Many Singaporeans might have visited the Sembawang God of Wealth Temple — the only one in Singapore dedicated to the deity.
It has been operating from a temporary tentage since a large fire razed the premises in 2020.
After more than 2.5 years, though, the temple is finally reopening.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
As part of the reopening celebrations, devotees will be able to touch the God of Wealth statue for three days.
The Sembawang God of Wealth Temple will hold a Grand Reopening Ceremony on Sunday (30 Apr), according to a Facebook Event created by the temple.
On this day, a free local food fair will also be held, according to a schedule posted on Facebook by the temple.
Source: 三巴旺财神庙 Sembawang God of Wealth Temple on Facebook
Devotees may enter the temple from 12 noon to 11pm on 30 Apr to attend the prayer ceremony and touch the 9.5m-tall God of Wealth statue.
Besides 30 Apr, the statue can be touched on Monday (1 May) and Thursday (4 May).
The public may attend the prayer ceremony and touch the statue on these days from 9am to 9pm.
Though the fire occurred in September 2020, construction to rebuild the temple couldn’t start till August 2021, chairman Jiang Haifu (transliterated from Mandarin) told Shin Min Daily News.
That’s because they had to wait for the relevant authorities to conduct assessments and contractors to bid for the project.
The rebuilding work was also “cumbersome” as it had to take into account the temple’s original structure, he said. The Covid-19 pandemic additionally made it tough to find workers.
In the end, construction work officially finished just last week.
Mr Jiang also revealed that the total cost of rebuilding came up to almost S$4 million.
He stressed, however, that the temple didn’t need to appeal for funds as devotees made donations of their own accord.
In a video on their Facebook page, the chairman expressed his gratitude to devotees not just from Singapore but from other countries like China, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Source: 三巴旺财神庙 Sembawang God of Wealth Temple on Facebook
He said those from overseas also urged their relatives in Singapore to donate.
Part of the hefty cost went towards the building of 68 new Buddha statues, Mr Jiang said.
He added that they decided to build new ones as the cost of repairing the burnt statues was comparable to that of getting new ones.
For the job, they hired sculptors from Taiwan to make the statues and ship them to Singapore.
Singaporeans may remember the apocalyptic sight of the temple going up in flames in 2020.
While no humans were hurt in the carnage, three of the temple’s seven dogs tragically died.
Mr Jiang said the fire wasn’t reported until it got out of hand as nobody was watching over the premises at night.
To prevent such an incident from happening again, three temple staff now guard the place overnight in shifts.
They’ve also installed new electrical wires throughout.
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News on Facebook.
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