Our next stop on the Balestier Heritage Trail was the Maha Sasana Ramsi Burmese Buddhist Temple, which is located on the Tai Gin Road, off Ah Hood Road and right behind the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall...
The Tai Gin Road is a narrow, tree-lined avenue. The name of the road literally means "great man" in Chinese, attributed to either Dr Sun Yat Sen, who lived here or to William A. Pickering, who was officially designated as the Protector of Chinese, in 1877, to take care of the needs of the Chinese here. Tai Gin Road used to have small units manufacturing wooden crates for the beverage industry, but today, it is a placid residential area.
Ah Hood Road too is named after a Chinese businessman of repute, Wee Ah Hood, a trader; and pepper and gambier estate owner. Ah Hood Road was home to textile dyeing units, rubber smoke houses, cane factories, oil and soap factories and a biscuit factory... But today, it is a quiet road...
Just about 50 metres from the junction of the Ah Hood Road and the Tai Gin Road lies the Burmese Temple. Founded in 1878, by a Burmese, U Tha Hnit, the temple was initially located close to Serangoon Road.
The temple was shifted here in 1991 and is built in Burmese style with a tiered roof, adorned with teak wood carvings. The roof also has a golden pagoda which makes stand-out...
The entrance to the temple is ornate and detailed in styling...
Mythical creatures guard the entrance to the temple...
A very pretty idol of Lord Buddha is the heart of the temple...
This idol was brought in, in 1907, by a physician, U Kyaw Gaung, who was temple trustee then. He wanted an idol of the Lord similar to those in Burma (now Myanmar).
On one of his many trips back home, at Saygin Hill, near Mandalay, he found a 10-tonne marble slab, which was then carved into the idol of the Lord, 11-feet high.
The idol was brought into Singapore in 1921 and was enshrined in the temple in 1925...
Today the temple is a centre for congregation of ethnic-Burmese in Singapore...
After seeking blessings of Lord Buddha, we embarked on our ride into Changi, from where our flight for Mumbai departs in the evening...
But, no description of Balestier is complete without a mention of the Balestier Market, a place that has fed me ever since the day I landed in Singapore... who can forget the comforting Bak Kut Teh I had that morning.... or the amazing Kaya toast with Kopi-C that the two ladies at the Koptiam served me for breakfast, almost everyday...
And it turned out, the Balestier Market too, was steeped in history, as much as other parts of Balestier...
The market was built in the 1920s to give local vendors a permanent place to sell their produce. It was an open-air market but bustling, despite the remoteness of the Blaestier area then... It got a roof in 1925 and was known as Or Kio which means Black Bridge in Hokkien...
During the Second World War, the authorities used the market to distribute rations to the local population. And the market we see today was redeveloped just about 10 years back!
As I head back home, I will carry with me sweet and lip-smacking memories of the lovely food I had at Balestier Market, not knowing it had a history to it....
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