Chinatown Singapore Holidays Experience, Wak Hai Cheng Bio Temple

Exotic heritage holidays experience in Wak Hai Cheng Bio Temple, Chinatown Singapore.

Get your Chinatown Singapore tourism holidays experience on the CBD edge of Chinatown, the Taoist Wak Hai Cheng Bio Temple. Also known as the Yueh Hai Ching Temple, Wak Hai Cheng Bio Temple translates as Calm Sea Temple. Dating from 1826, it’s an atmospheric place – giant incense coils smoulder over an empty courtyard while a village of tiny plaster figures populate the roof.

Like most of Singapore’s Chinese temples, Wak Hai Cheng Bio had its start as a simple wood-and-thatch shrine where sailors, when they got off their ships, would go to express their gratitude for sailing safely to their destination. Before the major land-reclamation projects shifted the shoreline outward, the temple was close to the water’s edge, and so it was named “Temple of the Calm Sea Built by the Guangzhou People.” It’s a Teochew temple, located in a part of Chinatown originally populated by this dialect group.

Inside the Taoist temple walls are two blocks, the one on the left devoted to Ma Po Cho, the Mother of Heavenly Sages, who protects travelers and ensures a safe journey. The one on the left is devoted to Siong Tek Kong, the god of business. Both are as important to the Chinese community today as they were way back when. Look for the statue of the Gambler Brother, with coins around his neck. The Chinese pray to him for wealth and luck; in olden days would put opium on his lips. This custom is still practiced today, only now they use a black herbal paste called koyo, which is conveniently legal.

Inside the temple you can buy joss sticks and paper for S$2.50 (US$1.50/85p). Three joss sticks are for heaven, your parents, and yourself, to be burned before the altar. Three corresponding packets of elaborately decorated paper and gold leaf are to be burned outside in the gourd-shaped kilns (gourd being a symbol of health). The joss or “wishing paper,” four thin sheets stamped with black and red characters, has many meanings. The red sheet is for luck (red being particularly auspicious) and the other three are to wash away your sins, for a long life, and for your wishes to be carried to heaven. Even if you are not Taoist, you’re more than welcome to burn the joss.

The temple itself is quite a visual treat, with ceramic figurines and pagodas adorning the roof, and every nook and cranny of the structure adorned with tiny three-dimensional reliefs that depict scenes from Chinese operas. The spiral joss hanging in the courtyard adds an additional picturesque effect.

Singapore tourist attractions : Wak Hai Cheng Bio Temple, Chinatown
Address : At the corner of Phillip St. and Church St, Chinatown

Chinatown Singapore Holidays Wak Hai Cheng Bio Temple Courtyard

Chinatown Singapore Holidays Wak Hai Cheng Bio Temple Entrance