Close X
Thursday, December 19, 2024
ADVT 
International

Singapore PM Lee Leads 40,000 Devotees In Hindu Temple Reconsecration Ceremony

Darpan News Desk IANS, 23 Apr, 2018 01:18 PM

    For the first time since assuming office in 2004, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong led some 40,000 devotees and four ministers at a 164-year-old Hindu temple's reconsecration ceremony here, following the completion of its SGD 4.5 million restoration work.

     

    “This 164-year-old temple has been undergoing renovations for the last 1.5 years to prepare for its re-consecration, which takes place every 12 years," the prime minister tweeted last night of the iconic Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in the Little India precinct.

     

    After attending yesterday morning's ceremony, Minister of Trade and Industry S Iswaran said the occasion reflected the diversity in Singapore community.

     

    The temple - one of the oldest in Singapore - was re-sanctified in a consecration ceremony called the "Maha Samprokshanam", which would be followed by a period of 45 days of cultural programmes known as the "mandalabishegam".

     
     

    “The prime minister's presence here today, having travelled overnight from overseas (Commonwealth meetings in London), is a remarkable validation of the commitment the government has, that PM Lee also has, to this," Iswaran said.

     

    “It is an opportunity to bring together different communities so that we develop this mutual understanding and respect and continue to build on Singapore's multi-racial fabric," The Straits Times quoted the minister as saying.

     

    “Such events indeed, reflect the diversity as well as the harmony we have in our multi-religious, multiracial society,” Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Chan Chun Sing, who was also present on the occasion, said in a Twitter post.

     

    The ceremony was touted as the most significant event on the Hindu calendar this year, according to a report by The Straits Times today.

     

    This was the first time Prime Minister Lee visited a Hindu consecration ceremony since he assumed office in 2004.

     

    Grace Fu, Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, and Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Education, Communications and Information, were present on the occasion.

     

    A team of 20 artisans, known as "sthapathis" were flown in from India for restoration work. Built in 1854, the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple was declared a national monument by Singapore's Preservation of Monuments Board in 1978.

    MORE International ARTICLES

    UK Resorting To 'Dirty Politics' Ahead of International Court Of Justice Election: Sources

    UK Resorting To 'Dirty Politics' Ahead of International Court Of Justice Election: Sources
    In all previous incidents, the candidate getting majority in the General Assembly has eventually been elected a judge of The Hague-based International Court of Justice.

    UK Resorting To 'Dirty Politics' Ahead of International Court Of Justice Election: Sources

    School Teacher In US Pulls Off Muslim Student's Hijab

    The teacher pulled off the girl's hijab while she was talking with her friends at the Lake Braddock High School, Virginia.

    School Teacher In US Pulls Off Muslim Student's Hijab

    British Watchdog To Question Schoolgirls On Hijab

    British Watchdog To Question Schoolgirls On Hijab
    The move follows concerns that girls as young as four are being forced to wear the Muslim headscarf to school

    British Watchdog To Question Schoolgirls On Hijab

    Indian Girl Sherin Mathews's Foster Mother Moved To Dallas County Jail

    Indian Girl Sherin Mathews's Foster Mother Moved To Dallas County Jail
    The foster mother of three-year-old Indian girl Sherin Mathews found dead in a culvert in Dallas has been moved to a jail on a charge of abandoning a child.

    Indian Girl Sherin Mathews's Foster Mother Moved To Dallas County Jail

    Sikh Lawmaker Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Trolled Online In UK For Not Speaking On Sikh Issues

    Sikh Lawmaker Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Trolled Online In UK  For Not Speaking On Sikh Issues
    Tan Dhesi became Labour's MP for Slough in June, was recently accused of ignoring the plight of a British Sikh man who was arrested during his visit to India.

    Sikh Lawmaker Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Trolled Online In UK For Not Speaking On Sikh Issues

    Punjab Police Deny British National Jagtar Jaggi Johal Was Tortured

    Punjab Police Deny British National Jagtar Jaggi Johal Was Tortured
    Not only did it have sufficient evidence to prove the complicity of Jagtar alias Jaggi in the cases of targeted killings, the police had also ensured that there was no violation of his rights at any stage

    Punjab Police Deny British National Jagtar Jaggi Johal Was Tortured