Reflections | How Singapore’s Chinatown reveals the surprising roots of Buddhist deities like Ne Zha
Many Chinese might not know that Buddhist deities like Ne Zha, Sun Wukong and Yanluo Wang are reimaginings of Hindu gods
My niece’s parents-in-law recently flew in for the Singapore leg of her wedding – eight months after the main celebration in London. Keen to return the generosity they had shown me during my stay in the UK, I took the Lingalas on a day out in Singapore’s Little India and Chinatown.
Sri Mariamman Temple sits between an equally old mosque and a Chinese Buddhist temple built just two decades ago. A little further down the road is a Christian church housed in a former cinema.
The proximity – and peaceful coexistence – of four houses of worship along the same road is a quiet but powerful reminder of what humanity might achieve if we paid closer attention to the ethical core of our religions, rather than brandishing them as battle flags to display the ugliest facets of human nature.
At both the Indian Heritage Centre and Sri Mariamman Temple, we encountered a profusion of Hindu deities and celestial beings. Some were ancient, their features softened by time; others were rendered in vivid, almost exuberant colours.
Many Chinese would be surprised to learn that several of these very gods and demigods are also venerated in Chinese Buddhist temples, or have been woven into everyday Chinese beliefs and mythology.