The Fuk Tak Chi temple

I got lost near Raffles Place the other day, and stumbled across this place on Telok Ayer Street. We're pretty much in the financial district here, so I was a bit surprised to find this. It's a temple, built in the 1820's (pretty aged for Singapore!) and then restored in 1997.

The original temple was built as a group effort from the Cantonese and Hakka communities in Singapore at the time, to honour the Malaysian Chinese deity Tua Peh Kong, who protects against danger and illness. It has seen various upgrades over the years.

Apparently a portion of the current financial district sits on land reclaimed in the 1880s from the old seafront, which used to be right by this temple (Telok Ayer 'telok eye' means water bay in Malay). What I rather enjoyed about the visit was also the fab, detailed model of what the original area would have been like - complete with traders, fruit-sellers, people playing cards and having a shave!

Suspect Blogger will upload all these photos weirdly, but you can click on them for a slideshow!