The Sunday Review

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Wonderful how races, religions can mesh

As Singaporeans get ready to celebrate Chinese New Year on Tuesday, SOHO MACHIDA writes in praise of the country's cultural harmony

IT IS interesting that so many Singaporeans have asked me the same question again and again since I came here last summer.

The question is: "What do you think about Singapore?" and it comes from all levels of society. Singaporeans seem very keen to find out what kind of perception outsiders have of their country.

My answer is very clear. I like Singapore. The world-class Changi airport looks magnificent particularly after the flight which I took from the miserable old terminal of Tokyo International Airport.

Singapore's state-of-art shopping malls can easily beat those in Tokyo or New York. The richness of the food culture alone is enough for me not to regret my move from the United States to Singapore.

However, none of the above is the real reason that I like Singapore. What I am most impressed by is the indomitable vitality exuded here by people of various faiths and skin colours living and working together.

A few weeks after my arrival, I started visiting Hindu temples around the city. I was very curious about Hinduism because of its sharp contrasts with the religions with which I am familiar, Buddhism and Christianity.

One day, I happened to stop by the neighbouring Buddhist temple after my visit to the Sivan Temple in Geylang. To my surprise, I found three Indian women there offering incense to the Buddha in the temple.

I know that there are historical and philosophical links between Hinduism and Buddhism, but I have never seen with my own eyes real Hindus dressed in saris worshipping in a Buddhist temple.

While this sort of thing may not arouse the least attention among the locals, it will remain as an unforgettably beautiful picture in my mind.

There is certainly a reason behind my surprise at what I saw at the Buddhist temple. Is there any day when we do not have to read newspaper articles about cruel bloodshed in Indonesia, the Middle East, Yugoslavia, Ireland, and so on?

Most of these gruesome conflicts involve groups of people with different religious and ethnic backgrounds. In the southern US, dozens of black churches have been burnt by white arsonists. Retaliatory actions have also taken place.

Needless to say, the people on both sides are Christians. There are so many places in the world where people of different faiths and skin colours continue to confront and fight each other, or where they are sharply segregated.

In that respect, the scene of a Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple standing next to each other with a mosque not far away, as we see in Geylang and Bugis Junction, looks like a fairy tale to me.

NO TENSION LIKE IN JERUSALEM

ONE senses no atmosphere of tension whatsoever in these areas of Singapore, unlike what one feels in Jerusalem, the sacred city of the Jews, Christians and Muslims.

When I observed the Hindu festival of Thaipusam last month, I really fell in love with Singapore. First, I was surprised to see the intense trance that some devotees entered into before their bodies were pierced with needles, and to see their perseverance in being able to walk with heavy milk pots and spiked kavadis all the way from Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Serangoon Road to Thendayuthapani Temple in Tank Road.

It pained my heart to see some devotees who became completely exhausted on the way, but still kept struggling forward.

I actually invited my wife to go with me to see this once-a-year important event, but she turned down my invitation, saying that she would faint at the sight of people pierced with needles in their tongues and lips.

Her attitude of delicate sensibility contradicted with the boldness she shows me every day at home, but I did not point out the contradiction for the sake of the peace of our home.

Anyway, that is why I had to call her at home from Serangoon Road to report what I was observing there, as if I were a Straits Times reporter.

But I was not quite successful in conveying to my wife the real excitement which I was having that day. What struck me most was not the ascetic devotions I observed at Thaipusam, but the inter-religious and inter-racial interactions during the festival.

Some of the Indian devotees were being helped by Chinese friends, while a small number of Chinese devotees were being helped by Indian friends. I was ecstatic to witness this perfect picture of inter-ethnic harmony, as if I myself were one of the devotees in their trance.

I actually talked to some devotees waiting to join the procession and asked why they wanted to do it and how they prepared themselves for the day. During my conversation with them, I found out that the Chinese devotees were not necessarily Hindu believers, but that even so, they observed properly the preparatory fasting for several weeks.

