Walking along South Bridge Road toward Maxwell between rows of low colonial shophouses, visitors come upon a tall crimson-and-timber structure rising high above the block, its multi-tiered dark blue-grey tile roofs supported by heavy bracket sets and vermilion columns. It looks quite unlike the older Chinese temples in the neighborhood because it was modeled neither on the Southern Fujian (Minnan) nor on the Cantonese guildhall styles common in Southeast Asia, but on northern Tang dynasty temple architecture of the kind associated with Mount Wutai in China or Nara in Japan.
Stepping through the front doors brings visitors into a lofty ground-floor hall hung with rows of red lanterns, where a monumental seated statue of Maitreya presides over the main altar between walls lined with hundreds of smaller Buddha figures. This hall is called the Hundred Dragons Hall. Yet this is only the ground floor. On the fourth floor, behind a glass viewing screen, stands a solid-gold stupa cast to enshrine a tooth revered as a relic of Sakyamuni Buddha. The entire building was raised specifically to house that relic.
IThe Sacred Tooth Relic and the Name Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
The full Chinese name of the temple is 佛牙寺龍華院 (Fóyásì Lónghuáyuàn), read in Sino-Vietnamese as Phật Nha Tự Long Hoa Viện. Foya (Phật nha) means the Buddha's Tooth, while Longhua (Long Hoa) refers to the Dragon Flower Assembly beneath the Nagapuspa tree, where Buddhist scriptures state the future Buddha Maitreya will attain awakening and teach the Dharma. The two halves of the official name correspond directly to the two principal foci of worship: the relic of Sakyamuni Buddha on the upper floor and Maitreya Buddha in the ground-floor main hall. The Chinese characters shown at the top of the page are taken directly from the temple's official name plaque. In English the institution is registered as the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum.
In Buddhism, sarira (relics) are the crystalline or skeletal remains recovered after the cremation of the Buddha or eminent masters. Early scriptures relate that after the Buddha's parinirvana, his relics were divided among eight kingdoms to be enshrined in stupas. Tooth relics are regarded as the rarest category of all, the most famous example being the relic venerated at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Veneration of relics is one of the oldest forms of Buddhist devotion, predating the carving of anthropomorphic Buddha statues.
Placing Maitreya, the future Buddha in Mahayana tradition, in the main hall on the ground floor carries deliberate symbolic structure: with the relic of the historical Buddha above and the future Buddha below, the building aligns past and future eras of the Dharma along a single vertical axis.
According to Singapore Infopedia, published by the National Library Board of Singapore, the tooth relic was discovered in 1980 inside a collapsed ancient stupa on Bagan Hill in Mrauk U, Myanmar, by Venerable Cakkapala of Bandula Monastery. In January 2001, the Burmese monastery sought assistance for restoration projects and contacted Venerable Shi Fa Zhao (Thích Pháp Chiếu) in Singapore. In August 2002, the relic was formally presented to Venerable Shi Fa Zhao, and its first public exhibition in Singapore drew more than 300,000 visitors.
That public exhibition gave rise to the plan to build a permanent temple dedicated to housing the relic. Consequently, this institution did not originate as a centuries-old clan association temple or an ancestral monastic seat, but as a modern complex raised around a sacred relic through a fundraising campaign led by its founding abbot.
A common misconception: many travel summaries describe this building as an ancient historic temple. It is not. The complex opened in 2007, and its Tang dynasty style is an architectural revival chosen for the project rather than an ancient historical layer. Readers should also note that the physical origin of the tooth has been discussed in reference works: Wikipedia notes that the tooth measures 7.5 centimeters in length, far longer than a human tooth, leading some commentators to suggest a non-human origin. The temple community and pilgrims hold to their devotional faith, while secular commentators note the physical measurement. The library records both perspectives neutrally without adjudicating matters of faith.
IIFrom an Open Lot on Sago Lane to the Present Temple
While the history of the temple building spans less than two decades, the history of the plot of land beneath it is much older. The site occupies a full rectangular block bounded by South Bridge Road, Sago Street, Sago Lane, and Banda Street in the Kreta Ayer district at the historic core of Chinatown.
