ABOUT US - History




The Beginning

The history of Poh Ming Tse Temple (PMT) can be traced back to 1934. At that time, the landowner was a European named Mr. C.V. Miles. For some reasons, he had to leave Singapore. When he returned to Singapore later on, he realized that a temple had been built on his land although the building plans and drawings were not signed and approved by him. Subsequently, he transferred the land ownership to the founder of the temple, Upasika Chen Miao Hua (‘Upasika’ refers to a lay female Buddhist), who later entrusted the temple to Upasika Lin Miao Deng.





Late Founder – Venerable Qing Hui

In 1965, the elderly Upasika Lin invited Venerable Qing Hui from Leong San Temple to be the abbot of PMT. Venerable Qing Hui also undertook the task of rebuilding the temple as it was old and rundown by then. One of the trustees, the late Mr Chua Kim Cheng and other donors came forward to offer financial assistance to rebuild the temple as well.

After much difficulty in raising funds, the reconstruction was finally completed during the Lunar New Year of 1970. Almost half of the rebuilding expenses were shouldered by Venerable Qing Hui. In 1997, Venerable Qing Hui passed away at the age of 81 after fulfilling his life mission in serving the Triple Gem.




Modernization

In 2006, the management of PMT decided to focus on the propagation of Buddhism in modern Singapore. Thus PMT went through a second round of rebuilding. Finally, in July 2009, a new three-storey building with modern facilities was completed on the site of the old temple to serve the Buddhist community in Singapore.