西天园佛铺 / Say Tian Hng Buddha Shop

西天园佛铺 / Say Tian Hng Buddha Shop 6th-generation family business crafting wooden statues of Taoist and Buddhist deities by hand since 1840.

(www.saytianhng.com)
六代相传百年老店西天园佛铺，屹立于1840年，使用清朝早期技术手工，雕刻与修复道教和佛教木制神像与神主牌，运送国际。.

Perhaps, some things cannot be replaced by time; Perseverance is in itself a kind of faith.有些东西，或许无法被时代替代；有些坚持，本身就是一种信仰。...
16/01/2026

Perhaps, some things cannot be replaced by time; Perseverance is in itself a kind of faith.
有些东西，或许无法被时代替代；
有些坚持，本身就是一种信仰。
- PK Travel

Explore the gods of Singapore’s underbelly! Book here: https://www.saytianhng.com/our-events. Not free on this date? Sug...
03/01/2026

Explore the gods of Singapore’s underbelly! Book here: https://www.saytianhng.com/our-events. Not free on this date? Suggest a new date via the same link. We need only 2 to go!

On this twilight stroll through the nameless backalleys of the Central Business District, we will cross from sunset into night, Yang into Yin.

We will visit ramshackle Taoist street shrines set up lovingly next to dumpsters and under air-conditioner compressors, where the statues have aged, but the fruit offerings are still fresh.

We will learn the stories of their devotee yet hidden communities, comprising cardboard collectors, office secretaries, and hawkers.

We will learn how street shrines evolve, as their devotees play cat and mouse with government authorities, before the most efficacious among them evolve into temples.

We will learn about rituals that use everyday objects charged with poetic meanings, such as umbrellas, abacus, o***m pipes & Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. (You’ll never drink it the same way again.)

We will spy a secret Goddess of Mercy statue, chilling out quietly on a roof ledge. We will learn a different side of the usual nation-building story of Singapore.

The tour is secular in nature and suitable for guests of all religions and races. No prior knowledge of Taoism is required.

Starting point: Entrance of Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, Riverwalk shopping mall, 20 Upper Circular Rd, Singapore 058416. This is a 2min walk from Clarke Quay MRT station.

Ending point: A motorcycle parking lot somewhere in Tanjong Pagar.

Developed in partnership with Offbeat Singapore 🙌🏼

这尊神像的宝座上贴着漂亮的燕子和花卉贴纸作装饰 🌸🌼🌱由于我们修复的神像来自不同地方，类型多样，我们得以看到当今这门工艺中使用的各种技法。我们也许采用的是传统手艺，但我们并不评判，因为今天的“传统”，曾经是昨天的“现代”；而今天的“现代”，...
24/12/2025

这尊神像的宝座上贴着漂亮的燕子和花卉贴纸作装饰 🌸🌼🌱

由于我们修复的神像来自不同地方，类型多样，我们得以看到当今这门工艺中使用的各种技法。

我们也许采用的是传统手艺，但我们并不评判，因为今天的“传统”，曾经是昨天的“现代”；而今天的“现代”，终将也可能成为明天的“传统”。

This statue has pretty stickers of swallows and flowers decorating its throne, kinda like washi tape 🌸🌼🌱

Due to the diversity of statues that we restore, we get to see the many techniques used out there today in this craft. We don’t judge though. We may use traditional techniques. But what’s traditional today was modern yesterday. And what’s modern today becomes traditional tomorrow.

Discover the lost art of hand-crafting Daoist statues. Book here: https://www.saytianhng.com/our-eventsNot free on the a...
20/12/2025

Discover the lost art of hand-crafting Daoist statues. Book here: https://www.saytianhng.com/our-events

Not free on the above date? Give us a date of your own. We need just a minimum of 2 pax to confirm a new tour date. Do so via the same link above

Hidden among Tanjong Pagar’s skyscrapers and hipster bars, you’ll find a small 6th-generation workhop that’s one of the oldest heritage businesses in Singapore.

