Singapore – A peek into past

It was our leisurely visit to Singapore. Earlier also I visited Singapore two times on transit visa but it was a peek into the Marina Sand Bay for two hours and nothing more than that. This time after my IGNOU MA Hindi exams we planned as

Day 1- Buddha Temple, Art Gallery, Asian Civilization Museum, Light show at Marina Sands Bay
Day 2- Botanical Garden (UNESCO World Heritage), Garden at Bay, Marina Sand Bay
Day 3- China town, Sentosa Island

How much time needed for Singapore – I think 2 days and one night will be sufficient to touch nerve of Singapore. One night is needed so that you can see the lighting at Marina Sand Bay and Garden By The Bay. Next day you can see Botanical Garden and Sentosa Island and move to Malaysia or your home country by bus or flight.

Where to stay in Singapore – Most of the spots listed above are around 6 KM of Marina Sand Bay. So you can stay in this area. Service apartment are costly and may cost no less than INR 10K per day. These service apartments have kitchen. Once in 3 days only they come for changing bed sheet etc. You can stay at Sentosa Island area also but I suggest to stay in main land area.

Taxis in Singapore- There is no Ola or Uber in Singapore. Install GRAB app for taxis. Since Singapore is a small country 758 Sq. KM the main tourist spots you can cover in 6-7 trip which will cost about S$10 each if you stay in Marina Sand Bay area. Since Singapore is a small country it is not useful to take“Big Bus” service and most of the visiting places are in vicinity of 6 KM.

Food- Using GRAB app you can also order food. Indian food is available and supplied by Indian origins. One meal may cost you about S$7 to S$10 max.

I describe here is a peek into the past of Singapore which is based on the places I visited in Singapore and touched its streets to look for records written by government on granite stone, monuments and museums, fort.

I think Singapore biggest achievement is that it is an ideal cosmopolitan with Malaya, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indians and so on so forth. It ignores religion part of people. All these races are completely merged into each other which I could sense by seeing the public offices staff in Museums and shops etc. No other country exists on earth with that thinking. It is an achievement. Is this one prime reason of their development? They just focused on development and people of this country had trust on Lee Kuwan Yew (political life 1955-2015).

Go back to history of Singapore. –

All below writings are based on my feelings seeing the statues, monuments, museums and records written on granite stone spread in many streets of Singapore.

15th century Singapore land was ruled by Parmeshwar (Sultan Iskander Shah as per Malay record). He was last ruler of Singapore. He ruled from Fort Canning which is in Funan 3 KM from Marina Sand bay. This fort is now vanished. After King Parmeshwar Portuguese, Dutch and British ruled here.

In 1828 it came under British rule under a treaty from Sultan of Johor and British Stamford Raffles. Sultan of Johor was paid $5000 yearly to allow them to establish sea port in Singapore. State of Johar is a constitutional monarchy in Southern Malaysia but powers with Malaysia. Coronation takes place even today.

I observed that though hardly any old monuments are now visible in Singapore but Lee Kuwan Yew Government has installed many stone scriptures, rich museum and art gallery to preserve its history for its citizens. This is remarkable.

All below writings are based on my reading of those scriptures. But mind it I am not historian. It is an experience as an ordinary traveler in 2-3 days.

Let us start with Asian Museum. –

As per the writings I saw in this museum I can say that Singaporeans are proud of their finding of a ship wreck from Java Sea. This ship carried the artifacts of gold and ceramics and had started from Tang Dynasty of China in 9th Century.They are proud to display the thousands of merchandise articles and proudly claim that South East Asia was the lifeline of trade and business even from 8th century. For a small country liberated in 1965 this is the only way to revive the pride in their ancestor which Lee Kuwan Government thought and highlighted. Today thousands of tourists and locals visit this museum daily.

Foto taken at Asian Museum at Singapore- As we can see the heading of this picture- Singaporeans are proud that once this region was center of advanced maritime trading.

Foto taken at Asian Museum at Singapore- The articles found in shipwreck are so old that even calcification can be seen on the pots.

Foto taken at Asian Museum at Singapore- Just notice the modified “Swastik” in center of the platter. This shows the business practice and marketing acumen of Tang Dynasty of China in 8th Century itself.

