The festival of Timithi (also spelt Theemithi, meaning fire walking in Tamil) marks a Hindu ceremony during which male devotees walk across a fire pit in prayer to the goddess Draupadi Amman. The festival was introduced in Singapore by the caulker community, who specialised in boat building and who traced their roots to the seaside Cuddalore and Poigainallur areas in South India. They brought with them the cult of Draupadi, a Tamil folk goddess associated with the Mahabarata, an Indian epic. Albert Street was once the location for Timithi which is one of the two oldest Hindu festivals in Singapore. The street was known as Thimiri Thidal (or “the place where people tread on fire” in Tamil) to Indians. In 1870, Timithi was relocated to the Sri Mariamman Temple at South Bridge Road, where it continues to be held to this day. Yip Yew Chong is a Singaporean artist whose artistic practice commenced in 2015 with popular street murals. In this painting, Yew Chong combines his memories with archival photography to present an imagined portrayal of the festival of Timithi. It reminds us of the absence of a record of how community led celebrations and events were held in the 19th century up to the early 20th century.When Yew Chong’s family was resettled in a HDB flat in Chinatown, they were fortunate to be allocated the 25th floor. Not only did they have a panoramic view of the city, the sea and nearby Indonesian islands, they also enjoyed a bird’s eye view of all the festivals in Chinatown. This painting shows the annual fire walking festival, Timithi, held at the Sri Mariamman Temple which is located in the heart of Chinatown. But in this depiction, Yew Chong has turned the clock further back to 1909. It shows the original gopuram (temple tower in Tamil) — a simpler three-tier tower with a thatched roof leading to the temple altar. That thatched roof caught fire in 1910 and the gopuram was replaced in the 1930s with a more intricate five-tier tower. To this day, the splendid Timithi festival is still held annually at the temple.
