Tan Si Chong Su, located at Magazine Road, was built in 1876 as the ancestral temple and assembly hall of the Tan community in Singapore. This temple, with a wide Hokkien patronage, is still used as a repository for ancestral tablets. The architecture of the temple reflects the traditional temple style that was popular in southern China in the 19th century. On 19 November 1974, it was gazetted as a national monument. Though Tan Si Chong Su began as a Tan clan temple, it has been open to all Chinese worshippers since 1982.
History
Tan Si Chong Su is located on land that was reclaimed at Boat Quay in 1822. Soon after the land was reclaimed, the area became an established trading centre and merchants began to settle in the Boat Quay, Clarke Quay and Robertson Quay areas. Gradually, places of worship were set up, with most of them situated on the banks of the Singapore River. New immigrants who arrived from China would go to their respective clan temple to offer thanks for their safe journey and to meet up with those who had arrived earlier. The temples also became places for settling disputes and planning activities and were involved with various matters that concerned a particular clan or community. It was around this time that the prosperous and populous Tan community in Singapore saw the need for a temple of their own. Two well-known merchants and philanthropists, Tan Kim Cheng and Tan Beng Swee, offered to bear the full cost of construction and the temple was erected in 1876.
Description
Tan Si Chong Su was built on an area of 500m2 bound by Magazine Road, Havelock Road, Fisher Street and Boat Quay. The design of the temple, built in favourable feng shui orientation, was aligned with the temple architecture that was favoured in the 19th century in southern China. The entrance of the temple once faced the river, until land reclamation pushed the temple farther inland.
The building is heavily decorated with ornate carvings, moldings and murals. The temple's Minnan style is reflected in its eaves, beams, pillars, decorative lotus pendants and roof decorations. Dragons are depicted intertwined or dancing. The pagoda incense burner, a five-storey marble structure, is embellished with relief work.
The temple has a sequence of two courtyards and two worship halls. The first courtyard separates the entrance and the main hall, where patron deities are housed. The second courtyard lies between the main hall and the rear hall, which contains the ancestral tablets of prominent Tans. Po Chiak School, a boys’ school founded in 1889, used to occupy one wing of the temple but it closed in 1949.
Carved lacquer, gilded timber, bright paint colours and an elaborate beam and bracket structural system amply reflect the status of the prosperous Tan community at the time of the temple’s construction. Wooden carvings and granite pillars were imported from China. Relics donated to the temple include a bell and a drum.
In the 1990s, the Tan Sze Chong Su, the Tan Association, funded extensive restoration work on the temple.
Variant names
The temple is known by at least a dozen names, including Tan Si Chong Su, Bao Chi Gong, Bo Chiak Kung, Po Chek Kiong, Po Chiak Keng, Po Chiak Kung and Tan Seng Haw.
Author
Naidu Ratnala Thulaja
References
Edwards, N., & Keys, P. (1988). Singapore: A guide to buildings, streets, places (p. 398). Singapore: Times Books International.
(Call no.: RSING 915.957 EDW)
Lee, E. (1990). Historic buildings of Singapore (p. 59). Singapore: Preservation of Monuments Board.
(Call no.: RSING 720.95957 LEE)
Lee, G. B. (2002). The religious monuments of Singapore: Faiths of our forefathers (pp. 18 - 21). Singapore: Landmark Books and Preservation of Monuments Board.
(Call no.: RSING 726.095957 LEE)
Liu, G. (1996). In granite and chunam: The national monuments of Singapore (pp. 137-139). Singapore: Landmark Books and Preservation of Monuments Board.
(Call no.: RSING 725.94095957 LIU)
Samuel, D. S. (1991). Singapore's heritage: Through places of historical interest (pp. 72-73). Singapore: Elixir Consultancy Service.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 SAM)
Sit, Y. F. (1994, April 23). $2 m makeover for Tan clan temple. The Straits Times, Life!, p. 8.
Tan Si Chong Su. (2010). Retrieved October 25, 2010, from Preservation of Monuments Board website: http://www.pmb.sg/
Uma Devi, G., et al. (2002). Singapore's 100 historic places (pp. 94-95). Singapore: Archipelago Press: National Heritage Board.
(Call no.: RSING 959.57 SIN)
Urban Redevelopment Authority. (1992). Tan Si Chong Su Temple preservation guidelines, Vol. I (pp. 4-5). Singapore: Preservation of Monuments Board.
(Call no.: RSING 363.69095957 TAN)
Further reading
Lip, E. (1983). Chinese temple architecture in Singapore (pp. 36-41). Singapore: Singapore University Press.
(Call no.: RSING 726.1951095957 LIP)
The information in this article is valid as at 2010 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.
