Singapore, Spirituality, and the Space of the State: Soul of the Little Red Dot

Description

This book examines spirituality in Singapore, showing how important the city state is for understanding contemporary global configurations of urban space, religion, and spirituality. Joanne Punzo Waghorne highlights how the formal religious spaces—temples, churches, and mosques—have been confined to allotted sites on the map of Singapore, whereas various “spiritual” organizations, particularly of Hindu origins and headed by a guru, still continue to operate as “societies” classified by the government with other “clubs.” These unconventional religiosities are not confined but ironically make their own places, meeting in ostensive secular venues: high-rise flats, malls, businesses, and community centers, thus existing in the overall space of religion, commerce, and the state. The book argues that State of Singapore also operates between the secular and the religious, constructing an overarching spatial regime that both accommodates and yet rivals the alternate spheres that spiritual movements construct under its umbrella. Both spatial configurations challenge the presumed relationships between myth and reality, religion and commerce, the ethereal and the concrete, the sacred and the secular, on the levels of self, community, and polity. Singapore, now deemed a model for urban development in Asia, also offers an understanding of a new post-secularity and perhaps reveals where the urbanized world is headed. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Dedication Contents Figures Preface Rewinding Singapore 1 Macrospaces and Microplaces Macrospaces and Microworlds A Microworld with Cats The Guru’s Sandals: A Pied-à-terre for the Divine Small Footprints, Vast Visions, Micro-Utopias? 2 Statecraft and Cosmology: Making the Macrocosm in Singapore First Take a Taxi Macrocosm—Prime Ministerial Style Lee Kuan Yew, Founding Father Erasure and Construction The Overarching World of the State 3 Macrospaces—Guru Style Religion/ Spirituality, Secular/Religious? Defining Spirituality vs Religion “Art of Living Foundation Singapore invites you to a public talk by His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar” Occupying Global Space Heaven on Earth Mahashivaratri in the Velliangiri Hills The Grays of Religion, Spirituality, and the Contours of the State 4 Yoga on the Move Covering Singapore Under the Bridge and on the Street Bringing Yoga into Public Space—in Singapore Space/God in a New Key 5 Reading Walden Pond at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore1 Conversations in the Middle Moving East and Moving Up: Surprising Connections Human scale/Megascale The Real-and-magined within Urban Space Intimate Immensity/Intimate Urbanism 6 How Is a Guru Like a High-rise? Buildings Fixed and Floating High-rise Homes for the People Walking with Certeau Take Oneness for Example Living Vertically in Singapore Losing Ground 7 Templing Gurus in Little India Placing Little India Shirdi Sai Baba in Singapore Sri Guru Ragavendra Society Amriteswari Society of Singapore The Microplace of Little India Notes References Index