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Name Benjamin Lau Cheryl Wee Rachel Lim Soh Wanzhen Module Code GES1005 Tutorial Gp. D10 Temple Name Zheng Jue Si (正觉寺) App ID 122 正觉寺 Cheng Kak Si Introduction Cheng Kak Si (正觉寺) is a Buddhist temple located along 98 Lorong 23, Geylang Road. As a humble temple situated in the industrial estates of Geylang, worshippers of Cheng Kak Si consist mainly of working adults and devout Buddhists who work and live around the temple. True to its name, “正觉” can roughly be translated as ‘true enlightenment’, an evident reflection of both the vision of the temple and its hope for their devotees to attain perfect enlightenment at the end of their mortal journey just like Buddha. The analysis of Cheng Kak Si was conceived by several field visits to the temple and aided greatly by interviews with temple volunteers and the temple keepers, the Quah family. Mr James Quah is the current trustee of the temple who manages all administrative matters of the temple. He is assisted by his sister, Ms Quah, and his elderly mother, Mdm Ting. Mdm Ting lives in the temple compound and takes charge of the day to day upkeep of the temple. Our visits to the temple were appreciably enriched by Ms Quah’s impressive knowledge of the temple and her faith, imparted to her from her stint at the Shaolin Monastery in China, where she was discipled about fundamental Buddhist beliefs and its history. History of Cheng Kak Si Cheng Kak Si, despite being a simple and modest temple, has a rich and extensive history. For the ‘history’ portion of this paper, our group mainly consulted a Lianhe Wanbao article (1993) which specifically reports on Cheng Kak Si for our historical investigations. The findings from the newspaper are augmented by comments by Ms Quah. The construction of Cheng Kak Si temple began in 1951 and was officially completed in 1954, with operations beginning on 9th November 1954, on the 6th day of the 10th lunar month. The temple had remained relatively traditional over the years, without much changes to its rituals and events. Though worshippers and devotees of the temple are relatively middle-aged, the family regrets that finding ways to modernize the temple is a challenging feat for a small temple like Cheng Kak Si. However, through our conversation with Ms Quah, she shared with us her idea of creating a website for Cheng Kak Si which she might consider actualizing in the near future. The rationale behind the construction of Cheng Kak Si was because China was involved in war during the late Qing Dynasty, resulting in many temples in China, including Cheng Kak Si’s mother temple, “莆田 梅峰”, being left in a destroyed condition. Thus, 3 monks from Fu Jian, China arrived in Singapore to build Cheng Kak Si so as to conduct fundraising activities to remit money back to China to rebuild the destroyed temples. One of the monks personally went back to Fujian to rebuild the temple in 1899. In 1948, 2 other monks from Singapore, Zhong Xin and Da Ming went back to Fujian to rebuild the temple again. “莆田梅峰” underwent a total of 2 phases of reconstructions. This phenomenon was similarly recounted in Parallel Universes (Dean, 2015) where he described situations where it is common for monks to return to their root temple to assist in redevelopment. The origin of the name “正觉寺”, follows an interesting history that reveals an intricate link between the two temples. Back in those days, “梅峰” was known to be a mountain filled with plum trees. And since the original location of the other temple was in Putien Meifeng, “梅峰” was subsequently used in naming Cheng Kak Si. The full name of the temple is hence “梅峰正觉寺”, to indicate the close relationship between the 2 temples. However, the temple is usually addressed as “正觉寺” for simplicity sake. The route to establish Cheng Kak Si was also not smooth sailing. The temple had some conflicts with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) as the government wanted to reclaim the land for industrial use. After several years of long debate, the URA agreed to let Cheng Kak Si maintain at its current location. Cheng Kak Si is funded in numerous ways. One of which is through donations from the donation box placed at the entrance of the temple. Additionally, payment from rites performed on behalf of the family of the deceased during the 7th Lunar month as well as that after the deceased have passed on, contribute the bulk of the funding necessary to sustain operations of the temple. In the 49 days after death, Buddhists believe that rebirth does not occur immediately and that the soul remains in the earthly realm for 49 days. Loved ones of the deceased would hence engage the help of the temple to intercede on