11.7.24 - Tanjong Pagar et al

-
Obligatory 6 am hang at RK ... with Gary... 
 
Ghin sketches

The view!!


PS cafe... the only thing that remains of the Blood Brothers shop - the only shop I would buy stuff from...


You can tell how rich you are by how much greenery... natural greenery surrounds you...

Palms of every shade and hue are found... especially in the Botanic Gardens



The Russian Embassy along Nassim Road. Don't think it gets more Cold War chic than this.


Peak Seah Street

The mix of history and contemporary


This temple was established in 1905. By a monk who saw emigres die alone... he set this up for them so they would be cared for.


Here is the Azure Dragon...

I do suddenly feel very clever being able to tell what the symbols are on the Chinese temples... 

Peak Seah Street... one day, all this will fade away... it has to...

A real life vermilion bird


I love how the Chinese were so into their animals that they even named their zodiacs after them. Steiner says that the Lemurians were able to work with animal energy the way Atlanteans could work with plant energy... that would make sense right?

Just finished a trip with Ma and Pa - and Ghin - to the markets. 

She is making Pón Tahu, Minced meat with tahu in a broth. A meal fed to a sick child on account of its mildness.

Here are some FB posts I did this morning...

https://www.roots.gov.sg/.../surveye.../Seng-Wong-Beo-Temple

This was the temple I saw in Peck Seah street. As someone who love stories, Singapore is filled with stories... layer upon layer upon layer all crammed in from so many different parts of the world and all happening simultaneously. I read the how this temple was started... it began when a monk Seng Wong Beo, saw ricksaw pullers and labourers fall ill and die with no prospect of returning home to China. So he started this place for them to come and find a new family, as it were. It was very moving, thinking of 1905 Singapore and these people trying to make their way in a world rent asunder by the fucking Brits in China, Japan and South East Asia and other colonials like the Dutch in Indonesia, and their idiotic rulers colluding with the exploitation of their peoples... here is the result of this horror. This temple, in Singapore dwarfed now by the concrete jungles and swimming in Wifi... I wonder if they ever thought they would see the like?

It is very hard to know what to think of Singapore... the maya is so strong...and the story telling so rich.
I also went down a tiny rabbit hole with the Azure Dragon, which this temple venerates... I think I may have found my in to Chinese mythology which for the longest time was the Journey to the West which isn't really mythology... BUT coincidentally, we drew the Azure Dragon as part of art class this year...

Azure dragon... I have a passing knowledge of Hindu mythology, but I know practically nothing about Chinese mythology. It has always left me cold, really being unable to relate to the emphasis of the bureaucratic structure with the Jade Emperor and the many many generals and their minons and fruits of immortality which everyone was obsessed with... especially in the Journey to the West. Anyway, this story about the Seng Wong Beo temple moved me so much that I decided to look up more about this temple and was introduced to the Azure Dragon. OK, I admit, the dragon I clicked on because it said Azure and I am also obsessed with the colour blue, but then I discovered this dragon is one of the five animal protectors of the five cardinal points... the fifth is the centre... seems obvious when you think about it... but an hour later and thanks to the internet, I have discovered the four other animals, and not just that, but also their mythologies AND how they are related to astronomy and astrology. 

They also signify the four seasons and the stars correspond to the four seasons... although I these constellations are different from the relationship to the Western months and seasons of the year. No doubt, in the past, as seen by structures like Brú na Boíne (Newgrange) and other standing stone sites, this would doubtless have played an important part in the lives of our ancestors in the West too...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Geylang sepaku Geylang

-
Image
Geylang Serai is the place i feel most at home in Singapore. Possibly because a vast majority of the population are still Singaporean and i speak the language they speak there - Malay. Also, it hasn't changed that much. OK, it has, but i'd like to think it hasn't. We ate at the new market there which used to be a little better than an open sewer. But it was our open sewer and we loved it. Geylang was heaving with people getting ready for Ramadan. On the table we have sup kambing, otak-otak, nasi padang and rojak. Drinkswise we have lime juice, Kickapoo and teh. It is hot - really hot. We are all pespiring and we can feel our clothes stick to our skin and bellies and thighs. Our hair is continuously in our faces, dripping and sticking too. The only thing that brings relief is a soak in the pool or a shower and an airconditioned room. No wonder when the boys came back, the first thing they said was, ah, it's great to be back in th cool weather again!. Singaporeans love th...
Read more

19.3.26 - 74 - Eulogy: What will survive of us is love

-
Image
I wrote and read this for Pa at the service. It was in long hand, but I have it here typed out now. It is peppered with verses from the New Testament, because I was asked by the priest to refer to Jesus occasionally, so I made that concession. Big shout out to Ben and the Christian Community whom I spent many a delighted evening reading and discussing the Bible during Bible study class. =========================== Thank you everybody for coming here to honour the life of husband, father and legend which is Eric Sim Chin Seng. Pa crossed over on the 16th of March at 7.30 am. He went peacefully and gently. He breathed his way slowly past this life and on to the new one, leaving his bark, his body, which carried him and his indomitable spirit and endless capacity to love, for 81 years, to say farewell to one last time. This tribute is to you, for you, Pa, who always walked in the sacred steps of Jesus Christ and lived the best life which could be lived. Part I: John 1:14 "The word be...
Read more

6.6.26 - 152 - -70

-
I should try and love Singapore. And I have really tried to love it. Really. But life in Singapore is not real life. Sadly. The only thing which is real about it is my relationships with my family. I understand we lead very privileged lives. We live in a beautiful house and we live in Serangoon Gardens. I get to swim everyday. We never worry about where the next meal's coming from. Very importantly, we have our health and we have each other. These are all very good things, nothing to be sneezed at. But Singapore itself ... that's a different story. Where to begin? I cannot complain because we actually live in a very nice part of Singapore. It's it unique in all of Singapore. There is no other place like it. In fact the government should slap a preservation order on the place. It is an actual village. Ring fenced by the houses and the roads, it was possibly designed by the British Army as a defensible position. Maybe they didn't mean to do it, but it is that way neverthe...
Read more