Founded in 1840, Say Tian Hng (“Garden of Western Heaven” in Hokkien) is filled from floor to ceiling with handcrafted wooden statues of deities from the Taoist pantheon, some as large as a chair, some as small as an iPhone.

You’ll find fearsome warlords and fair maidens, drunk monks and steely-faced magistrates, rebellious serpents and filial parrots.

Conducted by docents who are friends of the Ng family, the tour will introduce you to the stories of some of these deities, the ancient craft of effigy-making, and the iconography - such as the motifs, facial features, and weapons - used in the depiction of the deities.

There will not be any hands-on activities, but the artisans will be at the shop during the tour.

The programme is secular in nature and suitable for guests of all religions and races. No prior knowledge of Taoism is required.

这是一张我们曾祖父和曾叔公的合影，大约摄于 1896 年，是他们从 #金门 抵达新加坡时拍下的。那时他们都还只是刚成年的年纪，却很快地设立家族在海外的分支事业，用传统手工雕刻佛像。这张照片经由 Google 修复后，让我们真正意识到：...
20/12/2025

这是一张我们曾祖父和曾叔公的合影，大约摄于 1896 年，是他们从 #金门 抵达新加坡时拍下的。那时他们都还只是刚成年的年纪，却很快地设立家族在海外的分支事业，用传统手工雕刻佛像。

这张照片经由 Google 修复后，让我们真正意识到：他们当时有多年轻。人们在看旧的黑白照片时，往往会下意识地以为照片里的人都很年长；但眼前的，其实是一对兄弟，年纪并不比今天的国民服役男孩大多少。他们出国不是为了求学，而是为了工作；不是进入一份安稳舒适的职位，而是在一个充满不确定性的“拓荒城市”里，白手起家创立一门新事业。那放在今天，会是什么样的情景？

这不仅是我们家的故事，也是许多家庭共同的记忆与经历。

This is a photo of our great grandfather and great granduncle, taken around 1896 when they arrived in Singapore from Island ( #金门). They were barely adults, but they quickly got down to setting up the Singapore branch of the family business in China, hand-crafting wooden statues of Daoist and Buddhist deities.

This photo, restored by Google , made us realise how young they really were. When one sees old black-and-white photos, one somehow intuitively thinks the people in them are old. But this was a pair of brothers not much older than today’s NS boys, going overseas not to study but to work, not in a cushy job but to set up a new business in a cowboy town. What’s the equivalent today?

It’s a story of not just our family, but many of ours.

Out of nowhere came a creepy female voice, saying: “He is going to the market.”Seconds later came Papa’s voice: “Heee is...
17/12/2025

Out of nowhere came a creepy female voice, saying: “He is going to the market.”

Seconds later came Papa’s voice: “Heee ish going tosh the maaa kit.”

Turns out Papa is learning English. He was taking a break from painting the Goddess of Mercy, doing his daily quiz on Duolingo 😂💪🏼👍🏽

我们意外收到一位柔佛寺庙总务的来讯：“这尊有一百年历史的神像，是你们修复的吗？”去年大扫除时，他在神像背后发现了几行字，之后花了好几个月追寻它的来历，却始终找不出答案——直到他在网上偶然发现了我们。这尊神像的确出自我们家族的手笔，于 195...
20/11/2025

我们意外收到一位柔佛寺庙总务的来讯：“这尊有一百年历史的神像，是你们修复的吗？”

去年大扫除时，他在神像背后发现了几行字，之后花了好几个月追寻它的来历，却始终找不出答案——直到他在网上偶然发现了我们。

这尊神像的确出自我们家族的手笔，于 1954 年由已故祖父黄天送修复。当时他才 32 岁，但已经是家族第四代的木雕师傅。那个时候，家族事业已传承逾百年：约在 1840 年于中国创立，1896 年在新加坡落脚。

修复这尊神像七年前（1947 ），他的父亲猝然离世。祖父与他弟弟——两位年轻而手艺精湛的师傅——在克拉伯街 19 号的店里，请来一位道士主持科仪，手持一对弯月形的筊杯，向天祈卜：到底由谁来继承当时名为「西天國雕刻社」的老店。

