Largest Buddhist monastery in Singapore

I'll admit, the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery was not my first plan for today. I tried to get into Sentosa, but found that Sentosa Island (previously called Island of Death) for a variety of horrible reasons - storing bodies in World War 2 after Japanese occupation, early piracy, and outbreaks of disease and malaria - is restricted to authorised motorcycles only.

I drove initially through the loop once to be waved through the car parks for Universal Studios, and then a second time to see the rest of the island, but was yelled at (in the courteous Singaporean way) that I had failed to see the single "No motorcycle" sign on the bridge. I did see it the second time, but there was no way to turn around once you reached the sign unless you drove like a Singaporean taxi.

As the rain started to get heavier, I decided not to do an East-West journey across the entire island, although I do still intend to do that. Instead, I looked at some of the things I had on my list for what I wanted to see and found this at the top of it. Consulting the GPS, I found the monastery only a few kilometres away. It would have been rough to walk to it in this weather, but I donned my new bright banana yellow wet weather jacket, installed the GPS in a reasonably dry location and set off.

I came around the corner onto Sin Ming Avenue to hit a massive block of traffic. I have never seen this sort of traffic in Singapore, even with the Chinese New Year celebrations last night, and I thought initially there must have been an accident. I had tried to keep out of  the rain and away from the areas of high traffic, just to stay away from the damned taxis, but here I was in the thick of it, both traffic and rain.

After parking, I found it a little strange that people were everywhere and that the place allowed you to walk pretty much everywhere. There were some signs around saying "No Admittance" but in general, you could investigate every building and walk up and down any stairs. Initially, I was careful not to walk on the grass until I saw a group of kids playing tag around a field of Buddha statues in various poses.

Part of a field of Buddha statues

As I moved through the monastery, I had people come up to me and welcome me. I was the only Westerner who was there alone. I saw maybe six (6) other "white fellas" there, all elderly couples, and met a man from France with his male friend. The motorcycle had been noticed and people approached me asking if I had come from Australia, to which I had to explain that it had been flown here to start my expedition. Everyone was very nice, patient, and courteous, which is why I am myself a Buddhist.

Stopping to admire the place (photo by Yu Hong)

Many of the maps and signs were in Mandarin with no English translations. I often had to watch and learn by others examples. I met a nice old lady who explained that it was customary to make an offering to the temple while I was praying, so I made a donation to the temple to bring a large bouquet of flowers to the monks.

Map of the monastery complex

I found one specific temple that had such an effect on me that I wept (twice - I went back later to see if it did it again and it did), and even now when I think about it, tears well up in my eyes and my heart expands. It is not pain or sorrow that causes this but a great feeling of joy and happiness, and just how lucky I am to have experienced it, my family and my life.

Wept in this temple (twice)

Learning by example again, I prayed with joss sticks and knelt at each of the temples, respectfully bowing on entry and exit and taking my shoes off before entering. I sat with the monks and spoke to several of them who were interested in my journey, including one of the head monks (or THE head monk) who found time from his very busy schedule to bless me. Some of the other monks who blessed me gave me a handful of lychee lollies and sprayed water on me with lotus blossoms (I think they were lotus blossoms).

I rang the bell three times. I had intended to do it once, but a mother with a small boy in front of my berated him for doing it only once, telling him, "No, you must do it three times." Then she showed him how to do it. I used this as my own example and noticed hundreds of video camera on me while I did it.

Massive bell people were lining up to ring three times

Finally, I managed to sit on the damp ground under a Bodhi Tree that had been grown from a cutting of the Bodhi Tree the Buddha himself gained enlightenment under. It was a real experience and did not think it would move me as much as it did. I was so glad to have done this on this day, accidentally sharing the experience with my Buddhist brothers and sisters.

Bodhi Tree - an offshoot of the Buddha's enlightenment tree in Sri Lanka

On the way home, the heavens opened up on me and I was drenched, which is apparently a good thing to wash away the bad spirits and cleanse my spirit. I did feel quite peaceful and even though the guys snored like a freight train beneath my bunk, I had a reasonably good nights sleep and feel refreshed this morning. I'd heartily recommend seeing this temple if you get a chance while in Singapore.