Chu Seng Temple
This Chinese temple along Ang Mo Kio Street 61 houses three temples – Ji Fu Gong (集福宫), Hua Tang Fu (华堂府) and Long Quan Yan (龍泉岩)– all of which hailed from villages in Yio Chu Kang.
It is unclear when Ji Fu Gong was originally established. However, there are two artefacts, a sedan and a tablet, dated 1918, indicating the year in which the temple and opera stage were rebuilt. One of the deities, Lord Xiao, was said to be particularly effective in ensuring a good return in farming. Pig farmers, especially, would bring ailing pigs to ask for healing and to request protection over their herds whenever swine flu struck. During festivals, it was common to see over a thousand pigs and pigs’ heads as offerings, together with chickens, ducks etc, by farmers to the deity.
Hua Tang Fu is said to have begun in 1918 when immigrants of the surname Shi brought along the statues of their patron deities from their hometown in Shan Mei village, Anxi county, Fujian province, China and installed them in Bukit Ho Swee. Later, many members of the Shi family settled in Yio Chu Kang, where they established a temple to house the statues.
As for Long Quan Yan, it was formerly located along Yio Chu Kang Track 24 (defunct), an area known locally as Lao Pah (Hokkien: Old plantation). The temple began in the 1930s, when an immigrant from Nan An county, Fujian province, came to Singapore bearing the statue of the deity Fa Zhu Gong and installed it in his residence. A temple was constructed in the 1940s and an opera stage erected in 1952.
In the 1970s, the government began acquiring the land around Yio Chu Kang for redevelopment and most of the villagers were resettled in Hougang and Ang Mo Kio. The three temples combined in 1978 to form Chu Sheng Temple, which name means a “temple where deities gather”. The temple building at Ang Mo Kio was completed in 1981 and has undergone a few rounds of renovation and extensions since. Today, Chu Sheng Temple is also active in providing social welfare services and community work.
Methodist Church in Ang Mo Kio
The decision to build a Methodist church in Ang Mo Kio came about in 1976 at a meeting held by the Trinity Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Singapore (TRAC) at Barker Road Methodist Church. The conference felt that it was important to cater to believers staying in the upcoming town.
Following that, TRAC located and rented a house in Mayflower Estate as residence for the appointed pastor. The ground floor of the house was used to hold services from 1976 onwards and religious outreach activities were carried out. At the same time, two other Methodist conferences, Paya Lebar Chinese Methodist Church and the Emmanuel Tamil Annual Conference also began to preach among residents in Ang Mo Kio.
As such, these three Methodist conferences decided to jointly build a church in Ang Mo Kio. Their bid for the plot of land along Ang Mo Kio Street 21 was successful and groundbreaking was carried out in 1979. The church building was completed in 1981.
As the congregation grew over the years, the existing facilities were insufficient to cope with the number of worshippers. In 1995, the church carried out extension works and in 1997, a third floor was added. However, by the turn of the century, it had become necessary for the church to undergo rebuilding. In 2008, the church embarked on an extensive redevelopment project to construct a bigger and better-equipped building.
Ang Mo Kio Regional Library
Opened on 19 August 1985, the Ang Mo Kio Public Library (formerly known as Ang Mo Kio Branch Library) was the fifth full-time branch library to be built. Prior to that, residents in Ang Mo Kio had to travel to Toa Payoh for the nearest library. Planning for the library began as early as 1978. The site was finalised by 1979 and construction began only in 1983. Meanwhile, a temporary mobile library was opened in 1981, housed in the former HDB Area (East) Office at Block 528, Ang Mo Kio Street 52, to serve the residents.
When the library opened in 1985, the response from residents was overwhelming. Huge crowds turned up and the wait to borrow books took easily more than an hour. The library had to set up a temporary loans counter in its garage to help ease the queue, which snaked outside the library building.
The library underwent extensive renovations and upgrading in 2002. It now houses the National Library's first Indian Library service, focusing on materials relating to Indian history, culture, art and philosophy and holds the largest Tamil language collection among all the libraries