结果显出天意要由他接手，祖父应允承担下来，也同时答应用店里的收入来供养整个大家族。

七年后，他把原来的店号交给弟弟打理，自己则在街角创立了「西天园佛铺」。

这尊神像就是在那一个不容易的年份被修复的，很可能是少数同时刻上他姓名与旧店店名的作品之一，底座下方还留有旧地址「大门内十九号」，是往年对克拉伯街一带的俗称，如今已不再常用。

铭文记载，这尊神像于 1927 年在他处雕成，1954 年由我们家修复。神像所奉的柔佛笨珍大伯公宫公宫的主神，庙宇坐落在距离新加坡车程大约一小时的宁静渔镇笨珍。

祖父于 2013 年离世，享年 91 岁。谁知道在往后的岁月里，他留下的一尊尊神像，还会为我们牵起多少新的缘分与友谊呢？

=====

We got a surprise message from a Johor temple manager: Was this 100-year-old statue repaired by you?

During last year’s spring cleaning, he’d found Chinese characters on its back and spent months tracing its history. No one knew - until he chanced upon us online.

It was ours indeed, repaired in 1954 by our late grandfather, Ng Tian Sang (黄天送). He was just 32, the 4th-generation craftsman of a heritage business already over 100 years old, founded around 1840 in China and set up in Singapore in 1896.

Seven years earlier in 1947, his father had died suddenly. Our grandfather and his younger brother - two young and skilled craftsmen in a Singapore picking itself up from the ruins of WWII - cast crescent-shaped wooden blocks before a Taoist priest at 19 Club Street, seeking Heaven’s divination on who should inherit the shop, known then as 西天國雕刻社 (Say Tian Kok Carving Studio).

The lot fell to him. He accepted, and also committed to using the shop’s income to support the entire extended family.

Seven years later, he passed the shop to his brother and set up 西天园佛铺 (Say Tian Hng Buddha Shop) around the corner.

This statue was repaired in that difficult year, likely one of the last to bear both his name and the name of the old shop, plus the address 大门内十九号 — “Within the Big Gate, No. 19”, using a colloquial name for the Club Street area no longer widely used today.

The inscriptions state that the statue was made in 1927 (elsewhere) and restored in 1954 (by us). It represents the main deity of the Johor Pontian Tua Peh Kong Temple (柔佛笨珍大伯公宫), located in the quiet fishing town of Pontian an hour’s drive from Singapore.

Our grandfather passed in 2013 at 91. Who knows what new friendships his statues will continue to rekindle in the years to come?by

Why papa doesn’t like to promise deadlines to customers: We wanted to perform the deconsecration (退神 / Tui Shen) ritual ...
04/11/2025

Why papa doesn’t like to promise deadlines to customers: We wanted to perform the deconsecration (退神 / Tui Shen) ritual today for these two statues. Alas, the almanac says today ain’t an auspicious day. So no choice, must wait!

In our traditional craft, the deconsecration ritual is one of the most important steps. It invites the deity’s presence to depart from the statue temporarily before the restoration can begin.

It’s an acknowledgement that a statue is sacred, having been consecrated previously and served as a focus of our customer’s devotion and spiritual practice.

The deconsecration is done only on auspicious dates, as determined by the Tong Shu (通書), the Chinese almanac which is a divination tool based on astrology, numerology, and cosmology. It involves some offerings, invocation, and ritualistic steps. (Sorry, can’t share more as it’s a trade secret 🙂)

Once completed, we have the peace of mind to, well, pluck out the beard, scrub off the grime, etc.

When the restoration is done, the reverse ritual is performed. Known as 开光 / Kai Guang, it invites the deity’s presence to return and reside in the statue again, turning the statue, now all cleaned up and bright again, back into a sacred object.

And yes, that’s gotta be done on an auspicious date too.

So no deadlines. Auspicious dates matter more!

