A Study of United Temple in Singapore—Analysis of Union from the Perspective of Sub-Temple

Abstract

This paper attempts to examine the formation path of the United Temple. Since research on the United Temple has focused more on its organization and religious practice in contemporary Singapore, the paper looks at the sub-temples under the Singapore United Temple, analyzing their paths toward unification from a more extended historical perspective. The authors divide sub-temples into three categories: ancestral temples (血缘庙), geographic temples (地缘庙), and deity-related temples (神缘庙) and compare their flexible strategies. This paper tries to explain how the formation of the United Temples was influenced by multiple spatial, social, and cultural factors. The blood lineage, religion, and regional ties from the homeland could still be essential when the localized, community-based social links beyond the boundaries play an equally crucial integrative role in forming United Temples. It is the contention of the authors of this paper to study the United Temple—the unique religious space in Singapore—as the potential syncretic field of the present and the past.