Pets visit Buddhist temple - 25th May 2022

This crowded temple's in Singapore. People have come together for Vesak day, which celebrates Buddha's birth and life.

This temple has let families bring pets. For temple head, Singha Rinpoche, this shows Buddha's love for all living things. Pet owners held out their animals for a Buddhist blessing.

Singha Rinpoche: "I want to stress the importance of actual love for all beings to be equal, whether they are animals or whether they are human beings. you know Buddha taught equanimity, and then we should really try to love and respect all life in all forms. So the blessing is not just for humans, the blessing also for animals."

Buddhists believe people are reborn, and this isn't only for humans. Pets might be reborn as people. That's why Dennis Yee brought his cat, Blackie, to be blessed.

Dennis Yee: "I am a Buddhist. So we always likes to accumulate merits for our current life and also for the future life. And also we, we, we see our animals as a family and also as - in our, in our animal realm. So we like to accumulate merit for, for my pets, so that in future he may be, he may be, become a human just like us and not be an animal."

Cats and dogs weren't the only animals in the queue. The list included rabbits, guinea pigs and even turtles, like Eng Jui Goy's shy turtle - Shelly.

Eng Jui Goy: "But when I first adopted her, she's a, a, a pet that was given up. She was very shy. It took us quite a while, for, for us to get close to her. And now that she has warm up to us, we feel that adopting to being blessed together with us in a Vesak Day even will bring all of us closer."

Many owners used the opportunity to take photos. Families lit up the temple for their pets. They believe the lights will have a positive effect on their animals.

Singha Rinpoche reminds us how important this day is. One day, a pet might be reborn as something great.

Singha Rinpoche: "We pray to plant a seed of enlightenment for the pet. Because in - we believe that even a pet will become a Buddha one day."