Skywatch Friday - Shuang Lin Monastery

Main Hall in Shuang Lin Monastery

Two dragons and a mini pagoda on top of roof.

Lotus shape urn for putting lighted joss sticks as offering to the Gods.

A shrine near the main hall of the temple


Dragon Light Pagoda
Remember to visit the majestic Dragon Light Pagoda which is located at the end of the temple near the Goddess of Mercy Hall. The pagoda is seven storey and about 29 m tall.

My little niece - a blogger in the making. Great that she share my interests in taking photography.

Wind Chimes hanging from the corner of the pagoda and they made beautiful songs when the wind blows.

Address: 184E Jalan Toa Payoh
Take a quick bus ride or 15-minute walk from the Toa Payoh MRT station or a short taxi ride
You might get lost so best ask around
Visiting Hours: 8.30 am to 5 pm

Telephone: 6259 6924
Admission: Free
You can find the temple in this map
If you want to try their vegetarian meal can visit during the 1st and 15th of every chinese lunar month, a small donation is appreciated. You can visit the official website for more information.

For other sky watchers, please hop over to Skywatch blog.

Shuang Lin Monastery - Buddhist Gods

My little niece praying to the Goddess of Mercy. She is very pious and can always explain to me buddhist quotes from the teachings of Buddha book. I am a free thinker but I love to read the teachings of Buddha. Although I am a free thinker, I will always donate to the temple. The donation helps to maintain the temple and also helps the poor.

During festive period and every 1st and 15th of every chinese lunar month, they have vegetarian meals.


This is a wooden fish in the temple and it is huge. It is used by the monks when they chant prayers.

There are many legends on why they named it wooden fish.

A monk went to India to acquire sutras. On his way to India, he found the way blocked by a wide, flooding river. There appeared neither bridge nor boat.

Suddenly, a big fish swam up. It offered to carry the monk across the river. The fish told the monk that it wanted to atone for a crime committed when it was a human. The fish made a simple request, that on the monk's way to obtain sutras, to ask the Buddha to guide the fish on a method to attain Bodhisattvahood.

The monk agreed to the fish's request and continued his quest for seventeen years. After getting the scriptures, he returned to China via the river, which was flooding again. As the monk worried about how to cross, the fish came back to help. It asked if the monk had made the request to the Buddha. To the monk's dismay, he had forgotten. The fish became furious and splashed the monk, washing him into the river. A passing fisherman saved him from drowning, but unfortunately the sutras had been ruined by the water.

The monk went home full of anger. Filled with anger at the fish, he made a wooden effigy of a fish head. When he recalled his adversity, he beat the fish head with a wooden hammer. To his surprise, each time he beat the wooden fish, the fish opened its mouth and vomited a character. He became so happy that, when he had time, he always beat the fish. A few years later, he had got back from the wooden fish's mouth what he had lost to the flood.(Source: wikipedia)

Reclining Buddha - am sure the stone used must be very precious cause the buddha look so beautiful.



Sharkyamuni Buddha

Buddhist Maitreya in Budai form

I hope the names I used to identify the buddha idols are correct. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Shuang Lin Monastery - Main Entrance

This is the main entrance (Shan Men) of the temple, also known as the ‘Mountain Gate’, Shan Men is also known as the ‘three gates’. Walking through these gates symbolize liberation from the woes of the secular life.

The doors are painted with beautiful pictures of the Door Gods.


The bronze door knocker is shaped like a lion to guard the doors.

You can read more about the gates from its official website

My World Tuesday - Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery

Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery has a long history dated the nineteenth century, its architecture design also represents a unique pageant of Singapore history. You can read the long story of how the temple was built on a land donated by a rich man from its official website.

Lian Shuang Lin Monastery is tucked away in a corner of a housing estate in Singapore. It is located at 184E Jalan Toa Payoh. You can find the temple from the map. It is worth visiting cause the temple has a long history and it is very beautiful. You will learn more about the temple as you follow my posts. You can take the MRT Train to Toa Payoh MRT Station and get a cab to the temple. The cab fare will be a few dollars only from Toa Payoh MRT Station. Taking the bus from Toa Payoh Station might be a bit confusing if you are not a local.

Entrance to the temple. It is so spacious and big, am surprised to see much changes since I last visited here when I was a teenager.

The temple has gone through several restorations due to termites attack. The temple is the only Monastery with a complete Chong Lin layout in Singapore and the existence of intricate cravings of the Min Nan style on the structure of the halls, which could usually be found in China only. Read more from its official website on why the need to preserve the temple.


Map of the temple - you can find your way about from the map.





In the temple grounds, we could see lots of beautiful well maintained trees and plants as well as bonsai. The temple ground is so clean and well maintained.

Wishing well - if I am not mistaken, this used to be a pond where we can sit beside it. I still have the photo me sitting beside the pond somewhere in my album.

Please visit "That's my World" for other parts of the world.

Peranakan Museum

Finally my last post on Peranakan Museum. Hopefully I will be visiting the museum again.

Little teapot with designs. Seems like dragon and phoenix are favourite in the designs of these wares. Dragons and phoenix are often associated with good luck. My wedding kwa (chinese custom wedding dress) also have the dragons and phoenix. You can view my post on my chinese wedding dress.


Tiffin Carrier - two or three tier carriers - a good way to buy food in these to reduce dependency on plastic bags. I will use small pot to buy hot food in small coffee shops(place where the owner sells coffee and drinks but there are other stallholders selling cooked food in the coffee shop) but if I go to a busy food court, they are not happy to use your pot..lol. They are too busy to open up the pot or tiffin carrier, etc. Using your own pot to buy hot food is better than using their plastic container. Cause it is harmful to do that, the heat from the food will cause the plastic to release harmful chemicals.






I wonder if the designs in the pot will disappear if we put hot soup or food into it.

Sorry for the blur photo. These containers were used to keep unlit joss sticks. They were usually placed on or near the altar table for easy access of the joss sticks instead of keeping them in plastic bags.