The Bright Hill Temple and Monastery is located at Bright Hill Drive 88 in Singapore outside of the downtown. It is the largest Buddhist monastery of Singapore and it is a great attraction a nice reason to get out seeing the beautiful Chinese architectural motives that are all included in the structure of the Bright Hill Temple and Monastery, which is known in Singapore on the long name Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery.
The Bright Hill Temple was built in 1920 by the Chinese Zhuan Dao in order to bring Dharma Buddhism in the mainstream of religions of the city and also because of the need as by that time several Buddhist monks lived in the city without an actual temple or monastery where they could live, exercise and teach the Dharma Buddhist religion. The Bright Hill Temple is a so-called forest monastery and it helped a lot for many to convert and exercise Chinese Buddhism, which is today the main exercised religion of Singapore. Today the Bright Hill temple is the largest place of religious practice in the country.
The Bright Hill Temple’s most appraised venerable called Hong Choon was the one who have brought Buddhism into the mainstream and he started several of such religious traditions that have made the Buddhist religion also the most popular. These include the Great Compassion Prayer and the many classes and monk courses always attract many, to learn and exercise Chinese Buddhism in Singapore. The monastery part of Bright Hill Temple, under the name Evergreen Bright Hill home was starting to get built from 1980. The monastery’s Dharma Propagation Division is famous for its proactive ways in order to reach locals with their many ways offered to learn more about Dharma and Buddhism. Its wing the Youth Ministry also teaches children and the young generation with much success. The Buddhism three main behaviour wisdom, compassion and courage is widely popular among people of Singapore.
The Bright Hill Temple has 11 sections and the whole building looks just beautiful, giving tourists a great chance to photograph a real Chinese style Buddhist monastery in Singapore. The place welcomes tourists to its main sections. Visitors are required to dress in a modest way, not wearing revealing clothes such as polo shirts or shorts for their visit. The main touristic sites include the Bodhi Tree which is in real a descendant of the scared Bodhi Tree found in Bodhigaya, India. The tree is world famous for giving shadow to Prince Siddhartha when he was enlightened by the faith and understood Nirvana. The Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas is also very famous for visiting containing an extra large bronze statue of Buddha (Medicine Buddha). The main stupa in the central building contains thousands of Buddha’s small images, all representing Buddha in a different posture.
The Bright Hill Temple and Monastery offers a great tourist attraction for everyone interested in Buddhism, oriental sites and beautiful architectural examples destined to highlight the colourful state of Singapore.