SINGAPORE, December 4, 2016 (Straits Times): Nearly 20,000 Hindus queued up under the morning sun to enter the renovated Sri Siva Durga temple after a special consecration ceremony on Sunday Dec 4. The temple in Potong Pasir had undergone a two-year, US$2.7 million reconstruction.
All Hindu temples undergo renovations and repairs every 12 years, and the temple and its deities have to be re-consecrated through a ritual known as maha kumbabhishekam. The temple’s vice-president G. Krishnamurthi, 45, said he was “extremely delighted” by the turnout. It helped that the rebuilt temple could accommodate more people, he said. It can host 500 worshippers, up from 300 previously.
Other races and religions in the community helped out for the event. Volunteers from the Mahakaruna Buddhist Society distributed breakfast and drinks to the crowd. The Church of Ascension, located next to the temple, brought forward its Sunday service to Saturday evening so that its car park could be used for the event. A nearby coffee shop removed its tables to make space for the devotees, and also voluntarily stopped the sale of alcohol in the morning as a mark of respect.