What is the significance of housing the various faiths in one shared location

Visit the Loyang Tua Pek Kong Temple (http://lytpk.org.sg/index.htm). The Loyang Tua Pek Kong Temple is home to Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist deities and a Muslim karmat (shrine) within its premises.

Reflect and critically analyse how the visit questions your understanding of the practice of race and religion in Singapore. In doing so, explain the concept of inter-faith tolerance and peaceful co-existence in Singapore, apply relevant concepts and theories covered in the course.

In your answer, you may wish to consider the following questions:

 What is the significance of housing the various faiths in one shared location?

 Who leads the religious activities and how is the worship of the various religions organised?

 What are some of the practices and behaviors you observed for each worship and distinguish what are some of the similarities and differences noted?

 Who visits the temple and do they restrict themselves from worshiping the deities from their own faith or do they also worship deities from the other faiths?

 In your discussion, you may also want to examine the relationship between the Singapore state and religion and what are the various initiatives undertaken in Singapore with regards to religion and worship.

 Another interesting point you may wish to consider is in the era of religious fundamentalism, racial and religious intolerance, how may inter-faith initiatives like the Loyang Tua Pek Kong Temple promote a more cordial relationship among practitioners of various faiths?

Although this is primarily field research and based on firsthand observations, you will need to refer to secondary sources, such as media articles, for background information on the temple. Ensure that you include references and provide a bibliography of the cited sources in your assignment. Write your answers in not more than 1,500 words. Please remember to provide the word count, and list of references.

There are TWO questions in the booklet. Only need to focus on the first question under TMA01