Thian Hock Keng Temple

In front of you is Singapore's most important Hokkien temple. Office blocks surround it today, but when it was founded it stood right on the seashore.

1Thankful to arrive alive

Around 1821 there was a small altar here by the beach. Sailors and immigrants arriving from China, after weeks aboard junks at the mercy of typhoons, came to give thanks for surviving the voyage. Between 1839 and 1842 the community built the present temple, with the largest donation coming from the philanthropist Tan Tock Seng. It cost thirty thousand Spanish dollars. Some of the materials arrived in ships as ballast, and the statue of the goddess was brought from China.

From the 1880s the sea was gradually filled in and the shoreline moved away. That's why the temple now stands well inland.

2The goddess who calms the storms

The main deity is Mazu, protector of seafarers.

Tradition says she was a girl from Meizhou Island in Fujian who, in the 10th century, rescued sailors from shipwreck in her dreams, and who went on appearing in storms after her death.

In 1906 some Western touches were added, such as a wrought-iron gate made in Glasgow. It has been a national monument since 1973.

3A street of many faiths

A few steps further along this same street, Chulia Muslims from southern India built the Nagore Dargah shrine between 1828 and 1830, in honour of a Sufi saint also venerated by sailors.

4What to look for

• The ceramic dragons and figurines on the roofs.
• The stone lions on either side of the door.
• Nagore Dargah, pink with a slender minaret, on the corner of Boon Tat Street.