On the second day of Chinese New Year, after visiting my Mom, we went praying at the multi-tiered Buddha Tooth Relic Temple.
The temple was packed with worshippers and tourists.
There were long queues for bathing the Buddha and blessings from the monks, so my husband had to go through 3 separate queues.
We were fortunate to meet Venerable Si Fazhao who gave new year blessings to my husband and the many believers. He gave out mandarin oranges and a charm to everyone he blessed
We then proceed to exchange S$10 for 100 ten-cent coins. We dropped them, one by one, in the bowls placed in front of 100 Buddha statues for blessing.
Kung Hei Fatt Choi to you!
ReplyDeleteRemember years ago going to the National Museum of Singapore and seeing a Buddha relic on temporary display there. Don't think it was a tooth though then! :)
Wishing you a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year, YTSL!
DeleteI have yet to see the Buddha tooth. :)
And those stalls that's open, the price, they mark up these few days...
ReplyDeleteYes, extra few dollars .... considered it as annual bonus for the staff lor.
DeleteInteresting! This is a very different tradition for me, I've never done this before, I was particularly interested in the 100 x 10 cent coins for the 100 bowls.
ReplyDeleteSorry for being ignorant, but what do the 100 Buddhas represent?
In “The Sutra of the Names of the One Hundred Buddhas”, the Buddha told Sariputra,
Delete“If a devout man or woman hears the name of the present Buddha and cherishes it, he/she will be protected from all evil, accumulate immense merit, accomplish the Bodhisattva’s way and gain knowledge of the past, present and future. Moreover, he/she will be good-looking with complete sense faculties and be in the presence of all Buddhas, thus swiftly attaining peerless Enlightenment.”
The same Sutra states that, “these Hundred Buddhas have the perfect ability to help the world and whoever cherishes the hundred holy names, learns by heart, recites, copies, makes offerings reverently and expounds these names will have his greed, hatred, ignorance and fear purified”.