Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple
Encyclopedia
Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple (Simplified Chinese: 观音堂佛祖庙) is a traditional Chinese temple situated at 178 Waterloo Street
in Singapore
. The temple is of significance to the Chinese in Singapore
, and is believed to bring worshipers good luck after praying to the Kuan Yin
(观音) Bodhisattva
, the Goddess of Mercy. The temple is also involved in charity
work, contributing to several health and educational organisations.
, Maghain Aboth Synagogue
and the Malabar Jama-ath Mosque. The original temple, entry was gained across a large sheltered courtyard
through a porch
and screened anteroom. The main hall then contained three altar
s, the central one for the Kuan Yin and one each for Bodhidharma
(the founder of Zen
Buddhism) and Hua Tuo
, a Chinese patron saint of medicine
and healing
on the flanking altars. An image of Sakyamuni Buddha was kept in the rear hall and various ancillary
rooms on either side. During the second World War
, the temple was spared of destruction when all the other buildings in the area were severely damaged. It provided refuge for the sick, the wounded and the homeless.
In 1982, the temple was extensively rebuilt as it needed to increase its capacity due to the high number of worshipers at the temple. All deities are placed on a single altar in the prayer hall with the elevated statue of Sakyamuni Buddha positioned next to Kuan Yin. The relative positions of other deities remain unchanged. A large space of two separate roof
s of different height. The entrance wall is a large central gateway flanked by two smaller ones and colours are rich in golden yellow
s, red
s, blue
s and green
s. At the ends of all the roof rafter
s, there are yellow Buddhist swastika
s on a green ground. The roof decorations are comparatively constrained, the ridge
s, having simple curves with decorations of good omen
. The tile
s inside the hall of the temple are currently being changed from ceramic
s to granite
. Candle
s and incense are not burnt inside the temple hall, but burnt in an urn
at the entrance of the temple to prevent the soot
from staining the ceiling
.
in 2006, it was used as a site to display artworks of several artists. A carpet
designed by Xu Bing
, a lotus
mantra
by Tsai Charwei, 1001 Buddha statues
by Hiroshi Sugimoto
and a "Please Love Me" sign written in the four official languages of Singapore by Santiago Cucullu.
, the temple is opened all night and the street
is packed with devotees praying to the Goddess for an auspicious start to the New Year
. The temple is well known for its divination
activity. Qian
or divining sticks which are wood
en sticks with writing on it, are placed in a brass
can and shaken. These cans have been resounding in the temple since 1884. When such sticks fallout, they are interpreted to tell one's future. In 1990, the temple was the first in Singapore to provide divination slips in English for English-educated devotees and visitors. It was granted a historic site in 2001. An alternative name for the temple is "Guan Yin Tong Temple".
, setting up an educational bursary
and providing treatment to anybody regardless of race. Also, it embarked a national health screening programme, and set up a professor
ship in computing
at the National University of Singapore
in 2000 by donating S$
1.5 million. The temple also donated to the National Kidney Foundation Singapore
and is a patron
of the Singapore arts scene
.
Waterloo Street
Waterloo Street is a two-way street in downtown Singapore stretching from Rochor Road to Bras Basah Road. It passes through the planning areas of Rochor and Museum Planning Area....
in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. The temple is of significance to the Chinese in Singapore
Chinese in Singapore
Chinese Singaporeans are people of Chinese ethnicity who hold Singaporean nationality. As of 2010, Chinese Singaporeans constitute 74.1% of Singapore's resident population, or approximately three out of four Singaporeans, making them the largest ethnic group in Singapore...
, and is believed to bring worshipers good luck after praying to the Kuan Yin
Kuan Yin
Guanyin is the bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by East Asian Buddhists, usually as a female. The name Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin which means "Observing the Sounds of the World". She is also sometimes referred to as Guanyin Pusa...
(观音) Bodhisattva
Bodhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...
, the Goddess of Mercy. The temple is also involved in charity
Charity (practice)
The practice of charity means the voluntary giving of help to those in need who are not related to the giver.- Etymology :The word "charity" entered the English language through the Old French word "charité" which was derived from the Latin "caritas".Originally in Latin the word caritas meant...
work, contributing to several health and educational organisations.