According to BiblioAsia, the journal of the National Library Board of Singapore, the name Sago comes from the sago palm flour factories that operated here in the mid-19th century, when processed sago was one of Singapore's major exports. By 1849 Sago Street housed fifteen Chinese-owned and two European-owned sago mills. From the late 19th century onward, Sago Lane became famous for its death houses (sick receiving houses), where impoverished, aging Chinese immigrant laborers without family support came to spend their final days above ground-floor funeral parlors. Because of this, Sago Lane was widely known in Cantonese as the Street of the Dead. Death houses were banned in 1961, and portions of Sago Lane were demolished in 1972 and 1975, leaving an open lot used for parking and night markets before the temple was built. The temple's own official website includes a dedicated page recounting the history of Sago Lane, acknowledging openly the memory of the ground on which it stands.
- 1980Discovery of the relic in Mrauk UVenerable Cakkapala of Bandula Monastery recovers the tooth relic from a collapsed stupa in Mrauk U, Myanmar, according to Singapore Infopedia.
- 2002The relic arrives in SingaporeIn August 2002, the relic is formally entrusted to Venerable Shi Fa Zhao, and its first public exhibition in Singapore attracts over 300,000 devotees.
- 2005Land lease and groundbreakingA 30-year lease for the site is signed on 14 January 2005. The groundbreaking ceremony takes place on 13 March 2005 according to Chinatownology (Infopedia also records construction beginning in March, while Wikipedia gives May 2005). Infopedia records the plot area at 2,700 square meters, while the temple website gives nearly 3,000 square meters.
- 2006 to 2007Stupa consecration and Vesak soft launchThe golden relic stupa arrives from Shanghai on 9 December and is consecrated on 24 December 2006. The temple holds its soft launch for Vesak in May 2007: contemporary news reports and Wikipedia record 30 May, while the temple website lists 31 May 2007.
- 2008Final consecration and completionThe grand consecration ceremony marking full completion of the temple complex takes place on 17 May 2008, according to Singapore Infopedia.
Three points where published sources differ are recorded side by side. On construction cost: 2007 opening reports and BiblioAsia record S$62 million, whereas Singapore Infopedia records S$75 million, of which S$43 million came from donations by more than 60,000 devotees and S$22.8 million from bank loans. The higher figure likely includes post-2007 finishing works, though no source states this explicitly. On the May 2007 opening date: sources give either 30 May or 31 May 2007, as noted in the timeline above. On the weight of gold in the stupa: detailed in the architecture section below.
IIIFour Main Stories, the Golden Stupa, and the Tang Dynasty Style
The temple's official website identifies two principal sources for its architectural design: Tang dynasty Buddhist architecture, regarded as a golden age of Chinese building art, and the mandala layout of Vajrayana (Esoteric) Buddhism. From the street, the Tang dynasty character predominates: deep crimson timber-style walls, stout round pillars, interlocking dougong bracket sets supporting wide, gently sloping dark-tile eaves, a profile much heavier and more rectilinear than the sweeping upturned roof ridges of southern Chinese temples. Inside, the mandala principle governs the symmetrical arrangement of altars around a central core and appears explicitly in the Vairocana mandala painted on the ceiling of the fourth-floor relic hall. The building rises four main stories above ground, plus a basement, a mezzanine level, and a rooftop sanctuary. Moving from the ground floor upward takes visitors from the liveliest public hall to the quietest contemplative space.
The main worship hall on the ground floor, rising 27 feet (over eight meters) high. The central altar enshrines a 15-foot-tall (over 4.5 meters) seated statue of Maitreya Buddha flanked by hundreds of smaller Buddha figures along the side walls. The hall takes its name from the hundred dragons carved across its structural beams and ceilings.
Houses the hall of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva (Địa Tạng), the bodhisattva who vowed to deliver beings from the realms of suffering, alongside the Eminent Monks Museum. Enshrining Ksitigarbha on a site that once held the death houses of Sago Lane is a deliberate spiritual choice.
Located on the third floor, this museum displays 278 Buddhist artifacts ranging from ancient Gandharan stone sculptures to contemporary religious art, according to Wikipedia and Singapore Infopedia.
The fourth-floor sanctuary housing the golden relic stupa. Visitors view the stupa from behind a glass partition while only monastics enter the inner chamber. The ceiling bears a Vairocana mandala, 36 carved dragons support the dais, and 20 celestial guardians surround the chamber.
Standing 3.5 meters high and weighing 3.5 metric tons. The temple website records 320 kg of solid gold used in the stupa, while Singapore Infopedia records 420 kg, including 234 kg melted down from gold jewelry donated by devotees. Crowned by a seven-tiered umbrella, the stupa features a doorway statue of Buddha Maitreya cast from 15 kg of gold, 189 sets of emerald and ruby gem ornaments (with 201 sponsored sets recorded), and 35 Confession Buddhas around the base.
