Our temple stands
on a land area of one thousand seven hundred and fifty-five square-metre.
Total cost for the construction of the temple building together with
the meticulous decorations and exquisite fixtures in the entire temple
exceeded two million and six hundred thousand Singapore dollars. The
temple is located strategically in the East of the Singapore island,
where the sun rises from day after day, rain or shine. This symbolises
we are young at heart despite we have come a long way since 1916,
and the self-renewal that takes its daily routine for us to educate
and upgrade ourselves to serve our people even better. The first ray
of sunlight that rises from the horizon every day is likewise our
charity vision and benevolent movement that shine upon and the warmth
that we want to cuddle the heart of every people in a world with no
physical restriction.
The layout of our temple is
designed into two main halls linked to the 'Zuo Zhuah' Tower at the
rear that commanded bird's eye views of the surrounding, and brandished
magnificently our benevolent image within the red barricade-wall.
The Teochew monastery is landscaped in such a way that it bears close
resemblance to that of the ancient Imperial Palace. In the central
forefront of the monastery stood our flagship majestic entrance-gate,
which attracts the attention of every passer-by with that antique
and the solemn feel. The halls are roofed with green crystalline-tiles.
Each of the four roof corners of every structure are pointed upon
the sky by exemplifying the psychological instinct of human beings
to always look up to something higher and better and not the other
way round. The sculptures of dragons commonly seen everywhere on the
structures of the monastery are almost life liked and are believed
to bring prosperity and fortune by the phenomenal portrayal of dragon
with its celestial pearl.
The main structure of the
monastery is the two halls linked to the four-storey tower. The layout
is intended to be one horizontal with two verticals formation depicting
the interwoven features that augments the perfect and sterling structure
for our official place of worship. In the middle of the two halls
is an al frésca garden. The tall building at the back is the
four-storey 'Zuo Zhuah' Tower that locks the two halls into unison.
For the purpose of virtual guide across the compound of the monastery,
we will proceed through the following sequence that hopefully bring
across better understanding of our temple at the end of every visits
by every visitors.
Starting with the left hall,
which is also our main Prayer Hall, it is an extravagantly spacious
one compared with the other building structures. The Prayer Hall is
our sacred place of worship and in it we offer our Patron Saint and
many other deities. The other deities include Reverend Song Ta-Fung
and his two principal attendants as well as, our Supreme Buddha, the
Three Sages (Amitabha, Kuan Yin P’uas and Ta-Shih-Chi P’usa),
Yun-Jie Bodhisattva, Ti Tsang P’usa (Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva)
with his two disciples, a father and son combination - Mung Kung and
Reverend Tao Ming, General Kuan Ti, the Protector of the Buddhist
religion, General Wei-Tuo, the Protector of Buddhist Dharma, the renowned
Eight Fairies and the Supreme Pantheon our Patron Saints is sacred
and posh in its ancient integrity. The prayer hall is designed into
such tranquility and solemnity that is perfect for prayers to seek
sanctuary and divine communication with our Patron Saints. The entire
hall is beautifully embellished with exquisite scented-wood carvings
and netsuke artefacts, all of which we have them specially tailored-made
and shipped in from the Teochew City, Guangdong Province, China. All
the beams and columns that support the entire structure of the hall
stand out prominently when rendered with millions of tiny red tiles.
Most of the artefacts that can be found in the hall are tinted with
gold plate. With that, the hall glows even more in a panorama alike
the radiance when the sun rises from the horizon and the divine light
that glows in the nether dark. We can be assured that the jewels displayed
at the altar are all customarily made up of best materials by top-notched
masters. The jewels include the candle stands, the lamp stands, the
incense urn et cetera. Despite being a Teochew temple, we neither
put up a Jingle Tower, nor a Percussion Tower due to the constraint
of space. However, we put up each of those at the two corners of the
hall vis-a-vis the throne altar with their former on the left and
the latter on the right. In the center of the ceiling is a rare Longevity-and-Eternal-Brightness
chandelier. These holy objects symbolise the Three Jems of Buddhism
that bring benevolence to the people by burning a flame at the other
end of the dark conduit for all nether beings.
Going on to the
memorial hall, which is commonly known as the Ancestral Hall, which
is conferred as, "Chong Teck Tong". The name typically exudes the
essence of one of our Patron Song Ta-Fung's teachings “to admire
the benevolence of our ascendants and repay that benevolence commensurate”.
The hall is divided into two sections - the Entrance Hall and the
Ancestral Worship Hall. The partition is the “Tian Zei”
or the “Sky Well”. For practical reason, both sides of the
Entrance Hall are allocated for administrative uses. We display the
portraitures of our Elite at the top left bound of the Entrance Hall.
