One of the oldest and tallest
(Title sounds cool, doesn’t it?)
Turning off East Coast Road into Ceylon Road, we find the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple. It is one of the oldest (second-oldest in fact) and tallest Indian temples in Singapore and was marked as a historic site by the National Heritage Board in 2003.
It has a history that stretches all the way back to 1875. (That’s older than all our ages combined!) The temple started with humble beginnings, when a Ceylonese Tamil pioneer built a small attap-hut temple for the Lord Vinayagar (the Elephant God) statue he found next to a Senpaga tree. (This explains the name of the temple.)
Note the many elephant god statues decorating the temple.
Over the years, the temple has been upgraded and reconstructed with increasingly more sturdy materials, reflecting the growing wealth of its patrons. The work of constructing a temple started in the 1920s, with the Singapore Ceylon’s Tamils’ Association electing a committee to manage the construction. On 3 February, 1930, a consecration ceremony was held to celebrate the completion of the project. However, the temple suffered severe damage in WWII. Luckily, the main shrine escaped unscathed and with the kindness of Dr. P. Thillainathan, the temple was restored and resumed operation soon after the Japanese Occupation.
Ceylon Road, where the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple is located, was so named as many Ceylon Tamils used to live along there. (Wasn’t Joo Chiat known for being an enclave for the Peranakan and Eurasian community? When did all these Tamils pop up? Well, apparently not, for these Ceylon Tamils arrived in Singapore as early back as the 19th century.)
An interesting sign in front of the temple.
Wondering if such religious tolerance has existed all along or if it was a more recent phenomenon.
But probably, any objections, if they had existed, were minimal. For just down the road, a short distance away, stands St. Hilda’s Church. It was built in 1934.
(The camera died then so this picture was obtained from PictureSG.)
Another church in the vicinity is the Church of the Holy Family in Chapel Road. Established in the 1932 and rebuilt in 1999, it was an important gathering place for the Eurasians living in the area.
Picture obtained from Church of the Holy Family’s website.
The Eurasian community was very closely knit, and Weekly Sunday worship was the perfect time for social interaction, and of course, exchange of gossip. The people were such gossip mongers. And Frankel Estate, where many Eurasians lived, was infamous as Singapore’s Peyton Place. (Peyton Place was a novel adapted into a popular TV show. It was the 1960s equivalent of the modern Gossip Girl.)
DATE: Tuesday, March 13, 2012
TIME: ||7:12 PM ||