Events
Daily & Full-Moon Pūjā
A service of offering and chanting, held every day of the year. No booking, no fee, no experience needed — the door is open, and you may join in or simply sit.
What pūjā is
Pūjā is an act of devotional offering. Flowers, light and incense are offered before the Buddha image, and Pāli verses are chanted before it. The flowers fade by evening, the candle burns down, the incense goes out — the offering is a teaching about impermanence as much as an act of respect.
Nothing is asked of you. People come to make the offering themselves, to chant along, or to sit at the back and listen.
The daily round
The Shrine Hall is open every day, Monday to Sunday, 7am to 9.30pm, for quiet devotion. Services are held at the same times all year round.
| Time | Service |
|---|---|
| 11.00am daily | Buddha Pūjā — the core offering-service made to the Buddha |
| 6.45pm daily | Mahā Bodhi Pūjā — honouring the Bodhi tree, under which the Buddha awakened |
| 7.00pm daily | Buddha Pūjā |
On Sundays the 11.00am service is the public Buddha Pūjā and the busiest of the week — doors open at 10.45am, and the Sunday Dhamma School for children runs at 9.30am beforehand. If you are driving, the car park fills; arrive by 10.20am.
What is chanted
Chanting follows The Path of Emancipation, the devotional text the temple's founder, Venerable M. M. Mahaweera, first published in 1938 — before Mangala Vihara itself existed — for a small group of Chinese devotees who wanted to learn Pāli chanting. A later edition, around 1948, added an English translation with the help of Venerable Nārada Thera and Venerable B. Kassapa. It is still the book used at daily pūjā here.
The temple was the first in Singapore to teach Pāli chanting to lay devotees, and it is lay devotees, not only the monks, who lead the daily services. Pāli chanting classes run each year from July to December and begin with exactly these daily-service chants before moving on to the longer protective suttas.
Full-moon and new-moon days
Full-moon days — uposatha — are the traditional observance days of the Buddhist month, and the temple keeps an 11.00am Full Moon Pūjā on them. The lunar month is reckoned so that the new moon begins it and the full moon falls at its middle; the major festivals of the year, Vesak above all, fall on full-moon days.
Many devotees take the Eight Precepts for the day, and some spend it at the temple.
[PLACEHOLDER, temple to supply: whether anything additional is held on new-moon days, and whether the Eight Precepts are formally administered at the temple on uposatha days or simply undertaken personally.]
Bojjhaṅga recitation
The Bojjhaṅga are the seven factors of awakening, and their recitation is one of the tradition's chants of healing and protection — traditionally chanted for the sick.
At Mangala Vihara the Bojjhaṅga recitation is chanted at the Bodhi Tree Shrine, and it is one of the services the temple records for devotees who cannot attend in person, along with the Full Moon Pūjā and the Metta Suttanta, the loving-kindness recitation.
Please check the current day and time for the Bojjhaṅga recitation before coming — call the temple on +65 6744 4285, or visit the office on Sunday between 10am and 1pm.
Joining in, or simply watching
Come as you are, a little before the time. Shoes off at the door. Sit anywhere; there is no reserved seating. If you would like to make an offering, flowers are available at the temple.
You are not expected to chant. Many people who attend regularly do not — following along quietly is an ordinary way to be there. If you would like to learn, the Pāli chanting classes are open to beginners and start with the Path of Emancipation.
All services are open and free. Simply come.