Heng San Teng (Site), Singapore新加坡恒山亭遗址
- Type
- Overseas Daoist Temples
- Location
- Singapore · Singapore · Alexandra / Silat Road · Within the former Hokkien cemetery hill on Silat Road; the temple has been destroyed
- First built
- 1828 · The 1828 stele within the temple provides a confirmed founding date; the temple was destroyed by fire in December 1992
Overview
The Heng San Teng was built in 1828 as the earliest public-cemetery management body and cemetery-hill temple of Singapore's Hokkien community, its principal deity Tua Pek Kong (the God of Prosperity), and its functions including cemetery rites and the general deliverance of orphaned souls. The 1828 stele within the temple, the “Five Revised Regulations of Heng San Teng,” is a first-hand historical source for the study of early Singaporean Chinese social organization, setting out rules for the management of the public cemetery, the apportionment of ritual expenses, and communal discipline; scholars regard it as physical evidence of the supreme governing body of the Hokkien community before the founding of the Thian Hock Keng (1839–1842). The Heng San Teng was long presided over by overseas leaders such as Seah Eu Chin and Tan Tock Seng, after which leadership passed to the Thian Hock Keng. A great fire in December 1992 destroyed the main temple structure, leaving only the stele and some architectural fragments, the inscribed stone now kept elsewhere in storage. Although the complete building no longer survives, this site holds a pivotal place in Nanyang Chinese history and is therefore honestly recorded here as a heritage site.
Highlights
- Built in 1828, the earliest public-cemetery temple of Singapore's Hokkien community
- The stele of the Five Revised Regulations of Heng San Teng is a first-hand source on early Chinese social organization
- The supreme governing body of the Hokkien community before the founding of Thian Hock Keng
- Presided over by overseas leaders such as Seah Eu Chin and Tan Tock Seng
- Destroyed by fire in December 1992, leaving only the inscribed stone and fragments