Singapore: About 5,000 Hindu devotees, led by Singapore's Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam, today held a consecration ceremony at a temple here, marking the completion of a year-long, 4 million Singapore dollars revamp of the structure, a media report said today.          

With the renovation, the Arulmigu Velmurugan Gnana Muneeswarar Temple now boasts a fresh facade, upgraded facilities and a new multi-purpose hall in the Sengkang Housing Estate of the Punggol East on the north east of Singapore.          

It is Singapore's first temple to have brought three temples under one roof - the Arulmigu Velmurugan Temple, Sri Krishna Bhagwan Durga Parameswari Devasthanam and Sri Mariamman Muneeswarar Temple.          

The ceremony, also called Kumbabishegam, is a Hindu temple ritual that homogenises, synergises and unites the mystic powers of the temple and its deities. It is widely celebrated as a festival in temples of the South Indian tradition.          

Shanmugam said three neighbouring Chinese temples also pitched in for the ceremony with volunteers distributing food to devotees, making it "very multicultural".  

"So you have many Hindu as well as non-Hindu volunteers coming together; it's very nice to see," he said at the ceremony, also attended by the Punggol East member of parliament Charles Chong.          

The move (renovation) was brought about by the rapid development of Singapore in the late 1990s, when the small communal temples serving a specific locality or group had insufficient resources to meet devotees' growing needs, The Straits Times reported. PTI