The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

In typical Singapore fashion, in Chinatown there are both Hindu and Buddhist temples within a block of each other. Both are spectacularly beautiful.

Mike Walach & I toured Chinatown during his visit and stopped to look inside the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple. It's a remarkable place to visit. The temple gets its name because on the 4th floor of the building is a 2 meter high stupa made of pure gold. Inside that chamber is a tooth relic of Buddha. According to Buddhist texts, Buddha left behind four wisdom teeth and 40 tooth relics for the succeeding generations. This rare relic makes this temple particularly important to the local Chinese (and other ethic groups') Buddhists.

Mike and I weren't there during one of the viewing times, so I cannot give a first-hand report about the relic. However, as the pictures detail, the first floor of the temple is beautifully decorated. It's an active temple so one has to be careful about not disturbing those who are praying. You can see the niches in the large picture and a couple of close-ups of the smaller Buddhas that fill the wall.

The temple is a fairly recent addition to Chinatown. It was completed only two years ago and is modeled after the architecture of the Tang Dynasty.

Parkview Square

Mike Walach visited us this week. We've known Mike & Jean for over 20 years. We moved to Boston together and then to Dallas within a couple of months of each other. Jean watched Erica when Raye went to the hospital to deliver Jackie.

So needless to say we were delighted to be able to show Mike around Singapore, a place he hasn't been since around 1980. Lots has changed since he was here.

Like this building for example: Parkview Square. It's one of our favorite buildings in Singapore, an easy landmark near the Bugis MRT stop.

The architecture is iconic, so much so that the local nickname for it is "Gotham City." Completed in 2002, it looks more like something that was designed during the 1930s. It's 24 storeys and 144m (472ft) tall.

Outside are several statues that easily make one think of first Tim Burton Batman movie.

It is all commercial office space. But inside on the first floor is a beautiful bar. One of the interesting features is the multi-storey wine cooler. (You can see it behind the photo of Mike and Raye.) During the evenings, the waitresses hook themselves up in harnesses and become "wine fairies" who fly up to collect the appropriate bottle.

Singapore has many other interesting buildings that will be worth posting about sometime.