Houses the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pavilion lined with about 11,111 miniature Buddha and bodhisattva figures, a Tibetan-style Vairocana prayer wheel containing more than 3,000 handwritten mantras, and a landscaped orchid garden.
A point of frequent confusion concerns the weight of gold: popular articles cite either 320 kg or 420 kg interchangeably. The temple's official website states 320 kg, whereas Singapore Infopedia states 420 kg. Both are authoritative sources, so the library records both. One plausible explanation when comparing the figures on the temple's own stupa page is that one figure counts the main body of the stupa alone while the higher figure includes the 15 kg gold Maitreya statue at the stupa doorway and the 35 Confession Buddhas around the base (the temple website notes that each of the 35 statues was sponsored for 2 kg of gold, totaling 70 kg). That reconciliation is the library's observation rather than an explicit statement in the sources.
Visitors accustomed to traditional Vietnamese pagodas will notice how this urban temple stacks its spaces vertically rather than horizontally. Because a tight city block in Chinatown does not allow a deep horizontal sequence of triple gate, courtyard, front hall, and upper sanctuary like a northern Vietnamese pagoda, those ceremonial layers are placed one above another, with the sacred relic at the top and staircases taking the place of courtyards.
IVLandform and Orientation
This section presents the library's reading through the lens of traditional Vietnamese geomancy (phong thủy), rather than content drawn from the temple's publications or Singapore heritage agencies. The temple states that its layout follows Buddhist mandala principles and Tang dynasty architecture without mentioning geomancy. The library notes this distinction clearly so readers can separate documentary record from comparative interpretation.
Regarding orientation, map alignments show the main facade opening onto South Bridge Road, which runs along a northwest-to-southeast axis with the temple standing on the southwest side of the street, so the front entrance faces east-northeast. This orientation is read from urban maps, as no compass degree is cited in the temple's public literature. In traditional Five Elements geomancy, the East belongs to the Wood (Mộc) phase, associated with spring, morning light, and new growth. For a newly founded temple initiating a line of relic veneration in Singapore, an eastern-facing orientation aligns naturally with that symbolism.
Regarding urban landform, the temple occupies an entire island block bordered on its other three sides by Sago Street, Sago Lane, and Banda Street, meaning the building does not back onto another structure and is encircled by streets on all four sides. Traditional geomancy refers to a plot surrounded by roads on all sides as exposed to dispersing qi (lộ khí), because it lacks a rear backing hill. Whether intentionally or through Tang architectural style, the building resolves that exposure by making its own mass exceptionally solid and enclosed: thick crimson walls and heavy multi-tiered roofs press firmly downward. A traditional geomantic eye reads such a structure as creating its own backing mountain (tự tạo hậu chẩm). In front, the wide thoroughfare of South Bridge Road serves as an open forecourt (minh đường), while the lower two- and three-story shophouses across the street act as a low front table (án) that does not block the view.
Regarding form and color, the rectangular block with tiered horizontal roofs carries the profile of the Earth (Thổ) element, while the deep red walls belong to Fire (Hỏa). In Five Elements theory, Fire generates Earth, a supportive pairing. Although the golden stupa is enclosed indoors, placing the most precious object on the upper floor at the exact center of the building makes it the core node (huyệt) of the entire structure, wrapped and protected by the surrounding floors. That spatial arrangement converges with the mandala principle described by the temple, even though the two interpretive systems come from different roots.
Finally, there is the memory of the ground. A traditional practitioner might ask whether a plot once known as the Street of the Dead is suitable for a new building. In traditional Vietnamese and East Asian belief, a Buddhist temple is precisely the kind of sacred structure capable of pacifying and transforming ground heavy with yin energy, and placing the hall of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva on the mezzanine level reads in that framework as an act of spiritual pacification and compassion for the departed. Again, this is the library's comparative reading rather than a doctrine stated by the temple.
