Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
Built in the Tang dynasty’s imperial architectural style, the temple houses a tooth relic of the Gautama Buddha. It is claimed that the relic of Buddha from which it gains its name was found in 1980 in a collapsed stupa in Myanmar. The relic can be viewed by the public at the 4th floor of the temple. The ground breaking ceremony was conducted on 13 March 2005. Costing S$62 million and 2 years later, a soft launch was held to coincide with the 2007 Vesak Day celebration. Since opening, the temple has become a popular attraction within Chinatown. Simple vegetarian fare is served in the basement of the temple, though donations are accepted.
Ven. Shi Fa Zhao, the current president and abbot of Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum, was approached by Singapore Tourism Board in 1998 to develop a proposal for a temple on the vacant site in Chinatown. Besides stipulating the building design to be ‘traditional’, he also requested that the temple contains facilities and hold events for both locals and tourists.
The temple’s design went through 9 iterations before it was finalised. The abbot rejected a design that was too ‘contemporary’, therefore, deemed out of place in the surrounding Chinatown landscape. He also rejected a design with Southern Chinese typology, which is the style adopted by temples typically in Chinatown. Instead, the final design of the building has Northern Chinese style from Tang Dynasty.
Ven. Shi Fa Zhao is also the founder of the Metta Welfare Association, a non-profit voluntary welfare organisation (VWO) that provides special education, welfare services, community and medical care to the intellectually disabled, elderly and terminally ill in society. any Arab pilgrim-brokers who would arrange the haj for Muslims in Singapore and from the nearby islands such as Java.