E n C Week Reflection

" Experiencing another's culture may open doors that were previously closed ... but the choice to walk through those doors are entirely up to you."

What do we know about the other races? What do we know about the other religions?

What do we know about others' cultures? Well, I do not know much about the other cultures in Singapore but after the eye-opening week, I learnt more about others' cultures. Together with my classmates, we went on a learning journey to places such as Little India, Kampong Glam, Sultan Mosque and Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah on three differents days. 

Day 1: Little India

Little India is a buzzing historic area that shows off the best of Singapore's Indian community from vibrant culture to incredible shopping.

Walking through the alleys in Little India, I spotted many shops that sell flower garlands. The flowers were so bright and beautiful that they attracted bees. It was a scary experience as I am very scared of bees and there were many bees. That is not all, a flower shop has many bees which are scary enough, the thing is there are so many flower shops! Hence, whenever I walk pass the flower shops, I always stay as far as possible from the flower shops. Besides that, I learnt that these flowers eternity, purity and divinity and a symbol of life, fertility, ever-renewing youth and describes feminine beauty.

At Little India Arcade, we saw many different types of snacks. I also tried some of them and they taste delicious. I realised that they even used spices such as curry leaves for some of the snacks. Besides that, I also tried the Chocolate Burfi, a type of sweet made out of a layer of chocolate and a layer of condensed milk, which tasted extremely sweet. I also saw many of my friends trying out the Henna-drawing on their hands, there are many designs and all of them have their very own kind of beauty. After doing some research online, I learnt that Henna is regarded as having Barakah, also known as blessings, and is applied for luck as well as joy and beauty. It is applied on ladies during festive events such as marriage and Deepavali. 

Next, we went to Tekka Market. At the first level, there is a hawker centre where we can find food, due to time constraint, my group did not have a chance to try out any of the traditional Indian food as we spent too much time at the second level of Tekka Market, where traditional Indian costumes are sold. If we were to look closely to the traditional Indian costumes, we can see that the costumes are decorated with tiny gold ornaments, which make the costumes look glamourous.

Lastly, we went to the Sri Veeramakliamman Temple which is located in the heart of Little India. The temple is very colourful and stunning. Many Hindus often go there to pray. In the temple, I witnessed a few Hindus throwing coconuts against the floor, I was curious about why they have to do that so I went to do some research online. The reason behind it is that only when the physical world or maya is stripped or smashed away, one can one relieve stress and burden. Smashing coconuts is a spiritual technology and the smashing of it is symbolic of the removal of karmas that create obstacles on many different levels of spiritual and material evolution.

Day 2: Kampong Glam

Kampong Glam is a flourishing centre of Malay and Islamic culture. Whilst its Malay-Muslim Identity, the streets of Kampong Glam today are bustling with commercial activities amidst the presence of other communities.

We went to the Kampong Glam cafe which is located along Muscat Sreet, Baghdad Street or Northbridge Road. Over there, I shared a plate of Nasi Padang with my friend and it was delicious! Nasi Padang is commonly mistaken as Nasi Lemak, but it is not. Nasi Padang is a Padang steamed rice served with various choices of pre-cooked dished originated from Padang city, the capital of West Sumatra, Indonesia. It is a miniature banquet of meats, fish, vegetables and spicy sambals eaten with plain white rice. 

Day 3: Sultan Mosque and Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah

Sultan Mosque is also known as Masjid Sultan, a mosque located at Muscat Street and North Bridge Road within the Kampong Glam precinct of the district of Rochor in Singapore. The mosque is considered one of the most important mosques in Singapore. The prayer hall and domes highlight the mosque's star features. Before entering the mosque, the Muslims first have to take off their shoes and socks. Then, they will proceed to the water taps that can be easily found in the mosque and do the ritual cleansing which is known as ablution or wudu in Arabic before performing their prayers. There are eight steps in performing the ablution. 

Afterwards, they will proceed to the prayer hall to perform their prayers. In mosques, places that are covered with carpets are called Itikaf, where people pray. All the carpets are arranged in a way such that they are facing in one direction, Mecca. Muslims pray five times a day. The first prayer is during midday after the sun passes its highest, which is known as Zuhr. The second prayer is at dawn, before sunrise, which is known as Fajr. The third prayer is just after sunrise, which is known as Maghrib. The fourth prayer is between sunset and midnight, which is known as Isya. Lastly, the fifth prayer is during the late part of the afternoon, which is known as Asr. Muslims also need to be dressed properly when they go to a mosque, Muslim men and women should both cover as much skin as possible and women are required to cover their heads with hijab. Many people tend to have this misconception of all Malays are Muslims, but this is not true, there are also Christian-Malays and Buddist-Malays. In addition, not all Muslims are ISIS, ISIS have misunderstood and misinterpreted peace, they thought through violence, peace can be found in the world. True Muslims will not act violently towards others. Moreover, after interacting with so many Muslims in Singapore, I find all of them friendly so I hope that to some people out there who think that all Muslims are a part of ISIS, could stop thinking it in the wrong way.

After visiting Sultan Mosque, we went to Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah, Madrasah Aljunied is one of the 6 Madrasahs in Singapore. Madrasah is a religious institution that offers a pedagogical mix of Islamic religious education and secular education in their curricula. Madrasah Aljunied Al-Islamiah provides education for both secondary and pre-university students and has around 1000 over students. This religious school provides 16 subjects, which some subjects are optional for the students to take. Besides providing academic and Islamic educations, students in Madrasah Aljunied also get to learn about the Islamic art & culture, such as martial art called Silat, calligraphy called Khat and also traditional Malay instruments such as kompang. Lesson hours for students is from 7.45 am to around 4 pm, which is roughly around 8 hours, in between, there will be a lunch break and a prayer break. I used to think that religious schools’ students just learn about their religion and take some basic subjects, but after knowing that they have around 16 subjects to juggle with, I kind of respect them a lot. I am taking 7 subjects and I am already here "dying", but if I were to choose between going home late from school due to school activities and juggling with 16 subjects, I would definitely choose the first option.

Although I had been to these places when I was in primary school, but this time round it was definitely a different and fruitful experience as I have a number of takeaways from this learning journey. On these three days, I learnt about the Indian and Malay culture and overcame common stereotypes and discriminations. However, I hope that the duration of the learning journey can be extent as there was not enough time for us to explore around. As for Kampong Glam, we went too early and most of the shops along Arab Street and Muscat Street Were still closed, hence there was nothing much for us to explore. I hope that the school will take note of my feedbacks so that the next badge will get to have a better experience of the learning journey.