Night Sketch @ Tiong Bahru, Singapore

A Place of Worship

It all started with an ancient Chinese mythology which described how a monkey was born of a magical stone, grew up to become the strongest deity and eventually created a big mess in the heavenly realms. To redeem his sins, he accompanied a monk on a legendary journey to the west (India) to receive teachings of the Buddha. People called this monkey deity “Sun Wu Kong” but since his power and strength equaled that of the heavens, he was also known as “Qi Tian Da Shen” – which literally means “deity equals heavens” – and this is exactly the name of this temple which I sketched @ Tiong Bahru. As this myth was passed down generations to generations, the Chinese began to worship the mythological figure, whether or not there is any proof of the existence of such being. But anyway that is not the point of this sketch … I was with Tia and Paul, Singapore’s local urban sketchers on a night sketch spree at that location. We had lots of food and loads of colors to spend the night with.

It is really different to be able to sketch with a bunch of friends. I felt the night was special because we were all sharing ideas and even talking about life. Besides we were “sharing” food too. I love the place, sketching in the night breeze, over tea, and eavesdropping on the hottest coffee shop talk at the neighboring tables.

🙂