Thian Hock Keng Temple (A National Monument)
158 Telok Ayer Street
Owned by the Hokkien Huay Kwan

This oldest and most important Hokkien Buddhist Temple in Singapore started off as a small shrine built in 1821, dedicated to Ma Zhu, a deity associated with sea-faring Chinese. Thian Hock Kheng means Temple of Heavenly Happiness.

Newly arrived immigrants who landed in Singapore after a long sea voyage came here to make offerings and light joss sticks to give thanks for a safe passage.

The shrine was originally built on the waterfront, but in the 1880s, the area was reclaimed and the present temple was built on the same site between 1839-42. The temple has undergone a few renovations and restorations, the latest being between 1998 and 2000 when a scroll presented by the Qing Emperor Guang Xu (1907) was discovered. This scroll is now in the Singapore History Museum collection.

Telok Ayer means bay and Telok Ayer Street was then the most important business and residential street in Chinatown and also the focal point for religious buildings and activities. There was a high concentration of population there in the 1850s to the 1870s. Chinese slave traffic flourished then, as did pollution and congestion, which probably drove affluent merchants out of this area by the turn of the 20th century.