Originally posted by Student of Buddhism:
Hi there,
I'm a student of Buddhism and currently researching [b]Buddhist
material culture in Singapore. I'm interested in modern
Buddhist practices in S'pore, particularly among young people, as
well as contemporary Buddhist culture. Does anybody know any
Buddhist youth groups, meeting places or events,
Buddhist art exhibits, or anything to do with
material culture?
Any help would be much appreciated!!!
V
[/b]
I still don't quite understand what material culture is. But
anyway, just some contributions... These are some things u might
wanna look out for:
- There's a book sold in Evergreen which attempts to trace the
development of Buddhism in SIngapore. Won't say it's fully
comprehensive, but I think it's quite a fair reflection of the
development. It is a MUST if you want to study the evolution of
BUddhism and its culture in Singapore. Forgot the book title, check
it out with the staff.
- Buddhist youth groups, I guess u could check out the Singapore
Buddhist Mission youth group; Phor Kark See Youth Ministry;
Buddhist Fellowship; Fo Kwang Shan; Tzu Chi; there's a Buddhist
meditation group that uses Cheng Beng Buddhist Society for their
weekly meditation group practice, mostly are youths, but I can't
remember the group's name, so maybe u can check with Cheng Beng.
And of course check out all the Tertiary Institute Buddhist
Societies, (NYP, NP, SP, NUS, NTU, not sure if SMU has any yet).
THere are also many temples where many youths congregate for
various purposes maybe for dharma lessons etc but they may not be
formally organized as a "youth group" per se. OK for my own
sentimental sake, I just want to mention about the
now-no-longer-existing Viriya Young Buddhist Fellowship which used
to comprise 30-odd youths from the #buddhism channel from the MIRC.
Though it's non-existent now, many youths from the VYBF are now
actively involved in other BUddhist organizations or continue to be
Buddhist students and practitioners. 
- You also may want to check out the Buddhist Youth Leadership
Training Course which used to be developed by Cheng Beng Buddhist
Society and forgot which organizations. Later I think it was
adopted by the Buddhist Fellowship then I don't know what happened
after that.
- And then there are the Buddhist conferences. The almost yearly
Global Conference on Buddhism check it out on
http://www.buddhistfellowship.org/bf_new/pages/main/index.html
Recently there was also the Mahayana Buddhist Conference.
- Not to forget the annual celebrations of Vesak Day at the various
Buddhist temples and societies. And of course those
three-step-one-bow, bathing the baby Buddha, countdown, singing
songs, Dharma talks, etc.
- Also large-scale retreats attract youngsters too, like the annual
Om Retreat, the Meditation retreat held for professionals by Dharma
Drum, and I think a lot more which I don't know or can't finish
listing.
- where they congregate. Needless to say, the temples they are
affiliated with. And also some other places where there are
teachings/activities maybe like the Awareness Place Meditation
Centre; where there are Sunday schools like PHor Kark See, Tai Pei
Buddhist Centre, Buddha Mangala Vihara, Singapore Buddhist Mission;
where there are Buddhist courses, like Amitabha Buddhist Centre,
Sagaramudra, Phor Kark See, Hui Yan Jing She, Foo Hai Chan
Monastery; where there are Buddhist shops, like Awareness Place,
Kwan Yin Chan Lin; vegetarian restaurants, like Su Shi Lin
(opposite of Evergreen bookshop), Magenta Cafe, Fo You Yuan, Ci
Hang, Yogi Hub, The Whole Earth, Quality Hotel; where there are
welfare services, like SIngapore BUddhist Welfare Services, Tzu
Chi, Metta, Ren Ci, Viriya Community Services; Buddhist shops, like
Evergreen, Awareness Place, Ren Ting etc. Of course not to forget
the wonderful Buddhist Library!
- Buddhist music. Nobody has a full grasp of its development, but
everybody knows it's develoing albeit slowly. Check out the "Dharma
Resonance" which holds regular performances at the Ark Cafe
(http://www.dharmaresonance.com/). Check out the CDs by Wayfarers
(which I'm sure you can't find many now), Bodhicitta, D-Kidz
(http://d-kidz.com/), and many many new songs by the Tertiary
Institute Buddhist Societies. Check out the religious music
sections at the Buddhist bookshops. You'll find an amazing
collection. There are also many informal bands made up of BUddhist
youths who want to experiment with Buddhist music but they are
probably not so well known.
- Buddhist art. Unfortunately i'm no artistic person. Can't help
you much. But I remember last Vesak, there was an exhibition on
Gandhara Buddhist sculpture exhibition. Think there are 1-2 art
galleries at Bras Basah complex that have very nice and artistic
Buddhist sculptures.
- Movies with Buddhist themes/Buddhist-inspired. Can't say that all
of them are Buddhist-inspired, but many certainly seem to be so.
Little Buddha, Matrix, Da Zhi Lao, The Cup, Travellers &
Magicians, Kundun, Seven Years in Tibet, Angulimala, Words of My
Perfect Teacher, Zen & Love. Check out the International
Buddhist Film Festival http://www.ibff.org/
- Check out all the various Buddhist magazines at the Buddhist book
stores.
- Buddhist online games, such as http://dharmagames.org/
- Have a search on the yahoogroups to see if you could find local
online Buddhist groups. Also online forums like this one lor.
If there are too many names and organizations that I mentioned
above which you're unfamiliar with, try a search at
http://www.4ui.com/indexeng.htm it is one of the most comprehensive
directory of local Buddhist services and activities.
Also, do you happen to be a NUS student? There's a current NUS
student whom I know used to do a paper on Development of Buddhist
Culture in SIngapore, something like that. If you're interested,
you could try to approach him. Let me know if you need to.
