If you ever visit Singapore and wants to see a larger than life statue of Buddha, just make sure to do a short detour when you visit the Little India heritage site and you will see one of our biggest statue in Singapore.
Here’s the link to Tripadvisor. Admission is free.
Google map – https://goo.gl/maps/TbsRpRBmtPN2
This temple is relatively small. The Giant Buddha kind of occupy most of the space.
Besides being instagramable, you can do the following 4 things when you visit.
Make a wish.
There is a counter on the left side of the picture. Tell the temple care taker that you want to light up the Buddha for 12 dollars. See the halo surrounding the Buddha? For 12 dollars, the temple staff will switched on the light while you pray and make a wish!
This ritual is quite simple and interesting.
First of all, pay $12.
Then you will be ushered to a bunch of rope or cord that is fixed to the wall on the left side of the statue. You are supposed to hold on to the cord while the light is turned on.
Standing at the bottom of the statue and gazing up at the brightly lit statue is kind of inspiring for making wish I guess.
Rumors say that sacred text are wrapped or embeded in those cords to lend spiritual power to your prayers.
I don’t know for sure and definitely will not want to try unwrapping the cords under the watchful eyes of the temple staff.
Anyway after this little wishing making session, the staff will ask you to proceed to the next wishing station.
This time the prayer cord is directly under the giant Buddha.
You hold on to the ropes/cord and pray with all your heart. The temple staff will be splashing some holy water at you while you are praying. In the humid tropical heat, this is rather welcomed and refreshing indeed!
Oh, and the staff will be ring this bell too.
After this, the staff will help you paste a gold leaf to the giant thumb of this statue. Buddhist believe that tons of good karma is earned by gold plating or gold leafing a Buddha statue.
The staff will be holding on to your hand while chanting something. Just focus on making your wish and let her finish her short prayer.
Then she will gold leaf your forehead! Yup, this one is interesting. She kind of paste the gold leaf on your forehead and you can rub your forehead to spread the gold afterwards.
Trust me, you want to do that. Unless you wish to walk around with a golden forehead!
Last but not least, you will be given a lucky talisman. The talisman on the left is inside the red envelope. You can keep it in your wallet for good luck.
This is a religious article and you have to take care of it properly. If you are not sure of keeping it well and safeguarding it, then you can politely decline. By the way, the iconagraphy depicts a Hindu god Brahma and Thai Buddhist believe he is a protector of Buddhist.
The entire ritual takes less than 5 minutes for me. My wishes are short I guess.
Enter the Buddha
Yup, you hear it right. This statue is hollow and there is a small door at the back of the statue where you can enter.
There is no secret tunnel. Just a small room with a statue of a recline Buddha inside.
It was open when I visited it in 2017.
Feel free to check it out. Not much people venture there.
Pray to your birthday Buddha
In Thai Buddhism, there is a Buddha dedicated to the day you are born. On the right side of the Giant Buddha is a row of smaller statue. Each Buddha statue has a day underneath Monday to Sunday. Check out your calendar and determine the day you were born and zoom right in to your Birthday Buddha for a quick prayer.
Spin your fortune
I think it is 50 cents per spin.
In order to do this, you need to know your chinese zodiac animal. Here’s a link to the zodiac calculator
https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/chinese-zodiac-calculator.htm
The spinner looks like a mini version of the Wheel of Fortune game. It stands vertically near the left entrance to the temple. You have to set the pointer to point to your zodiac sign. Then ask a question mentally or just pray for a forecast of your current fortune. Give it a spin!
When the wheel stop, check out which fortune number the pointer is pointing to.
Below the wheel are printed slips of paper with your fortune. Look up your fortune by referring to the paper with your fortune number.
Hope you enjoy your tour with all these activities!
