Going om

Mindfulness and meditation might be all the rage now, but some people were way ahead of the curve: Wat Ananda Metyarama Thai Buddhist Temple, for one, was founded in Singapore in the 1920s by Venerable Luang Phor Hong Dhammaratano.

Originally located at 83 Silat Road, it moved to 50B Jalan Bukit Merah only recently, following a major construction exercise in 2014. The new building features a Dhamma hall, meditation hall, cultural centre, conference room, dining hall and rest area, some of which are open to the public.

In the pictures above, the traditional ceremony of Thot Kathin, or robe presentation, is featured. One of the six purely religious ceremonies connected with Thai Buddhism, it involves the offering of three new robes (the sabong, the jivorn, and the sanghati) and other gifts to monks who have been in retreat at the temple. This is meant as a reward for remaining to study, teach and contemplate, and the monks are then free to go out into the world in their new robes.