Tan Si Chong Su, Singapore新加坡保赤宫陈氏宗祠

Type

Overseas Daoist Temples

Location

Singapore · Singapore · Rochor · 15 Magazine Road, on the bank of the Singapore River

Coordinates

1.2879, 103.8433 Map ↗

First built

1876 · Proposed for construction by Tan Kim Ching, Tan Beng Swee, and other Hokkien Tans

Heritage status

Singapore National Monument (29 November 1974)

Overview

The Tan Si Chong Su is the central ancestral hall of the Tan (Chen) clan in Singapore, proposed for construction in 1876 by overseas leaders Tan Kim Ching and Tan Beng Swee, among other Hokkien Tans, on the bank of the Singapore River. The building is a two-courtyard Southern Hokkien-style structure: the front hall enshrines the ancestral tablets of the Tan clan and Chen Yuanguang, Sacred King of Kaizhang, while the rear hall serves as the main ancestral chamber; the cut-porcelain roof ridge decoration, carved wooden beams and brackets, and stone carvings are all well preserved, and the building was designated a Singapore National Monument on 29 November 1974. It should be clearly stated that the Tan Si Chong Su is fundamentally the ancestral hall of a kinship organization, its core functions being ancestor worship and clan fellowship, not a Daoist temple; the Sacred King of Kaizhang it also enshrines is likewise a local deity of southern Fujian. Such ancestral halls, in Southeast Asian Chinese society, carried out functions of genealogical compilation, aid to education and the poor, and commercial mutual assistance, making them key sites for understanding the social structure of Nanyang Chinese communities — hence its inclusion here, with its true nature clearly stated.

Highlights

• Proposed for construction in 1876 by Tan Kim Ching and other Hokkien Tans
• A two-courtyard Southern Hokkien-style building, its cut-porcelain and wood-and-stone carvings well preserved
• Designated a Singapore National Monument in 1974
• In nature a kinship ancestral hall, not a Daoist temple
• Also enshrines Chen Yuanguang, Sacred King of Kaizhang