Founder

Phrakru Prakasa Dhammakhun (fondly known as Luang Por) was born on 6th April 1923 in Buriram province, Thailand. He undertook novice ordination in the Buddhist Saṅgha at the age of 16 and received higher ordination in 1943. He started his missionary work upon completing his studies at the Mahamakut Buddhist University in Thailand. This took him to the Southern provinces of Thailand (Songkhla) and the Northern parts of the Peninsular Malaysia. He first arrived in Singapore in 1960 and took up residences at Wat Ananda Metyarama in Jalan Bukit Merah.

In order to effectively spread the Buddha’s teachings to Singaporeans, the Venerable decided to start a temple of his own. On 3rd April 1962, Luang Phor and another Thai monk founded Palelai Buddhist Temple. The Temple was originally housed at Poh Huat Road. Over the course of time, Palelai moved to a larger premises in order to accommodate the growing numbers of members and devotees. It first built at Jalan Nipah and subsequently moved to our present location at Bedok Walk.

From the new premises, events of the Buddhist calendar were celebrated regularly under the guidance of Luang Phor. In addition, the temple helped to propagate the Dhamma by inviting monks to give Dhamma talks, holding meditation sessions and printing Dhamma books for free distribution.

Luang Phor passed away on 22nd December 1996 in Bangkok, Thailand. In view of the generosity of Luang Phor and of our gratitude for his kindness to Singaporeans, a Bursary Award was later established by the Executive Committee of Palelai Buddhist Temple in his name.

The temple conducts a memorial service in December to commemorate the anniversary of Luang Phor’s passing away.

The building was compartmentalised into 3 sections: one section for the main shrine hall, another section as a multi-purpose hall, and the rear section was used as living quarters. A Thai style pavilion was added to the building in 1967 with the intention of using it as a proper shrine hall.  This building served to facilitate the study and learning of the Dhamma in the tradition of Thais. Sunday school as well as Dhamma talks on the life of the Buddha and Buddhism were conducted regularly at the temple. These served to propagate the Buddhist teachings to our community.  To cope with the need of the growing number of Buddhists, Luang Phor had contemplated buying the neighbouring land to increase the land area. However, due to a high price from the seller and future government plans to zone the area for road enlargement, the plan to expand Palelai was put on hold. 

Moving to Bedok Walk

The topic of moving Palelai Buddhist Temple to Bedok Walk was first raised in 1968. That year, Luang Phor met a wealthy Singaporean, Mr Wee Thiam Siew, who was a Buddhist; Mr Wee owned the plot of land at Bedok Walk, where the temple currently resides. Through his charitable generosity, he sold the plot of land to the Temple at half the original price. The purchase of the land was funded by voluntary contributions from Thai, Malaysian, and Singaporean Buddhists.

Construction of the temple was made possible through financial support from the Buddhist communities in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, together with some financial assistance from the Department of Religious Affair of Thailand. Construction took place in 1970 with the foundation stone laid by the late Supreme Patriach Punnasiri Mahathera of Wat Phra Jetuphon, Bangkok. The building was completed in phases and finally consecrated in May 1973. This new location allowed more devotees to participate in the regular Buddhist activities organized at the temple.

It was in 2004 that the Executive Committee decided to have an additional building to support the growing number of activities and interests of members/devotees in the areas of meditation and Buddhist education. The Chedi Dhammasathit building was then built and we held a grand consecration ceremony from 25th to 27th Feb 2007.  The consecration ceremony saw perhaps the largest gathering of Theravada monks in Singapore.  Palelai was very fortunate to host approximately 200 monks from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Australia, Malaysia, Myanmar to participate in the ceremony. 

The Meaning of Palelai

The name “Palelai,” was derived from the Pāli word “Pārileyakka,” which was the name of a forest in India during the time of Lord Buddha. At that time, a quarrel broke out among the monks in the Ghosita Monastery, Kosambi, India. Although Lord Buddha had instructed the monks to settle their differences amicably, they did not do so. Seeing that the monks did not want to be reconciled, Lord Buddha left the quarrelsome monks and went into seclusion in a forest called Pārileyakka to spend the vassa. While he was residing peacefully in this forest, he was looked after by an elephant, also named Pārileyakka (see The Kosambī Khandhaka, Mv 10:3–5).

A monkey, on seeing the elephant looking after Lord Buddha, also offered wild honey to him. Upon seeing Lord Buddha consume the honey, he was filled with joy and jumped around the trees. However, he missed his hold and fell to his death. As a consequence of the merit from offering food to Lord Buddha, he was reborn in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven (heaven of the Thirty-three) as a heavenly being.

Meanwhile, the quarrelsome monks received very little food during their alms rounds as the lay supporters were upset that they had driven their teacher away from them. Lord Buddha’s major lay supporters in Sāvatthī also heard of his isolation in Pārileyakka forest and they implored Venerable Ananda, Lord Buddha’s attendant monk, to seek the Buddha’s return to Sāvatthī.

Venerable Ananda went with 500 monks to Pārileyakka forest to invite Lord Buddha back to Sāvatthī. Upon meeting them, Lord Buddha delivered the Pārileyakka Sutta (SN 22:81) and then agreed to return to Sāvatthī with Venerable Ananda. The elephant Pārileyakka died of a broken heart when he saw Lord Buddha leaving the forest. He was subsequently reborn as a deva in Tāvatiṃsa heaven as a consequence of the merit of having looked after Lord Buddha during the vassa.

The quarrelsome monks realised their wrongdoing and reconciled among themselves. Having heard that Lord Buddha had returned to Savathi, they made their way from Kosambi to Sāvatthī to seek his forgiveness. Lord Buddha forgave the monks and gave them a Dhamma talk to instruct them on proper conduct. On completion of the talk, all the 500 monks attained the fruit of “stream-entry” (the first of four stages of Awakening).

The name of our temple, “Palelai,” therefore reminds us of a place where all beings can live in peace and harmony with one another, mutually supportive in making merit to support our journey out of saṁsāra.