behalf of the deceased to dispel karma accumulated in his lifetime so as to ease the deceased’s journey towards reincarnation. In addition to interceding for the deceased, payment from the family is often used to pay for miscellaneous items and ingredients used in the preparation of meals offered to the deceased daily. Layout of Cheng Kak Si The main elements of the temple consist of the courtyard and the temple building, which comprises the main hall and a secondary hall (Appendix A). In the courtyard sits the four-faced Buddha (四面佛) (Appendix A, Fig. 1). At first, it was quite perplexing to the four-faced Buddha, which is a Thai interpretation of the Hindu God known as Brahma, the God of Creation. The unorthodox assimilation of the four-faced Buddha into Cheng Kak Si shows the significance of syncretism in Singapore temples. Wee (1976) argues that Buddhism in the Singapore context refers to the syncretic amalgamation of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. In stark contrast, Goh (2015) purports that Chinese Singaporeans who worship other deities are primarily engaging in the “ritual mode”, as seen in this example where temple-goers of Cheng Kak Si worship the four-faced Buddha, treating the it as real as Buddhist deities. The main hall is situated in the middle of the temple, and in it sits 6 worship figures (Appendix A, Fig. 2). The main deity of Cheng Kak Si is the Shakyamuni Buddha (释迦牟尼佛), which is the main Buddha of Buddhist temples, as it was on his teachings that Buddhism was founded. In front of Shakyamuni sits the Maitreya Bodhisattva (弥勒佛), also known as the Laughing Buddha, known to be the successor of Shakyamuni Buddha. Further in front sits the Thousand-armed Goddess of Mercy (千手千眼觀世音菩 薩). She is flanked by the Skanda Bodhisattva (韦驮), a devoted guardian of Buddhist monasteries who guards the teachings of Buddhism, and the Sangharama Bodhisattva (关公), who is worshipped for his values of loyalty and chivalry. The final worship figure at the side of the main hall is the Bhaisajyaguru Buddha (药师佛), the Buddha of medicine and healing. The sole worship figure at the secondary hall is the Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva (地藏菩薩), known as the Bodhisattva of hell and the afterlife (Appendix A, Fig.1). He carries a staff, known as Khakkhara (锡杖), to force open the gates of hell. Being the guardian of the afterlife, it explains his location at the secondary hall, due to the close proximity to the numerous ancestral tablets in Cheng Kak Si. Artefacts of Cheng Kak Si Cheng Kak Si is home to many diverse Buddhist and cultural artefacts. We would like to highlight two noteworthy artefacts which bring significance and uniqueness to the temple - the couplets and the abacus. A culturally significant artefact worth probing into are the couplets flanking the main altar in the main hall; they are as follows: “正法光明无常无我涅槃寂静, 觉心开朗不執不迷动止安详”. (Appendix C, Fig. 7) Through our conversations with the temple staff, we discovered that this set of couplets have been specially commissioned during the founding of the temple, back in 1964. Hence, the first character of each stanza forms “正觉”, which is the name of the temple. The first stanza “正法光明无常无我涅槃寂 静”, states that one should hold on to one’s thoughts and perspectives and not conform to the majority. Even though things are always changing, one should not use preconceived judgements to look at others. While the second stanza “觉心开朗不執不迷动止安详”, states that one will garner inner peace and elation after being enlightened by self-realization. One should stop in the moment in time to absorb and appreciate the serenity around. Moreover, we found out that elements of the couplet have been derived from traditional Buddhist scriptures. For example, “涅槃寂静” refers to Nirvana, which is one of the three Dharma Seals while “正法光明” actually refers to the importance of the Age of the Right Dharma, which is the first 1000 years since Buddha’s passing. A unique embellishment of Cheng Kak Si is the wooden abacus hanging on the left wall in the main hall. The presence of the abacus is not conventional in a Buddhist temple, thus we asked Ms Quah about its origins. Ms Quah explained that this was an attempt to apply what she had learnt from her Feng Shui course in the Institution of Sodo Feng Shui in 2013. By placing the abacus at that very spot, Ms Quah hopes that it would bring about a change in the energy, also known as ‘chi’ of the temple, so as to bring continued prosperity and good luck. It is important to note that temple itself does not practice or teach feng shui and that this application of feng shui is done out of Ms Quah’s own personal beliefs.

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