Anyway, I would like to share an experience offered at Fo Guang Shan (佛光山) which not many might know. Located just less than 10 minutes walk from Punngol Mrt, Fo Guang Shan (佛光山) is basically a place of worship for Buddhist and it has a teahouse which serves satisfying vegetarian options for both devotees and the public.
Btw, this is my first blog post after over 2 years and I have recently exported my content from Blogger to WordPress.
The decision to continue blogging wasn’t exactly because of the covid-19 and Singapore implementing circuit breaker mode, which forces most people to hide in their homes.
My friend was the one who introduced me this place and so far I have been to this waterdrop teahouse twice, both times seated indoors on low wooden tables and chairs.
The first time round we had Steam Dumplings, Sliced Ngoh Hiang, Peanut Tofu, Chee Cheong Fan and shared a pot of Ginger Tea. I love the Peanut Tofu the most since it reminded me of Okinawan Peanut Tofu which has the similar texture and appears in menus of almost every restaurants in Okinawa, Japan. Teapot was refillable and I love the intense spicy ginger tea!
As for the second round, we ordered the Kway Pie Tee, Osmanthus Jelly and shared a pot of Mix Fruits Tea. I wanted to try the Crispy Ginger yet both times were sold out as we had tea around 2pm. The intense red fruits tea leaned towards the sweeter side which wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. The food was standard, not really much of an issue since the purpose of our journey was mainly to chill and head over to level 2 Sutra Hall for calligraphy writing.
This was the level 2 Sutra Calligraphy Hall, set up by Fo Guang Shan (佛光山) in accordance to Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s beliefs of “Nurturing talents through education and propagating the dharma through culture”.
I have been wanting to practice calligraphy in a while and I last touched an actual brush since primary 2. Besides my name, my last written Chinese was after ”O” Levels. Imagine how hard I gripped the brush pen the first time I wrote for just 2 lines of characters.
The phrases and sutras had faint prints on them for tracing purposes and I definitely did try to replicate every stokes thanks to my calligraphy knowledge I gained almost 20 years back. It took me almost an hour to finish the sutra with a bit of finger flexing in between. Definitely a great way to cultivate one’s patience and mind.
I definitely foresee myself heading back for more practice!
