Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple (;

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

: 维拉马卡拉曼庙), also known earlier as Soonambu Kambam Kovil'','' is a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

temple located in the middle of

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in the southern part of

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. The temple started as a shrine dedicated to the Hindu goddesses

Kali Kali (; , ), also called Kalika, is a major goddess in Hinduism, primarily associated with time, death and destruction. Kali is also connected with transcendental knowledge and is the first of the ten Mahavidyas, a group of goddesses who p ...

and

Parvati Parvati (, , IPA: /Sanskrit phonology, pɑɾʋət̪iː/), also known as Uma (, , IPA: Sanskrit phonology, /ʊmɑː/) and Gauri (, , IPA: /Sanskrit phonology, gə͡ʊɾiː/), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the Devi, ...

in 1855 before a temple was built by Bengali labourers in 1881.

Architecture

Images of Kali within the temple show her wearing a garland of skulls and ripping out the insides of demons, and Parvati sharing a peaceful family moments with her sons

Ganesha Ganesha or Ganesh (, , ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped Deva (Hinduism), deities in the Hindu deities, Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in the Ganapatya sect. His depictions ...

and

Murugan Kartikeya (/ kɑɾt̪ɪkejə/; ), also known as Skanda ( /skən̪d̪ə/), Subrahmanya (/ sʊbɾəɦməɲjə/, /ɕʊ-/), Shanmukha ( /ɕɑnmʊkʰə/) and Murugan (/ mʊɾʊgən/), is the Hindu god of war. He is generally described as the ...

. The building is constructed in the style of South Indian

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temples common in

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as opposed to the style of Northeastern Indian Kali temples in Bengal, where Her worship is extremely widespread but the style of temple construction differs considerably.

History

This temple has also been used to shelter people from Japanese air raids during the horrid period of World War 2.

Controversy

In 2018, the Charities Commissioner has barred the temple's chairman Sivakadacham, former chairman R Selvaraju, and secretary Ratha Krishnan Selvakumar from their posts, after the three, who were cheque signatories and approvers for payments, issued more than $1.5 million in uncrossed cheques. Of these, 45 cheques – totalling more than $227,000 – were not issued to the names of the intended recipients of the proceeds. The inquiry also revealed that Ratha had obtained loans of $350,000 without the management committee's approval and with no written loan agreements with the lenders. Cash loans and disbursements of proceeds from the loans were also not properly accounted for in the temple's records.

References

External links

Official site
Hindu temples in Singapore Tourist attractions in Singapore Tamil diaspora in Singapore Rochor Kali temples Parvati temples {{Hindu-temple-stub