Tou Mu Kung Temple 3.15

The Tou Mu Kung Temple is a Taoist temple situated on Upper Serangoon Road, Singapore. Worshipping the Empress Registrar of Birth or Dou Mu and Nine Emperor deities, the temple has both Taoist and Buddhist influences.There are other temples dedicated to Tou Mu in many parts of China .HistoryThe temple was built in 1921 by Ong Choo Wee. It caters to the Teochew community, and was one of two remaining temples in Singapore with a permanent wayang (Chinese opera) stage until 1998. For eight decades, Chinese opera was performed there during religious and other festivals.The temple was gazetted as a national monument, which was deemed to be of special historic and traditional value on 14 January 2005.ArchitectureThe temple has a symmetrical floor plan with a central air-well. Behind the main hall is a two-storey pagoda. Single-storey quarters for the keepers of the temple are located at the rear of the temple.The roof of the temple is decorated with dancing dragons. There is also a ridge decoration in the main temple hall. The centre of the ridge has a blazing pearl. Dragons and dragon fish are used to terminate the ridges. Hips are terminated by spirals. The roof trusses are typically Chinese, decorated with carvings and simple brackets. The main doors are painted with pictures of the Door Gods. Its colour scheme of light blue and brown is rather subdued when compared to other temples.