Opened in 1992, the Tampines Chinese Temple (淡滨尼联合宫) brings together 12 Taoist temples that once stood in Tampines before it was developed, including some that have been based here since the 19th century. The individual temples were informed in the early 1980s that they would have to relocate to another site to make way for the development of Tampines Town. Early attempts at grouping the temples together did not take off as some of the temples were wary of a loss of individual identity and management control. Moreover, only a select few temples had the resources to relocate and construct new temples elsewhere.
Nevertheless, the Tampines Chinese Temple organising committee was eventually formed in 1985, with help from the government’s resettlement officers.
The funds for the construction of the new temple were raised through donations from philanthropists and the community, auctions of blessed objects, and dinners celebrating occasions of religious significance. After nearly a decade of negotiations, fundraising, land acquisition and construction, the temple was officially declared open in December 1992 by former Minister for Communications Mah Bow Tan, who was also a Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC at that time.
One of the interesting features of the Tampines Chinese Temple is a 270-metre-long dragon sculpture that adorns the temple’s perimeter. Within the temple are nine altars enshrining deities of its constituent temples.
