The Road to ISMRM Singapore 2016: Chinatown
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One of my favorite areas of Singapore has to be Chinatown. Even though you might expect an area with this name to be exclusively related to the Chinese population, in reality you can experience a wide swath of the different cultures of Singapore in a very small area. There are Buddhist temples, Hindu temples, mosques, great food and more shopping that you can expect to get through in a day.
Given that Chinatown is about 4km from the conference center, it might be best to get there using either a taxi or by taking the the SMRT — the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit. (I am sure that this won’t be the last time you hear about this special acronym!) The main area is centered around the Chinatown Complex and the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. More shops and food are found on the parallel streets of Smith St., Temple St., Pagoda St. (where you will find the Sri Mariamman Temple) and Mosque St. (where you can find the Masjid Jama’e mosque.)
The Buddha Tooth Relic temple is a rather modern temple that was opened in 2002. The downstairs areas house several fantastic sculptures and areas for meditation. We got there just in time for the afternoon chanting. The fourth floor houses the actual Buddha tooth relic. There is no photography allowed there, but the room (and especially the array of lanterns on the ceiling) is truly amazing. The roof houses a huge prayer wheel in a central house and is definitely worth the visit to the top.
Inside of the Chinatown center you will find a fantastic wet market on the lower level. Here you can find almost any kind of fish and vegetable you would ever wish for. I will say that this is not for those who are sensitive to smell!
Upstairs is one of the original hawker food areas. These are made up of small food carts that each serve their own unique versions of classic dishes. Our guide told us that these are some of the oldest of these kinds of shops, so this is where you can find some of the truly original Singapore food.
As I mentioned above, the Sri Mariamman Temple is on the corner of Pagoda and South Bridge Road. It’s one of the older Hindu temples in Singapore (1827). It is notable for the fantastic tower at the entrance to the temple which is divided up into six tiers of sculptures of different Hindu gods. Inside you will find several other smaller shrines and other covered halls each containing different representations of the important Hindu gods.
In addition to the Chinese, Malaysian and Indian influence in Chinatown, you can also see Mediterranean influence in much of the architecture of the houses and shops in Chinatown, which clearly came from the trade routes that have always been a part of Singaporean life. You can see a lot of this visual clash of cultures throughout the older areas of the city. I hope to be talking about this more in later posts.
But for now, I hope that you’ve gotten a taste of one of the best corners of Singapore. Please continue to check back here for more posts in this series, and keep an eye on the ISMRM homepage for up to date information on the 2016 meeting.
Take care!
— Mark
