Behind a five-tier gopuram crowded with painted deities, Sri Mariamman on South Bridge Road has been a place of worship since at least 1827.
Singapore's first Hindu temple was founded by Naraina Pillai, a clerk from Penang who came with Raffles in 1819, and a shrine of wood and attap stood here by 1827. Mariamman, the goddess at its heart, is venerated for protection against epidemic disease. The five-tier gopuram over the entrance, crowded with painted deities, was remodelled in 1936, and the temple became a National Monument in 1973.
It stands on South Bridge Road a few minutes from the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Masjid Jamae, three faiths on a single street. The temple is at its most intense in the week before Deepavali, when devotees walk on hot coals at the Theemithi fire-walking festival; visitors can watch from an elevated gallery in the courtyard.