After returning from the salon this afternoon with a puff of freshly permed hair, a rejuvenated Ah Ma suddenly went on a...
08/10/2025

After returning from the salon this afternoon with a puff of freshly permed hair, a rejuvenated Ah Ma suddenly went on a roll - cleaning, wiping, rearranging, completely ignoring our cries of “Danger!”, “Stop!”, “Sit down!” 😵

We probably don’t stand a chance, cos this is what 94-year-old Ah Ma has been doing since she married into the shop at the age of sweet 18 (Probably that includes the perming too).

Hands clasped in reverence but playfully perched on one leg like in a yoga class, 善财童子 (Shan Cai Tong Zi) is one of the ...
02/10/2025

Hands clasped in reverence but playfully perched on one leg like in a yoga class, 善财童子 (Shan Cai Tong Zi) is one of the best-known disciples of the iconic Goddess of Mercy.

In one of the many versions of his origin story, he is a boy from a wealthy family who visits 53 teachers in a determined attempt to seek truth and wisdom. His teachers included monks, gods and ordinary folks, reflecting how wisdom can be found in many places.

In our shop’s traditional iconography, his youth is captured in his eyebrows, which are neither white and wispy like the elderly Tua Peh Kong nor ferocious like the warrior Guan Gong, but thin, black and ending in a cheeky squiggle.

His skin tone is not the paler beige of elderly deities nor the sun-kissed beige of mighty warriors, but the gentle pinkish beige of a child.

Instead of bulky armour or elegant regalia, he dons a bareback肚兜, an undergarment typically worn by children in ancient China.

“Embroidered” on the “cloth” are intricate motifs of blossoming peonies, swirling clouds and leaping ocean waves depicted with thin threads of holy joss stick ash. The handcrafting is painstaking, for the statue is only 10 inches tall.

In his perfectly-balanced stance, one can be reminded of the broader theme of finding equilibrium.

And in the lotus flower atop which he stands, we are reminded of how purity can bloom, even if one was once stuck in the sticky mud of worldly attachments.

These soft and playful elements provide the balance to the resolve and calm in his eyes: He is a boy with eyes of a sage… and a golden pacifier hanging off his neck!

Discover the lost art of hand-crafting Daoist statues. Book here: https://www.saytianhng.com/our-eventsNot free on the d...
22/09/2025

Discover the lost art of hand-crafting Daoist statues. Book here: https://www.saytianhng.com/our-events

Not free on the date below? Give us a date of your own. We need just a minimum of 2 pax to confirm a new tour date. Do so via the same link above.

Hidden among Tanjong Pagar’s skyscrapers and hipster bars, you’ll find a small 6th-generation workhop that’s one of the oldest heritage businesses in Singapore.

Founded in 1840, Say Tian Hng (“Garden of Western Heaven” in Hokkien) is filled from floor to ceiling with handcrafted wooden statues of deities from the Taoist pantheon, some as large as a chair, some as small as an iPhone.

You’ll find fearsome warlords and fair maidens, drunk monks and steely-faced magistrates, rebellious serpents and filial parrots.

Conducted by docents who are friends of the Ng family, the tour will introduce you to the stories of some of these deities, the ancient craft of effigy-making, and the iconography - such as the motifs, facial features, and weapons - used in the depiction of the deities.

There will not be any hands-on activities, but the artisans will be at the shop during the tour.

The programme is secular in nature and suitable for guests of all religions and races. No prior knowledge of Taoism is required.

正在修复中的观世音佛像，慈光重现，普照十方 🙏🏻
10/09/2025

正在修复中的观世音佛像，慈光重现，普照十方 🙏🏻

Address

35 Neil Road
Singapore
088821

Opening Hours

Monday 10:00 - 21:00
Tuesday 10:00 - 21:00
Wednesday 10:00 - 21:00
Thursday 10:00 - 21:00
Friday 10:00 - 21:00
Saturday 10:00 - 21:00
Sunday 10:00 - 21:00

Telephone

+6562211042

Website

http://www.classicalchineseculture.com/

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