Photo: Warding off Photographers in Singapore’s Chinatown, 0, Singapore. Travelfish Photo pool on Flickr. Taken on 2012-02-06 10:00:06

Warding off Photographers in Singapore’s Chinatown

This Hindu priest is not waving hello to me. He is imitating the Protection Buddha which is to have the right hand raised, palm outward so as to offer protection or to ward off fear, delusion and anger.

Or maybe he just trying to wave off another foreigner from taking his photograph?

While on a photo walk with local photographer Charlie Kwan we explored Singapore’s very compact Chinatown. This being Singapore with its mixed culture, right in the middle of Chinatown is The Sri Mariamman Temple, which is the country’s oldest Hindu temple.

As a Christian I love to learn and immerse myself in world religions. I strive to understand people’s faith and to appreciate their worldview.

Singapore is a perfect place for such an endeavor because in matter of moments you can hear the call to prayer from a mosque and then right around the corner you can step into a Hindu temple and be overwhelmed by the sights and smell. In fact, right after we left the Hindu temple we walked five minutes to a Buddhist temple.

I thanked the Hindu priest for his time and then as any true American would do gave him a high five (that last part I made up, but I was thinking about it).

Stay tuned for more of my adventures in Southeast Asia.

Happy Travels!

Text and photo copyright by ©Sam Antonio Photography

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