BROTHEL. Temple. Brothel, brothel. Temple, brothel, temple. Geylang’s houses of ill repute are making space for the religious, with at least 16 Buddhist and Taoist temples moving into the red-light district just last year alone.
Between Lorong 19 and Lorong 27A, about 20 of 55 temples are less than five years old.
Wang Ye Fu, a Taoist temple in Lorong 25, moved in only two months ago. In the next street, the Chong Hood Lim Temple will open next year as a four-storey tower dedicated to Dipankara Buddha, a respected Buddhist teacher.
‘They’re popping up everywhere, like kopitiam,’ said Geylang resident Khoo Hiang Lee, 59, who has lived in the area for 40 years. ‘I have never seen so many temples here in my life.’
They might exhibit all the features of a place of worship – with large shrines, mounds of joss sticks and depictions of deities everywhere – but they are registered as ‘associations’ with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).
It is an astute move given the nation’s tight zoning laws that limit the number of places of worship within an area.
In the URA’s book, places of worship serve the public while associations are open only to members. ‘Private worship, however, by members of an association as an incidental activity, is permissible,’ the URA said in response to The Straits Times’ queries.
Temples that register as associations, therefore, trade some religious freedom for more legroom.
Last year, the Chong Hood Lim Temple applied to build a new temple in Lorong 25A, but was rejected several months later by the URA because of its zoning laws.
In April, the temple owner filed an application again to register the proposed temple as an association and it was approved last month.
Next year, the temple will open its new building as the Chong Hood Lim Association, on condition that it will not allow public worshipping on its premises.
Most temples in Geylang are not new entities, but relocated from elsewhere.
Some move for the sake of their devotees: The Buddhist Kwan Yin Chan Lin Temple in Lavender Street will move to a landed residence in Geylang next year because its devotees are getting too old to climb the storeyed temple’s steps. Wang Ye Fu is an offshoot of a Joo Chiat temple whose devotees wanted a new faith leader. The splinter group decided to find their own place at which to worship.
Others moved because they were told to. The Taoist Leong Nam Temple shifted to Lorong 25 in 2006 after the Government reclaimed its land in Geylang Serai to build new roads. Another Taoist temple, the Jing Fong Tang, had to leave its Lavender premises when its government lease was not renewed in 2003.
Both temples became associations and moved to Geylang in the years they lost their old premises.
Why Geylang, specifically?
Temple owners point to a previous URA plan in 1992 that relocated Chinese clan associations, along with other community groups, into the area.
At the time, URA earmarked Geylang as a site to house civic and community groups – the first of its kind here.
Land redevelopment, especially in the city where clan associations were traditionally located, forced them to look for new homes elsewhere.
They moved to Geylang; and Chinese temples today are following suit.
They make a good fit.
Miss Lin Ru Ying, secretary-general of the 64-year-old Tiang Lim Clan Association in Lorong 27A, said: ‘Many of these temples are run by families that hand them down from one generation to the next. Like us, they come with a sense of ancestral history.’
Community leaders say there may be as many as 200 temples in Geylang today, but actual numbers are hard to pin down.
Temples, as associations, share the same status as clan associations, surname guilds and other groups such as the Singapore Pawnbrokers’ Association.
No official body tracks their figures.
Neither the Taoist Federation nor the Singapore Buddhist Federation does so because registration with the two religious bodies is not compulsory.
The URA does not either, as it does not distinguish between religious and non- religious groups, a spokesman said.
It seems neither do the area’s property owners, who offer to both equally competitive rates to rent or buy in the area – another plus for house-hunting devotees.
Rent and property prices in Geylang go as much as 50 per cent lower than in nearby areas such as Kallang and Lavender.
The Leong Nam Temple pays $2,300 a month for a 1,000 sq ft, two-storey shophouse; Wang Ye Fu pays $4,500 for twice the space, with two units.
‘You just can’t find a price like this anywhere else,’ said Mr J.B. Lim, Wang Ye Fu’s custodian.
To Geylang’s newcomers, the low prices were enough to override the area’s reputation for sex and sleaze.
Last year, Wat Patthar Buddhist Society’s owner, Mr Chong Leong Ping, bought a property in Lorong 17 to build his temple after more than a decade of rentals. He said: ‘It’s not like mine is the first temple here. I’ve yet to hear of any problems with the prostitutes.’
As long as they did not look for customers near her Taoist temple, Madam Loa Kin Chong, administrator of Lorong 16’s Tian Shan Tang, said she had no quarrel with Geylang’s streetwalkers, either.
In fact, temple folk rarely mingle with their night-time neighbours because the two groups work different hours: Geylang’s temples close by 6pm; prostitutes usually look for clients only after sunset.
Look no further than Lorong Bachok, a tiny lane packed with five temples, for the ultimate transformation.
In the day, the street is alive with the prayers of the pious; at night, it crawls with pimps and prostitutes.
Mr Wu Ser Hock, 72, a volunteer at the Gan Tian Da Di Temple in Lorong Bachok, said: ‘We don’t see them, they don’t see us. It works.’
‘It’s no loss,’ said a prostitute who declined to be named. ‘Who will look for us if they see the gods staring at them?’
‘Live and let live’ was the common refrain among most groups, including those of the more reputable sort.
Dr Fatimah Lateef, a Marine Parade GRC Member of Parliament in charge of Geylang, said problems arising from the concentration of religious groups there are few. Most have to do with traffic jams, parking problems or the burning of joss paper during religious periods such as the Hungry Ghost Festival.
‘Generally, residents are quite understanding, and temple owners do their bit to limit their activities. If conflicts occur, we will hear them out and mediate.’
A little understanding, and a lot of faith – that’s all it takes, said Mr Ning Guo Zhong, 56, a volunteer at the Shi Gong Tan Temple in Lorong 11.
He said: ‘Geylang has always been a complicated place. After you live here for a while, you get used to all of it.’
Source: Straits Times, 20 Nov 2009
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