More scenes from Singapore

There's a large monastery and temple complex in the middle of Singapore, the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, which is not exactly on the usual tourist path, but it has some impressive features:

Okay, so this impressively large concrete building (it's the roof that makes it look so eyecatching) is not in fact a temple, but a "memorial hall", and the ground floor seemed to serve food, but I don't know if they do to just anyone.  We got there just after lunch, and the floor was being cleaned, and we were not allowed in.  

In fact, as I said at the start, the whole place is not exactly set up as tourist friendly:  there is nothing really at the entry to explain where to go or what to do, for example.  I don't think it has its own website, either, but here is the Wikipedia entry.   There is an office which seems to cater to people who are going there to do courses, and a gift shop with some (rather expensive) items for sale.   They obviously don't mind tourists being there - as you will see, there are explanatory signs in front of most of the individual temples, but that's about it.   (Oh, there is a large crematorium on the grounds too, and one of the buildings is a columbarium for storing the ashes, so I can understand why you don't want to make too touristy.) 

So one of the larger "halls", with no one else in it on the week day when we were there:

 

So, you can read for yourself what this other particular hall, with its very colourful decoration, is about.

The building to the left is in fact a large library, no doubt used by the students who stay at the monastery, but I think open to the public as well.   I did not go on, but I will next time!

 

In any event, over near the office part, they were giving out free books on Buddhism, and I took one which talks about Chinese Buddhism, but I have yet to read it.  Still - free books, who can complain?

 

Next, a tree with some history behind it.   I am not familiar with how many trees there are around the world supposedly descended from the "original" Bodhi tree, but as with the matter of the number of Buddha's teeth around the place, I would not be surprised if there was reason for skepticism.

The whole grounds, and all of the buildings, are extremely well kept and maintained, giving the impression (as does the Buddha's Tooth temple in town) that Singaporean Buddhism is extremely well funded.  In fact, here is an extract from the Wikipedia page exactly on that point:

In the same year in October 2007, the temple was one of seven religious groups ordered by the Commissioner of Charities (COC) to open their books to auditors.^[9] With an annual income of S$14.95 million, it had one of the largest incomes among the charities under the COC's direct purview. Its main income sources were crematorium and columbarium services, prayer services and donations. Between November 2007 and June 2008, the monastery also reportedly gave free meals to about 200 people daily,^[10] clarifying their prayer and meditation practices instead of relying on probable means of incomes such as exorcism.^[11]

Well, actually, that doesn't seem all that big an income for such a physically large complex.  (My photos don't show it all.)   Also, I didn't know that Buddhists made income from exorcism.   Maybe just Chinese Buddhism?   Although here is an article about it in Vietnam:

With nearly 80% of Vietnamese people holding Buddhist beliefs in some form, Buddhism-based healing is popular in Vietnam. Coupled with cultural stigma against seeking formal mental health services, Vietnamese people with psychological needs frequently seek different forms of healing at Buddhist temples, including exorcism and spirit-calling. In this article, I present case vignettes of exorcism and spirit-calling that I documented during my ethnographic study in Vietnam. Based on these cases, I will discuss the healing impact of spiritual activities like Buddhism-based exorcism and spirit-calling for Vietnamese people and implications for social work in Vietnam and elsewhere.

And buddhaweekly.com has a longer article about it.   I must admit, I have wondered whether anyone has studied the utility of conducting an exorcism rite (not a "real" one, with a real priest - as they will only do it if they think it is a real possession) but a "placebo" style rite on a person with mental illness who thinks they might be possessed.

Perhaps hard to get that past the ethics committee!

When I Google the topic, I see there is a rather interesting article from 2009 called "Placebo Controls, Exorcisms and the Devil" which is worth a look, too.  In fact, it might deserve its own post.

All interesting...