Palelai Buddhist Temple is a Buddhist temple located in

Bedok Bedok () is a planning area and matured residential town located in the geographical region of Tanah Merah along the south-eastern coast of the East Region of Singapore. Bedok is bounded by five other planning areas: Paya Lebar to the north ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. It was founded in 1963 by Phrakhru Prakassa Dhammakhun (known mostly as Luang Phor).

History

Palelai Buddhist temple was originally located at 9 Jalan Nipah and subsequently moved to 49 Bedok Walk to accommodate the growing number of members and devotees. When the temple building was first built at Jalan Nipah, it occupied a land area of only 6 metres by 12 metres. This was sufficient to house three Thai

bhikkhu A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist ...

s and

samanera A sāmaṇera (Pali); sa, श्रामणेर (), is a novice male monastic in a Buddhist context. A female novice is a ''śrāmaṇerī'' or ''śrāmaṇerikā'' (Sanskrit; Pāli: ''sāmaṇerī''). Etymology The ''sāmaṇera'' is a ...

s. The building was compartmentalised into three sections: one section for the main shrine hall, another section as a multipurpose hall, and the rear section as living quarters. A Thai-style pavilion was added to the building in 1967 with the intention of using it as a proper shrine hall. This building served to facilitate the study and learning of the

Dhamma Dharma (; sa, धर्म, dharma, ; pi, dhamma, italic=yes) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others. Although there is no direct single-word translation for '' ...

in the Thai tradition. Sunday school as well as Dhamma talks on the life of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

and on

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...

were conducted regularly at the temple. These served to propagate the Buddhist teachings to the community. To cope with the need of the growing number of Buddhists, Luang Phor had contemplated buying the neighbouring land to increase the land area. However, because the seller asked a high price for the land and the government had zoned the area for road enlargement, the plan was put on hold. Moving Palelai Buddhist Temple to Bedok Walk was mooted in 1968. That year Luang Phor met a wealthy Singaporean, Wee Thiam Siew, who was a Buddhist and owned the plot of land at Bedok Walk that the temple currently occupies. Through his charitable generosity, he sold the plot of land at half the original price. The purchase of the land was funded by voluntary contributions from Thai,

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n, and Singaporean Buddhists. Construction of the temple was made possible through financial support from the Buddhist communities in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, with some assistance from the Department of Religious Affairs of Thailand. Construction took place in 1970 with the foundation stone laid by the Supreme Patriarch Punnasiri Mahathera of Wat Phra Jetuphon in Bangkok. The building was completed in phases and finally consecrated in May 1973. This new location allowed more devotees to participate in the regular Buddhist activities organized at the temple. In 2004, the Executive Committee decided to build an additional building to support the growing number of activities and interests of members and devotees in the areas of meditation and Buddhist education.

References

External references

* Buddhist temples in Singapore {{Singapore-struct-stub

History

See also

References

External references