The oldest Buddhist temple in Singapore?
Posted by noelbynature under Buildings and Monuments
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yg visits the Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery in Toa Payoh, which holds claim to be the oldest Buddhist temple in Singapore and is also one of the most picturesque. Check out the pagoda - it’s a replica of a 700-year-old pagoda in Fujian, China. There’s another interesting feature about this temple - it shares it’s premises with a Taoist temple.
The Siong Lim temple is the common Hokkien name of the Lian Shan Shuang Lin monastery. Translated into English, it is the twin grove of the lotus mountain monastery (temple). It was built in 1902 and much of the money for building the temple came from a Chinese businessman called Mr Low Kim Pong.
The temple was gazetted a national monument in 1980, symbolising the social and cultural roots of the early Chinese immigrants.
While it’s over a hundred years old, yg doesn’t think that the Siong Lim Temple is the oldest Buddhist temple in Singapore. Could anyone verify this?
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Posted by: Takalah
Posted on: June 2nd, 2009
In the 1950s I was told that the temple had floor traps to kidnap young girls. Whenever I visited the temple, I kept on looking for possible floor trap at the praying areas, but in vain. Perhaps, it happended in pre-war days or it could be somebody's imagination.
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