Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum is a Chinese Buddhist temple at 288 South Bridge Road in Chinatown, in the Outram planning area, officially opened on Vesak Day, 31 May 2007, by the late President S R Nathan. Its design combines Tang dynasty architecture, which the temple calls a golden age for Chinese arts, culture and architecture, with the form of a Buddhist mandala, a symbol of the universe. The building was raised to house a tooth relic that Buddhists regard as the Buddha's left canine, recovered from his funeral pyre at Kushinagar in India.

The relic is kept in a giant stupa made with 320 kilograms of gold, and the building also holds two museums, on notable figures in the Buddhist tradition and on sacred relics of the Buddha and his disciples. A roof garden has a pagoda and a Buddha prayer wheel. The temple asks visitors to dress with respect, with no bare backs, off-shoulder tops, shorts or mini-skirts. Chinatown MRT station is a short walk away, and Sri Mariamman Temple stands further along South Bridge Road.

For anyone planning a Buddhist pilgrimage to Lumbini in Nepal, the Buddha's birthplace, or to the sites of northern India, the two museums give useful grounding in the relics and figures that pilgrims meet on that route.