I almost started laughing, not because I thought it was absurd for non-believers to participate in such a demanding ritual, but because I felt so happy to see how well these people inter-mingle despite their religious and racial differences.

Singapore deserves worldwide recognition as the true "melting-pot".

Then I became a bit mischievous and decided to check out how Muslims might be reacting to this big Hindu festival taking place right in front of their mosque. When I entered the yard of the mosque on Serangoon Road, there was a group of people sitting in a circle and reading the Quran.

Someone told me to leave because I was wearing short trousers with my legs half-exposed. Luckily, another important-looking person came over and asked me why I was there. I was hesitant to tell him my real reason and immediately came up with the explanation that I would like to know more about Islam because I am finishing my sixth book on religious experience (which by the way is not a lie).

Unexpectedly, he invited me into the innermost room of the mosque and allowed me to have a conversation with his fellows.

NO NEED FOR A GANDHI IN S'PORE

IT IS a great shame that many of us in the US tend too easily to link Muslims with terrorism, mostly because of what we hear in the media. These Muslims, however, were among the most polite and friendly people I have ever met in any sort of religious organisation.

While I kept asking my naive questions, sometimes mimicking the words of the Quran, people came one after another with cookies and juice. They even urged me to stay for lunch!

I finally got up the courage to ask my burning question: "What do you think about these Hindus with needles pierced in their bodies parading by right in front of your mosque?"

The answer was short yet precise. They said that they respect Hindus who show their sincere devotion to their god. Even the great Mahatma Gandhi could not quite control the hostility between Hindus and Muslims in India.

But we obviously do not need a Gandhi in Singapore. Jan 31 became my day.

In Singapore, I am witnessing a new principle of human life. It is almost a revolution in my thought to find that cultural diversity is not a threat, but a unifying force for a nation.

In many countries, including my own, Japan, people still believe that they have to maintain cultural homogeneity to defend their national identity from intruding foreign elements.

But the theory that cultural diversity is a threat to national unity is becoming obsolete, just like communism, the death of which we have all witnessed in our recent history.

I once had a chance to ask a personal question of some young Chinese Singaporeans: Whether they would marry a Malay or an Indian if they fell in love with one. They all said yes, and they also said that their parents would respect their decision.

If that is true, it is almost unbelievable to me. I wonder how many Japanese youths have given up their romance with their non-Japanese boyfriends or girlfriends, perhaps a Japanese-born Korean, in face of their parents' adamant opposition.

The thing that Singaporeans should be most proud of, I believe, is this unusual openness to religious, ethnic and cultural pluralism. How many countries celebrate the New Year three times every year?

This is one of the very few places in the world where people with different faiths, skin colours, and lifestyles can live together without despising each other.

I wish that the Port of Singapore Authority and Neptune Orient Line would export this "spiritual value" from their ports to every corner of the world. Without tariffs, of course.

In order to authenticate my objectivity, I must balance my comments on Singapore by pointing out some unpleasant scenes which I constantly encounter here.

I am disappointed when people throw litter where they think they are unseen, when store clerks fail to thank their customers, and when people rush onto Mass Rapid Transit trains before other passengers have got off.

I am wondering if I should mention these things as well the next time I am asked: "What do you think about Singapore?"

The writer was a Zen monk for 20 years in Japan before he moved to the United States in 1984. He has a master's degree in Theological Studies from Harvard University, and a PhD in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught Japanese cultural history for eight years at Princeton University till last year. He has several publications on Japanese religion. He lives with his family in Singapore.

What struck me most was not the ascetic devotions I observed at Thaipusam, but the inter-religious and inter-racial interactions during the festival. Some of the Indian devotees were being helped by Chinese friends, while a small number of Chinese devotees were being helped by Indian friends. I was ecstatic to witness this perfect picture of inter-ethnic harmony, happy to see how well these people inter-mingle despite their religious and racial differences.

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