Popular Singapore temple Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho


Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple is one of the famous Singapore temples among the Taoist and Buddhist community in Singapore. It was built since 1884 and was reconstructed in 1895, it is one of the historical Singapore temple that has an existence of more than a century in Singapore. This Singapore temple is located at Waterloo Street very near to the famous Bugis Street in Singapore. It is dedicated to Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, the Goddess of Mercy with hundreds of devotees visiting the temple to pray for blessings from the Goddess.

Read on to find out why this Singaproe temple is so famous……



During World War II
Beside the fact that the Kwan im temple is one of the oldest Singapore temple, it has also build it name since World War II when Japanese invaded Singapore. During the Second World War, the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple did not suffer much damage while many buildings in the vicinity were destroyed and it was belief that it was due to the blessing of the Kuan Yin Bodhisattva. It also provided refuge for the sick, the wounded and the homeless during the hard time.
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Well-known for blessing
This Singapore temple is also well-known among amongst the Buddhist and Taoist Singaporean to receive good luck after worshiping at the Kwan Im temple. Most devotees visit the temple on the first or fifteenth day of Chinese New Year . Every Chinese New Year eve, there will be hundreds of devotees holding joss sticks waiting outside the temple and once the door opened, all will rush to be the first person to put the joss sticks to the joss stick urn. It is belief that the person will be bless with all the good lucks for the rest of the year. During the eve of Chinese New Year, the temple is opened all night and the street is packed with devotees praying to the Goddess for an auspicious start to the New Year.
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Well-known for its fortune stick prediction
Fortune sticks or divination sticks is a form of fortune telling through shaking a cylinder storing bamboo sticks with numbers. Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple is famous for its fortune stick prediction, there are 4 procedures to get a prediction for this method of fortune telling.
First procedure - Kneel down in front of the Goddess and thinks silently or whispers your question to Goddess while holding the cylinder stick holder between your palm.

Second procedure - After asking the question, shake the cylinder, which is usually tipped slightly downward, results in at least one stick leaving the cylinder and being dropped onto the floor. If multiple sticks leave the cylinder, those fortunes would not count and must be shaken again. Each stick, with its designated number, represents one answer.

Third procedure - Once a single stick falls out of the cylinder stick holder and to confirm the validity of the answer given by the Goddess, you will pick up the two red wooden moon blocks (jiaobei blocks) and toss two the jiaobei blocks. Each block is in crescent shape, toss both block together and the objective of tossing is to get one side flat and the other side round to be shown which mean it is a successful answer. If a failed answer it will result in two rounds or two sides flat to be shown. If failed put back the stick to the cylinder and ask the question again and repeat the above procedures till you get a successful answer.

Fourth procedure - Once a successful answer is shown, take the stick on the floor which you have shaken out at the third procedure, the stick will have a number on it (written in Chinese character) to the place where you get the fortune sticks, shown ours answer stick to the person in-charge and get the prediction sheet, the writing on the sheet is the answer to your question. There are fortune stick interpretation books written in both Chinese and English beside the counter. You will be able to find the answer from the interpretation book or alternatively, you can get the sheet and asked a fortune teller outside the temple to interpret for you (note is not free, you have to pay for the interpretation so ask how much it cost before you ask the fortune teller to interpret).

Now you know the procedure of the fortune stick prediction, why not give it a try when you visit the temple and see whether the prediction is accurate?

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Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple
is one have the oldest temple in Singapore and is famous for its fortune stick prediction