Tay Guan Heng Joss-Sticks Manufacturer

Paid a visit to Tay Guan Heng Joss-Sticks Manufacturer at 4001 Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 1. I had seen online posts about its impending closure, so I wanted to see the place for myself before it was too late.

The humble factory space houses a dying trade that has endured four generations. The family business was founded in the 1930s, and specialised in giant, traditional joss sticks made of cinnamon wood clay, burned during Chinese festivals such as the 7th Lunar Month.

Like the paper offering industry, this business produces intricate, but transient, works of art that last only as long as the festivals for which they are dedicated.

During my visit, I was fortunate to meet the proprietor, Mr Albert Tay. He readily shared about his work, showing me old photo albums of the business’ glory days, and clay sculptures and dioramas on display on shelves.

The business will close at the end of November. Why, I asked. “A lot of pressure… a lot of stress”, Mr Tay shook his head sadly.

Until then, work carries on in the factory, to fulfil final orders.

Tay Guan Heng is open Mondays to Saturdays, 11am to around 4pm or 5pm. It is closed on Sundays.

The Jalan Lam San Roadside Shrine

At the corner of Brickland Road and the Kranji Expressway, to the west of Choa Chu Kang town, is a small, nondescript lane called Jalan Lam San.

Lam San is Hokkien for Southern Hill. The place name goes back to the 1940s, and the road is a remnant of a rural past that will soon make way for Tengah town. The road is currently used by heavy vehicles like dump trucks to enter and leave Tengah town’s construction sites over which thousands of new flats will rise.

But more on the curiosities of the place name and the road for another time. This post is about its roadside shrine.

Like the Datuk Gong shrine of Joo Chiat Place Car Park, the shrine is but a few years old. To be exact, it appeared between April 2018 and September 2019, according to Google Maps.

Base picture credit: Google Maps.

As the shrine is near the entrance into Tengah town’s construction sites, my guess is that it materialised as work started on Tengah town and Jalan Lam San started to be frequented by heavy vehicles - and their drivers and workers. The religious among them set up an altar by the road to offer prayers for safety during their work shifts, and over time, more and more deities were added to the altar.

This is the shrine today, next to the pavement and road.

One must cross a makeshift bridge over the open drain to get to the shrine.

It has the look of a structure haphazardly cobbled together by cheap materials salvaged from construction and rubbish sites - the divine amidst the dumps.

Like many ground-up roadside shrines, there is an eclectic mix of deities from Chinese and Indian religions. Visitors are free to add deities to the shrine, and everyone contributes to the general upkeep of all deities.

There’s Da Er Ye Bo, the popular ghost dispatchers in charge of escorting the soul of the deceased to the 10 Courts of Hell for judgement.

A tiny Earth Deity figurine.

Quite a few Hindu deities in the mix - I see the family of Shiva, Parvati, Murugan, and Ganesha; Parvati is flanked by Saraswati (with the musical instrument called the veena) and Lakshmi (with the lotuses).

Not a bad combination below - Guan Di (Emperor Guan, the deified Romance of the Three Kingdoms hero Guan Yu), who stands for righteousness, brotherhood, and martial qualities; and Ganesha, the remover of obstacles and the Lord of letters and learning.

A tablet dedicated to the Earth Deity, tucked away at the side.

The shrine should last as long as there is construction work in the northern part of Tengah town, as long as the area around Jalan Lam San is not redeveloped, and as long as the authorities either do not notice its existence, or turn a blind eye. Even then, I would be surprised if it lasts another 10 years. For such ground-up roadside shrines resting in public spaces are usually ephemeral.

But even as shrines and altars are transient, devotion is eternal.

7th Lunar Month: Yin Zhen Dian Temple Association

Every year, the Yin Zhen Dian Temple Association (狮城阴阵殿公庙) at Lorong 34 Geylang organises its 7th Lunar Month festival on the final week of the month. Due to a lack of space in Geylang, the temple trucks its offerings to an open field off Defu Lane 10 for burning.

I turned up there on Thursday evening (25 August, the 28th day of the 7th Lunar Month) to catch the ritual. The stacking of offerings alone took more than an hour. It was a sight to behold. More than a dozen people laboured under a steady drizzle as dusk gave way to night.

A temple staff, Mr Lim, shared that the ceremony is dedicated to Zhou Bao Bei Ye (周包贝爷), a deity of the temple. From the little that I know, Zhou Bao Bei Ye is a guardian of fortune of the netherworld.

Does the burning take place on the same date every year, I asked. No, said Mr Lim. “Zhou Bao Bei Ye picks the date. When it’s time for him to come, the rain will stop.” Indeed, the rain, which had gone on for much of the afternoon, had abruptly stopped.

Eventually, a loud convoy of neon-lit floats arrived, with Zhou Bao Bei Ye on a sedan chair carried by devotees. After a short, lively ceremony led by temple founder Master Choo, the mountain of offerings was put to the flames.