Hong Kong LDS Temple

We made a little trip last week to Hong Kong so we could attend the Temple. Since we don't have one in Singapore this is the Temple for our region. We've never lived more than an hour and a half from a Temple so we are used to attending more regularly. It was a wonderful treat to go after 9 months of not having an opportunity to do so. We are very grateful we could go. It is a very beautiful and peaceful place. Regular Sunday worship, instruction and other social and recreational activities occur in Latter-day Saint meetinghouses, or chapels. In temples, on the other hand, faithful members receive specific instruction about the purpose of life and their relationship to God.

The Front of the Temple

The back of the Temple
Go here to find out more about the purpose of temples.

Happy Deepavali!!

I mentioned that I went on a walking tour of Little India last week. It was very interesting.

Deepavali, known as the "Festival of Lights," symbolises the victory of good over evil, and lamps are lit as a sign of celebration and hope for humankind.

"There are several legends which explain why lamps are lit during Deepavali. But there seems to be a common theme about these legends: good will eventually overcome evil. So by lighting lamps during Deepavali, Hindus celebrate the victory of light over darkness. It's a time to drop bad habits and bring on the good. It's a time to let knowledge triumph over ignorance. It represents the dawn of good things to come."

This is the Tekka wet market, where different ethnic communities congregate. Meats are seperated by type and from produce and other products. It is separated by religion so the pork eaters don't offend the non-pork eaters and the other meat-eaters don't offend the vegetarians, etc.

These are old shop houses that were crumbling so the government took them over by passing ordinances that they needed to be restored, which the owners couldn't afford. They bought and restored them. They now rent them back out to keep them authentic.

Resplendent garlands of jasmine, marigolds and roses, symbolising purity, peace and love respectively. Like I mentioned in the previous post they are sold as offerings to deity idols/statues and draped around their necks. They are also worn. They are very pretty and smell quite nice.
A fortune teller, who I don't think wanted his picture taken, and his fortune telling birds.

This was in a pawn shop. There are several stores like it and others just selling gold. Indians, including Singaporeans of Indian heritage, buy gold to show status. They buy it during these festivals and it is used as a type of savings that they can then turn into these pawn shop to get money should they need it for things such as a funeral or medical expenses. If I remember right, the shops will keep it for a time for them should they come up with the money to buy it back. It sounded like they don't typically have monetary savings but gold savings. Also, it is very nice gold--only 22k and above.

Mehendi (Henna Tattoo, also known as Mehndi) is an ancient Indian Body Art. It is used in creating intricate ethnic or contemporary designs and exotic patterns on various parts of the body, though traditionally applied to the hands and feet of women preparing for special ceremonies.

A yantra. There were many different yantras for sale at the market. These are used to help the mind balance and focus on spiritual concepts.

Making an herbal ginger tea for our little rest stop on the tour. It was made with frothy milk, was a little spicy but tasty.

This is a lotus tree (I think...someone help me out here?). It is a type of tree that is sacred to all the major religions here so there are shrines/ribbons of some kind from each religion by it or on it. The tour guide told us that if the government ever needed to cut it down to widen the road they'd have to find an atheist foreign worker to do it because none of the believers would dare cut it down.

The Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, which is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Kali. I'm going to spare you a close-up of her as it was a bit gory. Kali has always been popular in Bengal, the birthplace of the labourers who built this temple in 1881.
Oil lamps made out of gouched-out limes. Limes have a special meaning in Hindu worship. They are usually used to symbolise protection.


Lord Ganesh, a widely worshiped god of knowledge and the remover of obstacles.

Devotees are provided with food after worshipping. I didn't catch all of what the tour guide was saying so I'm not sure if the following is still the case. I would think it is though. This temple was/is used by poor foreign workers to come worship, clean up, and get a meal. This must be for those who don't have other accommodations. They have shoddy places set up for them around Singapore. The truck (which are jammed pack with lots of men) then pick them up here and take them to their work assignments.

Ben the Fire Warden

One of these Foxy Fire Wardens is not like the others!!

Isn't he cute and is this not the funniest poster?!

Hindu Thimithi (firewalking) festival

The third of the three Singapore festivals that is celebrated this time of year is Deepavali. I went on a great walking tour of Little India last Tuesday (post forthcoming) and learned alot about Hinduism and the Indian culture. Last Sunday night I went to my friend Sarah's house to sleep a bit before heading to the Thimithi/ firewalking festival, which started at 2 AM. Her husband and mother-in-law came as well and we met up with our friend Debbie at the festival. The firewalking festival originates in South India. From what I gathered reading a bit online Thimithi is not normally a part of Deepavali but is here in Singapore.