History and Architecture
The temple has existed since 1884 at its present location with a reconstruction in 1895. The original temple was an example of Chinese temple architecture and traditional craftsmanship. In its vicinity were other places of worship such as the adjacent Sri Krishnan Temple, Church of Saints Peter and Paul at Queen StreetQueen Street, Singapore
Queen Street is one of the oldest streets in Singapore and once had a very strong Eurasian presence. Beginning at Arab street, Queen Street forms major junctions with Ophir Road, Rochor Road, Middle Road and Bras Basah Road before ending at the junction of Stamford Road and Armenian Street.The area...
, Maghain Aboth Synagogue
Maghain Aboth Synagogue
The Maghain Aboth Synagogue is a synagogue in Singapore. It is located at Waterloo Street in the Rochor Planning Area, within the Central Area in Singapore's central business district....
and the Malabar Jama-ath Mosque. The original temple, entry was gained across a large sheltered courtyard
Courtyard
A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. These areas in inns and public buildings were often the primary meeting places for some purposes, leading to the other meanings of court....
through a porch
Porch
A porch is external to the walls of the main building proper, but may be enclosed by screen, latticework, broad windows, or other light frame walls extending from the main structure.There are various styles of porches, all of which depend on the architectural tradition of its location...
and screened anteroom. The main hall then contained three altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
s, the central one for the Kuan Yin and one each for Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th/6th century AD. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Ch'an to China, and regarded as the first Chinese patriarch...
(the founder of Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
Buddhism) and Hua Tuo
Hua Tuo
Hua Tuo was an ancient Chinese physician who lived during the late Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. The Records of Three Kingdoms and Book of Later Han record Hua as the first person in China to use anesthesia during surgery. He used a general anesthetic combining wine with a...
, a Chinese patron saint of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and healing
Healing
Physiological healing is the restoration of damaged living tissue, organs and biological system to normal function. It is the process by which the cells in the body regenerate and repair to reduce the size of a damaged or necrotic area....
on the flanking altars. An image of Sakyamuni Buddha was kept in the rear hall and various ancillary
Ancillary
*Ancillary administration*Ancillary jurisdiction*Ancillary statistic*Ancillary data*Ancillary relief*Ancillary doctrine*Diacritic, an ancillary glyph added to a letter...
rooms on either side. During the second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the temple was spared of destruction when all the other buildings in the area were severely damaged. It provided refuge for the sick, the wounded and the homeless.
In 1982, the temple was extensively rebuilt as it needed to increase its capacity due to the high number of worshipers at the temple. All deities are placed on a single altar in the prayer hall with the elevated statue of Sakyamuni Buddha positioned next to Kuan Yin. The relative positions of other deities remain unchanged. A large space of two separate roof
Roof
A roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous....
s of different height. The entrance wall is a large central gateway flanked by two smaller ones and colours are rich in golden yellow
Yellow
Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
s, red
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
s, blue
Blue
Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
s and green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
s. At the ends of all the roof rafter
Rafter
A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members , that extend from the ridge or hip to the downslope perimeter or eave, designed to support the roof deck and its associated loads.-Design:...
s, there are yellow Buddhist swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
s on a green ground. The roof decorations are comparatively constrained, the ridge
Ridge
A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...
s, having simple curves with decorations of good omen
Omen
An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change...
. The tile
Tile
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...
s inside the hall of the temple are currently being changed from ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
s to granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
. Candle
Candle
A candle is a solid block or cylinder of wax with an embedded wick, which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.Today, most candles are made from paraffin. Candles can also be made from beeswax, soy, other plant waxes, and tallow...
s and incense are not burnt inside the temple hall, but burnt in an urn
Urn
An urn is a vase, ordinarily covered, that usually has a narrowed neck above a footed pedestal. "Knife urns" placed on pedestals flanking a dining-room sideboard were an English innovation for high-style dining rooms of the late 1760s...
at the entrance of the temple to prevent the soot
Soot
Soot is a general term that refers to impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of a hydrocarbon. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolyzed fuel particles such as cenospheres,...
from staining the ceiling
Ceiling
A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that covers the upper limit of a room. It is generally not a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the floor or roof structure above....
.
