Thanksgiving in Singapore

Dear Readers,



There is no Thanksgiving in Singapore. what do you think this is, America? The American Association offers a picnic at a hot and mosquito ridden park with all the beer you can drink. I just said no. Been there and I have the bites to prove it. No, this year I opted for the set meal at Dan Ryan's Chicago Grill that includes turkey, mashed taters, stuffing, and cranberry something, plus pumkin pie. Sure I could have cooked all that myself but when in Singapore, it's cheaper to eat out. A turkey runs you forty dollars here. Besides, I won't have to do the dishes.



It rains here almost every day now but just short showers. The plants here are wilting. The heat is intense. All the while the Christmas lights are up and "Let in Snow" plays in the mall. Tammy and I have been keeping score on the most cheesy decorations and the mall that won had a bunny, Alice in Wonderland girl, fairies, mushrooms, and butterflies. They really don't get Christmas here. They should develop their own traditions with an Asian slant. Maybe something with palm trees, lizards, sheets of white rain, and durian pudding (stinky fruit). Santa Claus could be a Asian grandpa giving out rice porridge. No where do any of these present decoration portray the birth of Christ. That would be against the law.



Speaking of different religions, I went with the American Association to see the famed tooth of Buddha. Yes, did you know they cut his body up into 18,000 parts and distributed them around the world to do miraclous things. This temple was six floors. On top they had a garden that grew the Buddha Tooth orchid developed for the temple. Very nice. They also had a prayer wheel that was about eight tall. you pushed it clockwise around once and it was to send a sutra chant to heaven. The fourth floor was where the tooth was. You had to take off your shoes to go there. The tooth is enclosed in a stupa of 413 poiunds of gold (people donated their old jewerly for a melt down). True, it didn't really look like a tooth. Could have been anything really but it's the symbol of the tooth that counts. People come here to be cured by the tooth. I had a rash. It went away. I guess it worked! ha!

Anyway, a buddhist monk sat there to bless people for a fee if they wanted. They would be allowed to actually pray in front of the tooth.



The third floor was a museum that recounted the life of Buddha and how the temple came to be. It is a new temple, only two years old. It came about through a vision of a monk from Cambodia who was in charge of the tooth. He was getting old and met this really intelligent monk who he instructed to build a temple in Singapore. The guy had to go to go to the prime minister and get some land and then build the temple for billions of dollars. It's a modern temple with an elevator and bathrooms and even a kitchen to feed the poor. But it's made to look old and beautiful. Gold is everywhere. It is dedicated to the future buddha. They are waiting for him to come. I was struck by how Buddha's mother was supposedly childless and a white elephant visited her dreams. Then she was pregnant. We compared that to Mary, mother of Jesus. They predict the next Buddha will arrive during a time of extreme chaos (end times). There is nothing more interesting than hearing these monks chanting in the nice golden room with a microphone watched by the 10,000 buddhas on the walls. It will raise the hair on the back of your neck. Everyone is reading the Chinese sutra and repeating OM OM with them. Except that old man on the last row. He's sound asleep.



Did you know that once a monk has risen to a most high level and dies, his ashes turn to crystal? Each of those 10,000 Buddhas has a monk's crystals in its head. Creepy. Then there is the display of Buddha's tongue, intestine, brain all in crystal form in the museum. They love this stuff. Some of the group was Buddhist but they rest were shaking their head and saying it was a bunch of crap. Maybe so. But I found the similarity of Christ's coming and the future Buddha really interesting. And you already knew that the end times for Islam have Jesus leading their army against the Christians. Is everyone right?



I have been going to Pompeii lectures down at the National Museum. They are so boring that the Italian lecturers have had to stop and wake people up before they fell out of their chairs. I thought for sure I was going to get creamed by a fat lady beside me. When they start weaving, you get worried.



We caught the annual Christmas Light Up on Saturday. They turned the lights on at 7:45 this year. The President threw the switch himself. President? I asked. There's a president? Yes named Nathan. What does he do? Christmas Light Up evidently.



That's all from here. Steve is going back to China for ten days and I want to finish Christmas shopping. May the Buddha be with you-or his parts anyway! See ya.