We also display the portraitures of Late Mr. and Mrs Teo Hang Sam
at the top right bound of the Entrance Hall. These portraitures are
solemnly displayed at such to receive our admiration, which purport
to tell their exemplary deeds to all their descendants. Going across
the Sky Well, we come into the Ancestral Worship Hall where we pay
our respect to our ascendants. There are altogether seven ancestral
shrines where all the ancestral tablets proudly sit and ascend from
the bottom to the top. The ascension of the ancestral shrines has
many levels, each in two steps that take after the evolution of life
and death in the eyes of Buddhism. We have designed the positioning
of the shrine as such every ancestral tablet can be clearly spotted
by their family, so that every public ancestral worship are conducted
with openness, and yet closed to the hearts the family. However meticulous,
we could not simply cover any good region or area, hence inevitably
omitting some good names. We overcome that problem by enshrining two
principal ancestral tablets at the top of the main ancestral shrine.
One of those is to worship the three generations of all the members
of our Society. The other is to worship all the deceased members of
our Society and six other branches. We put in best effort to bless
all souls so as to mark the legend of our pioneers in their contemporary.
In between the two halls is
our al frésca garden. The entrance of the garden stands a grand
arc spelt "Shan Ren" - Benevolence and Endurance, that deliver to
our people the virtues of being benevolent and enduring. Within the
garden are planted with hybrids of Chinese Bonsai of rare breeds.
We have our experience gardeners to cultivate our garden alike those
in the imperial garden. The garden is overwhelming with lush greenery
and blossoms. Every visitor that goes into the garden will be attracted
and even deeply engrossed by the exuberance instantly.
Moving on to the rear tower,
it extends up to the four storeys - standing at two times the height
of the two main halls. The direct reception of the tower clearly displayed
the three chinese characters "Zou Zhuah Lao" - to commemorate the
good deeds and services rendered by three generations of the Teo's
Clan to our society. Extended by all members of the Society unanimously,
the name of the tower takes after the late Sire Teo Zou Zhuah, the
grand parents of President Teo Soo Chuan.
Within the tower, the top
storey is the Scripture Library or our Sutra vault where our rare
collection of sacred scriptures is kept. In so doing, we are able
to preserved our priceless collection, which are originally printed
from the Khai Guan See's scripture template in the Teochew City, Guangdong
Province, China. The third storey is reserved for our members of the
Ceremonial Services whose regular activities conducted here include
sutra studies, spiritual retreat, conferences and social communications.
For many years, this is the training ground that has produced numerous
trained members who are well the leaders for the following generation
to come. The second storey is our central nerve of decision-making
- the Conference Hall. We have state-of-the-art visual and audio facilities
to instill interaction and interest among all the attendants in every
general meeting to arrive at important decisions for our Society.
At the ground storey, we have our medical clinic where the registration
desk, waiting hall, treatment room, dispensary are centrally located
for the convenience of our people seeking free medical services from
us.
Since the making of our new
temple in 1982, we have made alterations to the original layout to
our temple in the month of November 1999. We have issued the Origin
for the alterations to the Memorial Hall of "Chong Teck Tong" as follow
in a scented wooden-carved plaque with the Orgin's inscriptions proudly
displayed at the main reception of the Entrance Hall:
"The two memorial halls for
our Elite and Late Mr. and Mrs Teo Hang Sam was previously instituted
at the left and right wings of the Ancestral Hall respectively. Due
to the overwhelming response from our people to offer their ancestors
here in our ancestral shrines, our limited accommodation was rapidly
filled up and could no longer take in extra ancestral tablet when
the shrines' capacity is fully taken up. Our Patron Saint has since
expressed the need to increase the capacity of our ancestral shrines
by converting the memorial hall at the left and right wings into ancestral
shrines. To begin the conversion of the memorial hall, we have the
two plaques of the memorial hall and the portraitures of our Elite
and Late Mr. and Mrs. Teo Hang Sam relocated to the two upper bounds
by the side of the Entrance Hall accordingly. The two plaques are
displayed with the plaque for the Origin for the alterations to the
"Chong Teck Tong" in the center. The fresh look of the Entrance Hall
will continue to commemorate our pasts elite."
Amongst many alterations,
we have added two altars by the left aisle to the Prayer Hall to worship
the "Hock Teck Ziah Sin" and the "See Meng Ti Gun". The former is
commonly known as "Pek Gong" while the latter is commonly known as
the "Guard of the Stove".
Having said so much for our
temple, we have come to realise one issue of utmost importance, that
is the making of our new temple from 1980 to 1982. The making of our
temple would not be possible without the overwhelming responses, supports
and contributions from our people in terms of monetary value and precious
efforts. Our people have indeed helped us in numerous way to build
our new temple, especially with such exorbitant costs to build it.
Simply by expressing our gratitude will not repay all the donations
and efforts received. We have chosen to do it in a very special way
by publishing all the names of our people who have responded to, supported
and contributed to us in our Special Souvenir Publication in 1985
to commemorate their deeds for many generations to witness.
