Here's a lovely photo of my mum and me in Tiger Balm Gardens in about 1966. My mum had just been rubbing the Buddha's belly and many people did this because it was meant to bring them good luck! When I went back in 1990, the Buddha was still there and people were still rubbing his belly for luck!
At the time, I saw this statue as being quite high up but when I saw it again in 1990, it wasn't really much off the ground.
Most of our photos of Tiger Balm Gardens seem to have been taken on the same day as we're wearing the same clothes. This must have been the day also when my dad took his cine camera.
It's funny, I remember going to Tiger Balm Gardens on many occasions but, wouldn't it be funny if my memory has played tricks on me all these years and we only went a couple of times? I'll have a look through my old photos and see if this is the case.
I remember that we had a lovely time on that day. Of course my favourite statue will always be that fierce gorilla at the beginning of the park!
Buddha Maitreya is the Buddha of the future, also known as the Laughing Buddha, is the one to follow up the historical Buddha Sakyamuni. Your Mum blessed rubbing the Buddha Maitreya's belly for good luck and happiness. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteHiya Derek, love the blog - brought back amazing memories - I have a great Photo of me and my Mum at the Tiger Balm Gardens in 1969/1970 ish I was 3 or 4 years old. My dad was based at the Terendak Hospital as a medic and we moveed from Malyasia to Singapore. I'd love to get hold of a copy of your books actually :O)
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