The last stop on or pilgrimage to find the Soul of the World was Singapore. By this time we were dragging; we had been traveling for nearly a month. We had visited seven cities with about three religious sites per city.
Of course, between visits, our days at sea were relaxing and even luxurious, with maid service and delicious meals served all day long. There was a gym where we could work out, and the top deck had a running (OK, walking) track overlooking the sea, where we could watch a million stars in the deep velvet midnight sky at night.
But when we reached a city we were working. Our goal was to talk with and film as many interesting people of faith as we could find, learning (and recording) as much as we could about their beliefs, customs and feelings.
We could never have seen all we saw without all the terrific guides John had booked (through a neat web site: http://www.ourexplorer.com/). We (John) had contacted the guides well in advance of our trip and he gave them as much information as possible about what we were doing, our project and our goals.
Nearly all our guides picked up the challenge and ran with it, lining up exotic, provocative and moving visits for us, with fascinating interviews and wonderful sights; amazing visits for us to experience and film.
However, by the time we got to Singapore we had met a lot of people, seen a lot of sites, and generally we were at the point of stimulation overload.
Which is why it was so gratifying to meet up with our Singapore guide, Jo Cooper, an ex pat from England, who has lived with her family in Singapore for a number of years.
Jo Cooper was like a dear friend from home. She zipped us around the city, taking care of things, anticipating our needs, even helping me with the interviews.
Our guide, Jo Cooper, helping with an interview
(Jo even had her in-laws, who were visiting from England, meet us at the port to pick up our mountainous luggage and take it to the airport hotel, so we could concentrate on spending the day visiting the religious sites of Singapore!)
Singapore is a clean, easy city-state; in fact it is often referred to as the “Switzerland of Asia.” It’s urban, but it feels organized (to our Western sensibilities anyway), and it seems to be quite affluent, compared with Malaysia.
We had lunch at a popular sidewalk cafe where we ate cracked pepper crab that was so delicious I still think of it.
Singapore has a botanical garden famous for its orchid collection of 60,000 plants in natural settings–which we didn’t have time to visit.
However, we did arrive just in time witness the Winter Solstice and Ancestor Worship Festival at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.
Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
This temple is fabulous, with gold statues and beautiful shrines all around.
Detail of interior, Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
Buddhas in the Temple
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Altar Buddha
(Just click on the title to view the video below.)
Winter Solstice and Ancestor Worship Festival at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Singapore from Alexandra Dickerman on Vimeo.
Nearby, we visited the Sri Mariamman Temple, which is the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore. This temple is known for its Thimithi, or the fire-walking festival, which is dedicated to Draupathi, heroine of the epic poem, the Mahabharata.
Although the temple was undergoing renovations, we were able to visit with its head priest of temple
(click on the title below to see the video.)
Head Hindu Priest at the Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore from Alexandra Dickerman on Vimeo.
Sri N’Balachandra Sivachariyar, Head Hindu priest at the Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore. (With my apologies for messing up his name, which I undoubtedly have done.)
Then stopped at the Sultan Mosque, which is one of Singapore’s most imposing religious buildings, with a massive golden dome and a huge prayer hall. This mosque serves as the focal point of Muslims in Singapore.
Sultan Mosque, Singapore
We were fortunate to be able to visit with five members of the Mosque, who spoke with us about their faith and their religious feelings and practices:
Committee at Sultan Mosque
The men were: Yahya bin Mohd Hanapiah, Mohamed Sulor bin Haji Mohd Noor; Abdul Wahab Mattar; Malik bin Mazlan; and Mohamad Nasir bin Mohamad Ali (with profuse apologies if I got the names wrong.)
We then visited St. Andrew’s Anglican Cathedral, in the Central Area of Singapore’s central business district. We spoke with Gayle Tan, and Liew Su Liong in the Visitor’s Center, and later we were given a tour of the cathedral by Liew Su Liong.
St. Andrew's Cathedral, Singapore
Liew Su Liong at St. Andrew's Cathedral
We were especially interested in the Asian/Anglican perspective here, and we were happy to be able get some good interviews with interesting footage.
Next we took a quick look around the Armenian Church on Hill Street, which is the oldest church in Singapore. Unfortunately there was nobody around for us to talk to, but it was a quaint and pretty little church.
Armenian Church, Singapore
It just happened that were in Singapore in time to attend the last day of the Religious and Cultural Exhibition 2009, sponsored by the Singapore Inter-Religious Organization at Suntec, Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre.
The Singapore IRO declaration states that:
“…religious harmony is vital for peace, progress and prosperity in our multiracial and multireligious Nation. We resolve to strengthen religious harmony through mutual tolerance, confidence, respect and understanding.”
We spoke with people in various booths at the Exhibition, particularly the Zoroastrian booth.
Zoroastrian woman at the IRO Convention
And we spent some time with the Baha’i’s at their booth.
Jo Cooper and I are talking with the ladies at the Baha’i booth at the Exhibition.
By now it was late afternoon and we were overloaded with sights, smells, sounds, ideas and personalities, so we dragged ourselves off to the airport hotel, where we arranged for a 4:00 am wake-up call to dash off for our 17-hour flight through Hong Kong to Chicago, and on to Birmingham in time for Christmas with our family.
(And I feel I can safely report that National Security was on their toes, at least in my case, since a pair of tweezers was nabbed early on in the many exhaustive examinations of my luggage and my person, through airport security at our various stops.)
I find it interesting that the many varietes of relegious beliefs have come to a ageeement to be tolerant of of others relegious beliefs. Of course there are sporatic massacers in some islands of the malay region.
I like your vidios, and interview photos, and religious buildings, they are well maintained, because people help to keep them that way.
I appreciate your generosity in sharing your trip and documentation with us. Your sharing this experience is enlightening it shows that peace begins with the individual person, and grows to all their sarroundings.
I was impressed at the depth of faith of people all over the world. Everywhere there are people praying, meditating, and giving offerings to God; each in their own way, in their own language, but all with the same love and faith. It was inspiring!
Assisted me a lot, just what I was searching for : D.