Get Involved
BPCA · The College alumni
Graduates of the Buddhist and Pāli College who stayed. They teach, they volunteer, they practise taiji on Monday nights — and they built the temple's beginners' course themselves.
Who it is for
Anyone who has studied at the Buddhist and Pāli College of Singapore, which has run at Mangala Vihara since 1993 and marked its thirtieth anniversary in 2023. The College is a certified provider of Buddhist education, affiliated to the Buddhist and Pāli University of Sri Lanka, and its principal is Bhante Seelananda, the temple's chief resident monk.
Students come through the Diploma in Buddhism — the 2026 cohort is the 33rd intake — and continue through GAQ, BA and MA levels, with a Chinese-medium Diploma added in January 2024. The alumni association is what that body of graduates becomes afterwards.
What the group does
It teaches
The alumni conceived and built the College's Introduction to Buddhism outreach course — a short course for people with no background at all, covering the life of the Buddha, the Five Precepts, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, kamma and rebirth, and the Brahma-Vihāras. Alumni prepared the slides and handouts and taught it themselves; the first course drew around fifty students, and two more followed the same year. The intention, stated plainly at the time, was to reach people who might otherwise never hear the Dhamma.
It volunteers
Alumni turn up in the working parts of the temple's big days. At the 2025 National Day Piṇḍapāta, the runners and sorters — described by the organisers as the hardest job of the day, collecting requisite bags along the procession and consolidating them in the Mangala Hall — were led by Sister Lynn Choy and Sister Eve Phua of the BPC Alumni Volunteer Group.
It keeps people together
Alumni organise the College's Lunar New Year gathering, which has drawn more than sixty teachers and students for lo hei, a questionnaire written to build kalyāṇamitta bonds and to teach newer students about the temple and the College, and blessings from the venerables. Alumni have also travelled together — sixteen went to Bhutan in May 2010.
When and where it meets
BPC Alumni Taiji · Mondays, 7.30pm – 9.00pm
Mangala Hall, level 1.
Other alumni gatherings follow the College and temple calendar rather than a fixed weekly slot.
[PLACEHOLDER, temple to supply: whether the association holds its own regular meeting or annual general meeting, and when.]
How to join
If you have studied at the College, speak to your lecturers or ask at the office. If you have not, the way in is the College itself — course preview sessions are held before each Diploma intake.
Days and times above are the regular pattern. Please confirm the current term before coming — call the temple on +65 6744 4285, or visit the office on Sunday between 10am and 1pm.