Tou Mu Kung Temple

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Tou Mu Kung Temple

The Tou Mu Kung Temple (Chinese: 斗母宫) is a Taoist temple situated on Upper Serangoon Road, Singapore. Worshipping the Empress Registrar of Birth or Dou Mu (斗母) and Nine Emperor (九皇大帝) deities, the temple has a mixture of Taoist and Buddhist influence.

1 History
2 Architecture
3 Reference
4 External link

[edit] History

The temple was built in 1881 by Ong Choo Kee. It caters to the Teochew community, and was one of two remaining temples in Singapore with a permanent wayang (Chinese opera) stage until 1998. For eight decades, Chinese opera was performed there during religious and other festivals.

The temple was gazetted as a national monument, which was deemed to be of special historic and traditional value, on 14 January 2005.

[edit] Architecture

The temple has a symmetrical floor plan with a central air-well. Behind the main hall is a two-storey structure of a pagoda. Single-storey quarters for the keepers of the temple are provided at the rear of the temple.

The roof of the temple is decorated with dancing dragons. There is also a ridge decoration in the main temple hall. The centre of the ridge has a blazing pearl. Dragons and dragon fish are used to terminate the ridges. Hips are terminated by spirals. The roof trusses are typically Chinese, decorated with carvings and simple brackets. The main doors are painted with pictures of the Door Gods. Its colour scheme of light blue and brown is rather subdued when compared to other temples.

The main altar is dedicated to the main deity (Nine Emperor). To the left of the main altar is an altar to Dou Mu, and to the right, Guan Yin. An inscription on a wall tablet above the main entrance shows the names of benefactors and the date of construction of the temple.