Sri Mariamman Temple

The brightest building on South Bridge Road is Singapore's oldest Hindu temple. Shoes off before you look up.

Sri Mariamman Temple is the one temple on South Bridge Road everyone should go inside at least once: the oldest Hindu temple in Singapore, with a five-tier gopuram outside and a painted ceiling inside that deserves more time than the tower. Go in the morning, before the afternoon closure and the heat, with shoulders and knees covered. It is a working temple first and a sight second, so the house rules are part of the visit.

The story starts with a clerk. Naraina Pillai, a government clerk from Penang, arrived with Stamford Raffles on his second visit in 1819 and founded the temple. The authorities first offered a plot on Telok Ayer Street, which the Hindu community turned down because it had no fresh water. The present site was granted in 1823, a wood-and-attap shrine stood here by 1827, and the oldest parts of today's brick building date from around 1843. The temple once sheltered new arrivals from South India, and its priests were once the only ones authorised to solemnise Hindu marriages.

It is dedicated to Sri Mariamman, a goddess turned to for healing from epidemic illness, no small thing in a crowded 19th-century port. The five-tier gopuram, stacked with deities and mythological figures, replaced a three-tier original in 1925, and the sepoy statues that once stood at its base were removed in 1971. Inside, the mandapam, or main hall, is covered in ceiling paintings, mandalas among them; a S$3.5 million restoration, carried out with artisans from India, was completed in February 2023. Shrines to Draupadi and Rama flank the main shrine, with Ganesha and Aravan among the other deities.

Draupadi is the reason for the temple's biggest date. Theemithi, the fire-walking festival held in her honour each October or November, opens with a four-kilometre procession from Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon Road and ends with devotees walking across burning embers. It usually falls about a week before Deepavali, so watch the temple's events calendar.

How to do it well: dress for it. The temple's etiquette page asks for shoulders to be covered and for trousers or skirts to reach at least the knee; wraps are lent to anyone underdressed. Footwear stays outside, the shrines and sanctums are off limits, and you shouldn't sit "with feet pointing toward the Deities", the priests or anyone else. Keep your voice down, save the hugging for the pavement and treat the priests with respect. Anyone may make an offering, whatever their faith. Chinatown MRT is a short walk; once inside, give the ceiling the long look it deserves.

Good to know The Hindu Endowments Board lists it as open 7am–12 noon and 6pm–9pm (until 9.15pm on Fridays); entry is free and it is a short walk from Chinatown MRT. Cover shoulders and knees, and check smt.org.sg's events calendar for Theemithi dates.

Sri Mariamman Temple | 244 South Bridge Road, Singapore 058793 | Nearest MRT: Chinatown