Singapore - Chinatown

Singapore's Chinatown is home to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum.  Along with housing some of the precious remaining relics of Buddha, this temple and museum also serves as a place of worship, education, and supports different welfare organizations and services that assist the sick, poor and needy (regardless of race or religion).  As mentioned in a previous post, I am drawn to places of religion and worship and am forever fascinated with structures and statues dedicated for this purpose.  The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum is a four story building and open to the public at no cost, although donations are always appreciated.  Upon entering the temple, I was simply speechless at the size of the statues in the center of the room on the ground floor.  The walls are covered with hundreds of Buddha statues, all brightly painted gold and making a room with no windows seem filled with sunlight.  The details of the statues are absolutely amazing.  I was so captivated by the structure and the statues that quite often I forgot that I had my camera in hand and didn't take as many pictures I would have liked.  (Some floors and rooms do not allow photographs to be taken.)  Here are some of my pictures from my visit to this temple.

exterior shot

main room on the ground floor

a wall on the ground floor, full of statues of Buddha, each one unique

the back room, on the ground floor

a very large Buddha statue

a close up of the face on one of the statues

another Buddha statues, there were literally hundreds of them

After visiting the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum, we took a walk through Chinatown...  

and picked up a few souvenirs along the way.

I thought all the hanging masks that were actually lights were pretty cool.  

Love the way this building is painted.

Who doesn't love Tin Tin and his dog, Snowy?

Paper boxes with paintings of different animals covered the support poles of a bridge overpass.  Great idea!

I have no idea what kind of meat they are selling in this shop but  the fact that they sold the meat in "sheets" was something I found rather interesting.  

Love the painting on the exterior wall of this spa in Chinatown.

Although this was on a building in Chinatown, it reminds me a Mexican wrestling mask.