Foto taken at Asian Museum at Singapore-

Foto taken at Asian Museum at Singapore- Thousands of ceramics were found in the ship wreck. We can see that how much trade would have flourished in 8th century and how huge was the demand of such ceramics. Later people in South East Asia region learn this art of ceramics from China.

Foto taken at Asian Museum at Singapore- As per display info at the museum these are gift items exchanged on occasion of marriages etc.

Next we come to China town. –

We have to come direct from 8th century to 19th-20th century as no monuments are left out to sing for King Parmeshwara (Sultan of Iskander Shah 14th century). It is said that he ruled from area of Fort Canning which is now almost vanished. Nothing to see there now.

Japanese street – These were brothels during World war time. Worth mentining is that girls plied from Japan to Singapore to support their family during war time.

Below are the bronze statues installed well on road side of a street. These depict the Chinese migrants who came here as laborers and 6-7 persons lived in a room of 15X12 room with common bathroom and kitchen. They were highly poverty stricken. Diseases were rife. This street is Nankin Street and represents the squatter (illegal occupancy) living conditions.

Squatter life- These statues are installed in street of Singapore. This depiction shows that Singapore is not ashamed of their past and they want to depict the real travails they had to pass through.

The current China town was a place of squatters and brothels during World Wars.

Current view of the Japanese street in China town.

Situation in World War. –

During WW-I Singapore was not affected much except that British made a strong naval base in for of several forts like Fort Canning, Fort Siloso. Currently the ONLY preserved fort is Fort Siloso which is located in Sentosa Island. This fort could not be advantage as Japanese unexpectedly attacked the fort from north side where cannons could not shoot.

We planned to visit Sentosa Island by cable. It costs S$18 for each ticket to reach till Sentosa. The main attraction on Sentosa are many but we just saw Fort Siloso and beach. You have to change cable at two places.

On way to Sentosa Island. You can either reach by cable or by road. But by cable you get good view. 30 Minutes by cable.

Beach view from cable at Sentosa. We can see many ships harboring here. Singapore is maintaining the legacy of being busiest port since last few centuries.

Map of spots in Fort Siloso. The for closes by 5.30 PM and it takes 2 hours to go round the fort.

During WW-II British sailed its fleet from Singapore to other area and so Japan occupied Singapore easily with surrender of 60,000 British soldiers. But in 1945 British regained Singapore.

The ONLY painting now available in Singapore Art Gallery about Japanese atrocities- We can see that painter has depicted Japanese with guns in hand and dragging the cuffed Singapore locals whom they think are Anti Japanese.

Post independence we can see today is due to reforms of its first Prime Minister Lee Kuwan Yew. Just to mention that due to fear of invasion of Malaya in 1965, Israel helped Singapore to develop its military and Singapore is major buyer of arms from Israel.

Sook Ching Inspection Center- This is the building where in World war 2 Anti-Japanese were interograted and if failed the test were taken to remote place and executed. And if fortunately they passed the interrogation their hand was stamped with permanent ink.

There is a war memorial located just in heart of city and near to Asian Museum. This war memorial has three monuments – Indian National Army memory, World War memorial and “Struggle against Communist Malaya” monument. There is special characteristic in Singapore. They have whatever little of monuments remaining now but they have kept it as memory in form of stone inscriptions or statues models depicting that time honestly.

Singapore admits Netaji Subhas Indian National Army which fought against British in World War-II. This shows that modern Singapore follows history unbiased.

Here was the big monument was constructed in 1943 to commemorate Indian National Army- But later in 1945 as soon as British made come back they demolished the memorial.

Memorial constructed to pay respect to fighters who fought against Communist Malayaa and then Singapore seperated from Malaya in 1965 to become a sovereign state.

Though Singapore was not affected so much but it (British) had to face the invasions of Japan and also some of its citizens lost life in these wars.

We end this article with the visit of Buddha Maitreya temple. The year of construction of this temple is not marked anywhere. This temple is also in heart of city.

Buddha Maitreya temple. The year of construction of this temple is not marked anywhere. This temple is also in heart of city.

Synopsys

When we go around Singapore city we can see that modern Singapore has overpowered its historical monuments. British ruled here from 1818 and did not pay any attention to preserve its forts and they even destroyed it. But Singapore has made all efforts tor revive those scanty memories in form of Museum, art gallery and by installing some scriptures in granite stone spread in many the streets.

I will talk about the modern part of Singapore in next article.