Over the garland stalls and goldsmiths of Serangoon Road rises the gopuram of Sri Veeramakaliamman, Little India's temple to a fierce form of the goddess Kali.
In the 1820s the British set up lime pits and brick kilns along Serangoon Road, and Tamil workers from the lime pits of Kampong Kapor raised a shrine here as early as 1855. It was the first temple in Singapore to Veeramakaliamman, a fierce form of Kali. Bengali labourers built a temple in 1881, and after municipal labourers took over its management it was restored from 1908, with a Kali statue shipped from South India.
Come early in the morning, perhaps after breakfast at Tekka Centre, or at a puja, a prayer time, for bells, lamps and chanting. At Thaipusam, devotees walking the route down Serangoon Road may pause at the temple; watch respectfully, and do not enter temples where devotees are fulfilling their vows.
