No. 51 January-February 1998

I. General

We all know that despite its small size, Singapore, with an area of merely 300 square meters and a population of just 3 million, has more than 200 Buddhist temples and more than 400 different groups.

Singapore is very much a multi-racial, multi-religious society. Hence, it is appropriate to mention that Buddhism as a religion in this country, also reflects this interesting, multi-faceted nature. Among the various streams of Buddhism, we have Mahayana in Mandarin, Theravada in Pali and Vajrayana in Tibetan. And within the Pali language stream, we hve Buddhism from Thailand, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. As for the Tibetan stream, there are the Nyingma, Kargyu, Sakya and Gelugpa. As Chinese constitutes more than 70% of our population in Singapore, inevitably, the Mahayana of the Mandarin stream is very prominent.

In the Singapore environment, the Pali and Tibetan streams, besides organizing the usual Darma sessions, are also involved in social welfare and charitable works. One Tibetan Buddhist organization has recently started a child-care center and as for the Pali stream, its monks have been involved in volunteer work and visiting the aged for quite some time.



I. General
II. Current status of Mandarin stream Mahayana in Singapore
III Popular Practices in Singapore
No. 52 March-April 1998