Singapore Kwong Wai Siew Peck San Theng is a cultural organisation and columbarium based in Bishan,

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, borde ...

with beginnings since 1870. Located at Bishan Lane off Bishan Road, Peck San Theng presently operates a columbarium, two

Chinese temples Chinese temple architecture refer to a type of structures used as place of worship of Chinese Buddhism, Taoism or Chinese folk religion, where people revere ethnic Chinese gods and ancestors. They can be classified as: * '' miào'' () or ''di� ...

, and ancestral worship services tailoring towards the requirements as well as traditions, customs and beliefs of a cosmopolitan community. It currently managed by sixteen Cantonese and Hakka clan associations.

History

Kwong Wai Siew Peck San Theng was originally a cemetery in

that was established in 1870 by

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

and

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

immigrants largely from the three prefectures of

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

, Huizhou and

Zhaoqing Zhaoqing (), alternately romanized as Shiuhing, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province, China. As of the 2020 census, its population was 4,113,594, with 1,553,109 living in the built-up (or metro) area made of Duanzhou, Dinghu a ...

Guangdong Province Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The first words of the three prefectures, Guang-Hui-Zhao were the origins of the name , or transliterated as Kwong-Wai-Siew. Within a century, Peck San Theng (PST) became one of the biggest Chinese

cemeteries A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

, holding more than 100,000 graves over of land. In 1979, the Singapore government decided to acquire all its land to create the present-day Bishan Town. Many graves were exhumed and remains

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

during the 1980s. To enable Peck San Theng to continue with its tradition, the government leased of land to Peck San Theng for accommodating an office block, two temples and a columbarium. The columbarium houses some 100,000 niches which are available to the public irrespective of race, language and religion since 1980. It was and will continue to be a place for ancestral worship in Singapore. Peck San Teng also provides financial support to the Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital, a charitable organisation that provides healthcare and hospice services to the aged and needy.

Present Day

Peck San Theng is currently managed by a federation of sixteen clans of the Cantonese and Hakka communities in Singapore. The 16 Cantonese and Hakka clan associations are: *Nam Sun () *Ning Yeung () *Chung Shan () *Poon Yue () *Fa Yun () *Kong Chow () *Sam Sui () *Tung On () *Shun Tak () *Ching Yuen () *Chen Loong () *Wui Chiu () *Siu Heng () *Koh Yiu () *Hok San () *Yen Peng ()

Grand Universal Salvation Ritual

Grand Universal Salvation Ritual (万缘胜会) was first introduced to Peck San Theng in 1921. Since then, it has become one of the most significant religious event that will be organise once every five years. The grand ritual is usually collectively conducted by a group of

Buddhist monks 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 c ...

and

nuns A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

and a troupe of

Taoist priests A daoshi (道士 "master of the Tao"), translated as Taoist priest, Taoist monk, Taoist master or Professional Taoist, is a priest in Taoism. Along with Han Chinese priests, there are also many practicing ethnic minority priests in China. Some o ...

. The spiritual significance of this ritual is about preserving and promoting important family value like filial piety.

References

External links

* http://www.sgpecksantheng.com {{coord, 1.3459, 103.8428, display=title Columbaria in Singapore Buildings and structures in Bishan, Singapore Hakka culture in Singapore