Monks in Malls
Have I mentioned that Singapore has a bunch of Buddhist temples, as well as mosques, synagogues, churches and so forth? Well, it does, and they look great – lots of gold-plated Buddha statues and reliquaries, especially at the spanking new Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown, which just opened in 2007 and is an amazing confection of bright red paint, gold decorations, embroidered tapestries, statues, a rooftop garden, a tea house, and Air Conditioning!
Well, to go along with the temples there are a lot of Buddhist monks – shaved bald, robed in beige, saffron or maroon, you see them on the MRT a lot in the downtown area. You know our end of town has really made the big time when you spot a couple in the newly-opened mall extension.
What do monks shop for? Electronics, mostly, it seems. We saw a few in Sim Lim Square downtown, investigating cellphones; and last week we spotted a couple in the Jurong Point mall near the university. I presume they weren’t heading for the many women’s fashion boutiques, but who knows? The Straits-Times newspaper ran an article over the weekend on a monk who had 9 credit cards. Definitely of the modern world, these guys. The one in the paper was disciplined for loaning someone $50,000. I don’t know if it was the possession of the money in the first place that was the problem, or the interest rate he charged, or whether his home temple didn’t get a cut.
Makes the Christian monks look quaint, with their traditional vow of poverty, chastity and obedience. Or don’t they bother any more?