Singapore Biennale
During the inaugural Singapore BiennaleSingapore Biennale
The Singapore Biennale is a contemporary art biennale in Singapore. The first Singapore Biennale operated as one of a lineup of Singapore 2006 events. Fumio Nanjo, Director of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, has been reappointed Artistic Director of the Singapore Biennale 2008...
in 2006, it was used as a site to display artworks of several artists. A carpet
Carpet
A carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene,nylon or polyester and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their...
designed by Xu Bing
Xu Bing
Xu Bing is a Chinese-born artist, resident in the United States since 1990. He currently resides in Beijing.-Biography:...
, a lotus
Lotus (plant)
Lotus identifies various plant taxa:* Nelumbo, a genus of aquatic plants with showy flowers** Nelumbo nucifera, the Sacred or Indian lotus** Nelumbo lutea, the American or Yellow lotus...
mantra
Mantra
A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation"...
by Tsai Charwei, 1001 Buddha statues
Buddharupa
Buddharūpa is the Sanskrit and Pali term used in Buddhism for statues or models of the Buddha.-Commonalities:...
by Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto , born on February 23, 1948, is a Japanese photographer currently dividing his time between Tokyo, Japan and New York City, USA. His catalog is made up of a number of series, each having a distinct theme and similar attributes.-Life and works:Hiroshi Sugimoto was born and raised in...
and a "Please Love Me" sign written in the four official languages of Singapore by Santiago Cucullu.
Worship
Kwan Im Temple remains as one of the major temples in the area, with thousands of devotees visiting the temple to pray for blessings from the Goddess. It is known for people to receive good luck after worshiping at the temple, thus making it a popular temple to visit. Most devotees visit the temple on the first or fifteenth day of Chinese New Year. On the eve of Chinese New YearChinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
, the temple is opened all night and the street
Street
A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...
is packed with devotees praying to the Goddess for an auspicious start to the New Year
Lunar calendar
A lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the lunar phase. A common purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar. A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months, so the months are not linked with the seasons and drift each solar year by 11 to...
. The temple is well known for its divination
Divination
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...
activity. Qian
Qian
Qian may refer to:*Guizhou, abbreviated as Qián, province of China*Mace , or Qian, one of the Chinese units of measurement, equal to 5g*Qian , the first hexagram of the I Ching*Qian , a Chinese surname...
or divining sticks which are wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
en sticks with writing on it, are placed in a brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
can and shaken. These cans have been resounding in the temple since 1884. When such sticks fallout, they are interpreted to tell one's future. In 1990, the temple was the first in Singapore to provide divination slips in English for English-educated devotees and visitors. It was granted a historic site in 2001. An alternative name for the temple is "Guan Yin Tong Temple".
Charity work
The temple is known for its work towards charity since 1997. It first set up a Kidney Dialysis Centre at SimeiSimei
Simei is a housing estate located in the eastern part of Singapore, situated next to Tampines New Town across the Pan-Island Expressway. The name Simei is pinyin for "four beauties" in Chinese. Initially, the roads in this area was named after the four great beauties in Chinese history...
, setting up an educational bursary
Bursary
A bursary is strictly an office for a bursar and his or her staff in a school or college.In modern English usage, the term has become synonymous with "bursary award", a monetary award made by an institution to an individual or a group to assist the development of their education.According to The...
and providing treatment to anybody regardless of race. Also, it embarked a national health screening programme, and set up a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
ship in computing
Computing
Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
at the National University of Singapore
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore is Singapore's oldest university. It is the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curriculum offered....
in 2000 by donating S$
Singapore dollar
The Singapore dollar or Dollar is the official currency of Singapore. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively S$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
1.5 million. The temple also donated to the National Kidney Foundation Singapore
National Kidney Foundation Singapore
The National Kidney Foundation Singapore is a Singapore-based foundation running kidney dialysis and prevention programmes. It is fully supported by charity donations.-Beginnings:...
and is a patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
of the Singapore arts scene
Culture of Singapore
Singapore was a part of British Malaya for many centuries. It was ruled by the Sultanate of Johor. In 1819, the British came to the Island and set up a port and colony. During British rule, the port of Singapore flourished and attracted many migrants...
.
Further reading
- National Heritage Board (2002), Singapore's 100 Historic Places, Eastern University Press, ISBN 981-4068-23-3
- Norman Edwards, Peter Keys (1996), Singapore A Guide To Buildings, Streets and Places, Times Books International, ISBN 981-204-781-6