Pets blessed at Buddhist festival

In celebration of Vesak Day, Singapore's Thekchen Choling temple has opened its doors to the animal kingdom.

In the Buddhist religion, the festival marks Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death. For Singha Rinpoche, the spiritual director of the temple, inviting families to bring their pets for the blessing is an expression of Buddha's love for all living things.

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 in rebirth or reincarnation, and this extends to animals too, so one day your pet could be reborn in human form. Dennis Yee brought along his cat, Blackie, in the hope of acquiring 'merits'.

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."

A range of furry creatures - from guinea pigs to rabbits - waited for the blessing in the company of their owners. Less furry examples included crayfish and also turtles, such as Shelly, belonging to Eng Jui Goy.

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."

To commemorate the occasion, there were an abundance of photo opportunities for owners with their much loved pets. Some even took paw prints to mark the occasion. Families could also offer candles at the temple, as these symbolise hope and can bring positivity to a pet's life.

Singha Rinpoche outlines the significance of the event for pet owners.

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."

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