by Najeer Yusof

FINDING an affordable space for worship has been an issue for many small religious groups. To cater to the needs of these groups, the Ministry of National Development (MND) agreed to lease land for “multi-user places of worship” last week. This allows several groups of the same religion to be housed in a single multi-storey building where they will share facilities such as carparks and classrooms.

After seeking proposals from various religious groups, the MND said that these multi-religious hubs are likely to be located near industrial areas. Since the actual model of the hub has yet to be finalised, we decided to visit existing places of worship around the island that currently house multiple religious groups under one roof to see what they look like.

UNDER ONE ROOF: Citiraya Centre, the multi-level storey building at Geylang, Lorong 27, is home to six religious groups.

HARMONY: The seven storey building accommodates two Christian churches, three Buddhist groups and a Taoist centre. The Buddhist group, BW Monastery is the only tenant that occupies two floors of the building. During the religious festivities, the respective religious groups host parties at the carpark on level one and invite the other groups to join them.

AROUND THE CLOCK: Loyang Tua Pek Kong Temple is a Buddhist temple located along Loyang Way. Established in the 1980s, it houses Buddhist, Taoist and Hindu deities, together with a Muslim keramat (shrine), and it is open 24 hours.

UNDER ONE ROOF: Upon entering the temple, the statues of the Hindu deities can be seen on the right, followed by the Muslim shrine of a Datuk in the centre and Buddhist deities on the left. The Taoist deities are located in a separate section that is found at the back of the temple.

CROWDED HOUSE: The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is held on the first day of the ninth lunar month. The oldest Nine Emperor Gods temple in Singapore, is Tou Mu Kung Temple, which is located along Upper Serangoon Road. Besides housing the Nine Emperor God, Jiu Huang Da Di, you can also find Taoist deities and the Buddhist deity, Guanyin.

BRING YOUR OWN: This particular section in the Tou Mu Kung Temple allows for worshippers to bring their own idols and place them in the altar for worship. Most of the idols are Taoist deities although the altar also contains other Chinese deities.



ALL TOGETHER: The United Temple on Toa Payoh Lorong 7 was the first ever Chinese temple to house different Chinese deities worshipped by the various dialect groups. Officially opened in 1975, this temple paved the way for 68 other united or combined temples to be established in Singapore.

NEIGHBOURS: Within the United Temple, there are five constituent temples for the Hokkien, Hainanese, Cantonese and Teo Chew communities. These temples were previously located at Balestier and Toa Payoh until the United Temple was established. On the left is the Hokkien Chee Tian Keng Temple and on the right is the Cantonese, Fuk Tuck Chee Temple.

Featured image by Najeer Yusof.

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