our photo-taking then took place.

Just at the entrance of the temple...

People had already offered/were offering incense, joss sticks etc., and some were even saying their prayers.

And the urn where joss sticks were stuck was just located near a dragon sculpture at the entrance.

Here's the interior of the temple. This temple is actually relatively new - it was built around 2004, but everything was so intricate and well-maintained! Even the tiniest details! This is the main hall of the temple, where we took most of our pictures.

People also lit candles within the temple itself,

And many of them wrote down their names and well-wishes...

On the second floor of the temple, there was a museum which illustrated the lives and contributions of many monks and nuns, of which some of them came to Singapore to contribute to the Buddhist community.

We also went upstairs to take a look at the Buddha tooth relic, which was located in a room with gold tiles, gold walls...yup, everything gold! We weren't allowed to take photos within that area though.

Here are some sculptures located outside the library. There was also a souvenir shop within the library.

And of course, we headed up to the rooftop garden. The walls featured the names of people who contributed to the temple in one way or another.

And there was a spinning wheel within the rooftop garden, where people took 3 (or more) rounds while holding on to the wheel, and made wishes. Some people took as many as 10 rounds! Wonder how many wishes they had to make... :P

The stairway heading down to the main hall...

And the view of the city from the windows.

And that concludes part 1 of the Chinatown visit! Stay tuned for part 2! :)