VAnnual Observances on the Mahayana Buddhist Calendar
Because the temple follows Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, its major annual observances are calculated according to the East Asian lunar calendar, matching the lunar calendar familiar to Vietnamese Buddhists. Vesak Day is also an official public holiday in Singapore. The table below lists the main recurring observances along with their calendar basis.
| Observance | Calendar system | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Lunar New Year | Lunar calendar, 1st day of the 1st month | The temple opens for New Year prayers, incense offerings, and lamp lighting for peace and blessings, drawing the largest crowds of the year across Chinatown. |
| Vesak Day | Lunar calendar, full moon of the 4th month | Commemorates the birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana of Sakyamuni Buddha. The temple held its soft launch on this day in 2007 and conducts Buddha-bathing rites and street processions. |
| Ullambana (Vu Lan) | Lunar calendar, 7th month | The filial piety and ancestral deliverance festival. Documentary photographs show monastic processions around the temple during this month, closely paralleling Vu Lan observances in Vietnam. |
| Avalokitesvara (Guanyin) Days | Lunar calendar, 19th day of the 2nd, 6th, and 9th months | The three annual feast days of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva (birth, enlightenment, and renunciation) observed across Chinese Mahayana temples, drawing many devotees to the ground-floor Guanyin altar. |
| Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Day | Lunar calendar, 30th day of the 7th month | The feast day of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva closing the seventh lunar month, observed with chanting services at the mezzanine Ksitigarbha hall. |
For Vietnamese visitors, the temple's liturgical calendar matches the familiar rhythm at home: Vesak on the full moon of the fourth lunar month, Vu Lan in the seventh lunar month, and Lunar New Year at Tết. Vietnamese residents, students, and workers in Singapore who wish to keep the custom of visiting a pagoda at the start of the lunar year or during Vu Lan find a central location here with familiar Mahayana liturgy. The library has found no published sources documenting separate Vietnamese community events at this temple and therefore notes only that shared calendar.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- 288 South Bridge Road, Singapore 058840 (Chinatown, khu Kreta Ayer)
- Getting there
- The temple stands at 288 South Bridge Road in the Kreta Ayer precinct of Chinatown, Singapore. Maxwell MRT station (Thomson-East Coast Line) has an exit right beside the temple, and Chinatown MRT station is a few minutes' walk away. Along the same stretch of South Bridge Road visitors can also see the Hindu Sri Mariamman Temple and the historic Jamae Mosque.
- Coordinates
- 1.2816, 103.8442
Rules of the temple: dress modestly with shoulders and knees covered, and complimentary wraps and shawls are provided at the entrance for visitors in sleeveless tops or shorts. Remove hats when entering worship halls. The fourth-floor Sacred Light Hall housing the tooth relic is the quietest space in the building: maintain silence, do not take photographs, and do not use mobile phones while viewing the stupa from behind the glass partition. When a chanting ceremony is in progress, stand respectfully behind the congregation and do not walk across the lines of monks and nuns. Photography is permitted in the third-floor museum and the rooftop garden.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
when was the buddha tooth relic temple in singapore built
The 30-year land lease was signed on 14 January 2005, groundbreaking took place in March 2005 (Wikipedia records May 2005), the temple held its soft launch for Vesak in May 2007, and the final consecration ceremony was completed on 17 May 2008. It is a modern 21st-century building whose Tang dynasty architecture is a historical style chosen for the design rather than an ancient construction date.
where did the buddha tooth relic in singapore come from
According to Singapore Infopedia, the tooth relic was discovered in 1980 inside a collapsed stupa in Mrauk U, Myanmar, by Venerable Cakkapala of Bandula Monastery, and was formally presented to Venerable Shi Fa Zhao in Singapore in August 2002. Secular reference works note debates over its physical origin because the tooth measures 7.5 cm in length, and the library records both perspectives.
how much gold was used to make the stupa at the buddha tooth relic temple
The stupa stands 3.5 meters high and weighs 3.5 metric tons. The temple's official website records 320 kg of solid gold, whereas Singapore Infopedia records 420 kg, including 234 kg melted down from gold jewelry donated by devotees. Because the two authoritative sources differ, the library lists both figures.
which deities are enshrined at the buddha tooth relic temple
The central focus of veneration is the tooth relic of Sakyamuni Buddha on the fourth floor. The ground-floor Hundred Dragons Hall enshrines Maitreya Buddha (with side altars including Avalokitesvara), the mezzanine level enshrines Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and the rooftop Ten Thousand Buddhas Pavilion houses about 11,111 miniature Buddha figures. The temple follows Chinese Mahayana Buddhism with Vajrayana mandala influences.
what architectural style is the buddha tooth relic temple built in
According to the temple's official website, the design combines northern Chinese Tang dynasty Buddhist architecture with the Buddhist mandala layout. Externally it features crimson pillars, dougong bracket sets, and multi-tiered dark-tile roofs in the Tang manner, while internally the halls are arranged symmetrically around a central axis beneath a Vairocana mandala ceiling on the fourth floor.