Places of Worship You Can Enter

Places of worship in Singapore are working places first, and a visit goes best when you know when the doors are open and what to wear. Most of the ones below publish their hours and say what to expect inside, which makes a first visit easy. We'd start with Palelai Buddhist Temple in Bedok, a Theravada monastery that welcomes visitors of all faiths and posts a daily timetable of chanting and meditation, though you'll need a bus from Tanah Merah MRT to reach it. For the places people ask about most, Temples, mosques and what to wear covers Sultan Mosque, Sri Mariamman and Buddha Tooth Relic.

Bedok, Eunos and Changi

Palelai's gates are open from 5am to 9pm, and visitors can join the activities while they are. Chanting runs from 6am to 6.30am and again from 6pm to 7pm, the alms-round leaves at about 8.10am, and meditation sits are in the afternoon and evening. You don't need experience to sit in on the meditation, which happens quietly behind the monks, and no instruction is given. The temple asks visitors to avoid shorts (bermudas are fine), short skirts and low-cut tops. Take bus 2, 9 or 48 from Tanah Merah MRT Exit B and get off two stops on. Monasteries Behind the Blocks has two bigger Buddhist halls in Bishan and Toa Payoh.

The Jain Sthanak at Jalan Yasin is the Singapore Jain Religious Society's prayer hall, where a 51-inch murti of Bhagwan Mahavir Swami is worshipped daily. Morning puja and darshan, the viewing of the deity, run from 8am to 11am on weekdays and until 12.30pm at weekends and public holidays, with last entry 15 minutes before closing. Evening darshan, without puja, is from 6pm to 8pm, Monday to Saturday, except on public holidays. Puja has its own rules, which the society sets out in its visitor FAQ. Eunos MRT is the nearest station.

In Changi Village, Sree Ramar Temple was built in 1946 by devotees from the RAF Changi base, and it later took in three other Hindu temples and shrines displaced by development. Only priests enter the sanctum. Shoes come off before you go in, dress is modest, and silence is kept inside, though you may photograph unless a sign says not to. It's a stop on the Changi Heritage Trail, and it closes in the afternoon, so go in the morning or after 5.30pm.

Two gurdwaras

Gurdwara Sahib Silat Road was built in 1924 for the Sikh Police Contingent, and it was the first gurdwara in Singapore built in the traditional style, with domes and arches. Only the front facade survived the rebuilding that began around 1990. It's the only gurdwara in Singapore where langar, the free community meal, is cooked and served every day. Door hours for the prayer hall aren't published, but langar runs throughout the day.

Gurdwara Sahib Yishun is a small gurdwara on Yishun Ring Road, with more than 200 members and a visitor guide on its own site. It's a stop on the Yishun Heritage Trail, one of nine in Heartland Heritage Trails, Town by Town. Services are on Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings, and the office is open from 7am to 7.30pm daily. Visitors cover their heads, with spare cloths kept to hand, take their shoes off and wash their hands and feet first. Langar usually follows services, and anyone may join.

Mount Palmer

At the foot of Mount Palmer in Tanjong Pagar, Maqam Habib Noh and Haji Salleh Mosque dates from 1903 and stands beside the Keppel Viaduct, with the shrines of Habib Noh and Habib Abdurrahman on the hill above. The mosque is open from dawn prayers to 9pm every day, public holidays included. The shrines keep shorter hours, and on Fridays they open at 2.30pm, so look up the times before you climb. Tanjong Pagar MRT is the nearest station. For a bigger mosque, Sultan Mosque has its own morning in Kampong Gelam from the Golden Dome.

Churches around Bugis

The Church of Saints Peter and Paul on Queen Street is the one we'd pick for the building. It's a Neo-Gothic parish church from 1870 and a national monument, with a rose window flanked by statues of its two saints and stained glass along the sanctuary wall. The Chapel of the Incarnation is open from 8am every day except public holidays, until 9pm on weekdays and 6pm at weekends. Masses are at 7.20am and 6pm on weekdays, so time a visit around them. The church stands near the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd.

On Ophir Road, the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes is among Singapore's oldest Catholic churches, and a national monument, long known as the Indian Church or the Tamil Church. Weekday Mass is in English at 12.30pm and in Tamil at 7pm. Outside Mass you can sit in the Adoration Room, which is open from 8am to 8pm, and the main gates close at 5pm on public holidays. Inside the main church, knees and shoulders are covered, hats come off, and there's no food or drink.

Kampong Kapor Methodist Church is a quasi-Art Deco building completed in 1930 for one of the island's first Peranakan, or Straits Chinese, congregations. The reason to come is the Peranakan service on the first and third Sunday of each month at 11am. English services are at 8am and 10am on Sundays, and Mandarin at 2pm. Jalan Besar MRT is a six-minute walk, and Rochor and Little India stations are ten.

Tanglin and Bukit Batok

Saint George's Church in Tanglin began as the garrison church for Tanglin Barracks. An army engineer, Captain William H. Stanbury of the Royal Engineers, drew up the open-air brick building on Romanesque lines, and it went up between 1910 and 1913. It's a national monument, and you visit by joining a service: Sunday at 8am, 10.15am and 5.30pm, and Wednesday at 10.30am. There's no dress code, and smart casual is typical.

The Church of St Mary of the Angels is a Franciscan parish in Bukit Batok, with a quiet Adoration Chapel beside the main church that's open daily from 7am to 9.30pm. Bukit Batok and Beauty World MRT are the nearest stations.

By arrangement

Some working places are visited by appointment. Maghain Aboth Synagogue on Waterloo Street was built in 1878, and its congregation still worships there, so visits are arranged ahead and visitors dress modestly. Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho, a block away, takes walk-in visitors, and A Bras Basah Morning on Waterloo Street puts the two together.

Services and hours can shift, so check each place's own page before you set out.