It took place at Sri Mariamman Temple, which is actually in Chinatown. I learned that night from Debbie the reason it is located there and not in Little India is to encourage religious tolerance. By law there has to be a certain percent of each ethic group in the different quarters or districts in Singapore. The religious and cultural tolerance here is definitely something Singapore does right. It would be nice if the rest of the world followed suit.
"The Thimithi Festival in Singapore is a major Hindu festival celebrated by the Hindus during the month of October. This festival takes place in order to venerate and honor goddess Draupadi. Legend says that Draupadi was made to walk on burning coals barefoot, without any expressions of pain, in order to prove her fidelity to her husband. To commemorate this painful event and respect the courage of the goddess, the Thimithi festival includes the bizarre event of fire walking."

Preparing the coals/fire.
The Thimithi festival is the time for the Hindu priests and the devotees to demonstrate their devotion, valor and fortitude. They do so by walking across a 21 ft pit full of burning coals without showing any signs of pain. This is considered a test of purity as the Hindu devotees and priests believe that they will be burnt only if they are impure.

Waiting in line outside the temple.

They would then come in and pray.

Waiting in line inside the temple. We wanted a photo of the little band and got to go in right up close at the end. Everyone was calm except one man who did not want to do it and his friends had to coax/force him.

Some men walked slowly,

others a little faster,
some even ran,
Most of them had offerings. Each deity has their own favorite flower or leaves. There are a couple of photos at the end of the post showing where they left their offerings.

After the fire walking is done, they walk through a pit of goat's milk and blemish their feet with turmeric. These men also support the others as they enter the pit so they don't slip.



Some would also pray/pay devotion at the end.


Then they'd walk off to leave the offering at or on the statues of the deity.

They washed their feet off afterwards. I think I'd want ice.

The women sang and supported them. This is something only the men particiapte in.


The women can also pay devotion.


Below and above are examples of where they would leave their offerings.



Seeing as it was the middle of the night there were alot of people sleeping. There were babies,


girls,


boys,


adults,


and groups of people sleeping everywhere. It was really quite a sight!


Our feet were yellow from the turmeric. It took a lot of scrubbings and several days until the yellow was all gone. I hope I haven't bored all of you to tears with this long post but I thought it was fascinating. For those of you here in Singapore it's definitely one of the more unique things I've done and worth a visit next year. I had a great time!

The People

I was totally fascinated by the attendees and decided if they are always asking to photograph Samara then it was my turn for some payback. They didn't seem to mind. Steve McCurry, a photographer whom I love, had an exhibit here this summer. I attended a little seminar he gave. He took the famous Afghan Girl photo on the cover of National Geographic. India is one of his favorite places to shoot and it is easy to see why. The people are fascinating. Their culture is so rich and colorful.

The older people especially loved being photographed and seemed quite flattered when Debbie or I would ask them if we could take their photo.



I learned on my walk that you can tell if the person is from the south or the north, which are apparently very different from one another, by the way they wear their saris and their jewelry. I also learned in their culture it is immodest to have legs showing but not midriffs, which makes sense since their saris show off the midriffs and fully cover their legs.

I think the way they mark their foreheads also indicates where they are from.

They were so much easier to photograph than busy kids. I didn't even need to pose them. They were already posed perfectly.

I loved the colors in her clothes.

I went up into the stands to get a photo of the whole fire pit and was in front of this gentleman. When I was leaving he asked if I was going to take his photo so I did, of course. Sometimes when an Indian will ask to take Samara's photo he/she will ask if I want it emailed to me to which I think, "why on earth would I want your camera phone picture of her glaring at you?" Anyway, he wanted to see it after I took it so I said I'd email it to him. Maybe he didn't have an email address but he had the same reaction I do and did not want me to email it to him.

This cute lady turned and posed for us when we came up. We had wanted to get a photo of the pretty flowers in her hair so we asked if we could take one of her hair too. She and her friends then started to giggle and they teased her, "they wanted a photo of your flowers and you turned and posed." It was quite funny. Of course, things have a way of seeming funny at 4 AM.
I would love to photograph them during daylight hours. I'm not sure what I'd do with all the photos though but I know Debbie and I sure had a lot of fun snapping away. I think we exemplified Singapore's tolerance for differences that night. One Nikon and one Canon user getting along beautifully.