西天園佛舖
A secret craft, passed down over generations
Everything is handmade.
Many statues today are made by machines, carved via robotic arms en-masse quickly, cheaply and identically.
Relief motifs on the robes can be pasted on instantly, like 3D stickers. Painting can be done briskly via air-brushing, providing perfect gradients and neon colours not possible in traditional methods.
At Say Tian Hng, we continue to use traditional hand-crafting methods using chisels, mallets, bamboo sticks, paint brushes and the human spirit.
In a world that worships speed, perfection and change, we believe there is beauty to things made by hands, patience and time.
We use a technique from the early Qing Dynasty.
On our statues, you will find 3D motifs of soaring dragons, blooming flowers and swirling clouds on the robes, head wear, and thrones. These are not carved. They are too intricate to be so.
Instead, they are made using a technique called thread sculpture (漆线).
Joss stick ash is collected, washed, turned into a dough, beaten into a fine thread with a spatula, then painstakingly twirled and coiled on the statue with bamboo sticks to create the motifs.
In other words, as the smoke from the joss sticks lifts your prayers to the gods above, the ash that falls is used to make the clothes of those very gods. The statue is now adorned with the holinesss of the ash.
With origins dating back hundreds of years to the early Qing Dynasty, it is today a disappearing art form. Even in China, where it originated, it has been designated a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.
We only use wood.
Statues can be made with many materials: Ceramic, brass, resin, etc. At Say Tian Hng, we only use wood.
Historically, wood is an egalitarian material: Easily available and requiring only simple tools to work with. It is beautiful, yet hardy.
It is also a living material, and devotees believe it enhances the energy exchange during worship, compared to statues made from other materials.
Nowadays, it is often hard to tell with the naked eye whether a statue is actually made of wood, once it is fully-painted over.
Sometimes, just the base of the statue is wood (the surface under the statue is thus unpainted to show this), while the rest, concealed under paint, is of another material. A "wooden" statue could, in fact, comprise a light plaster shell filled with grains and stones to weigh it down, mounted on a wooden base.
Sections that are difficult to carve, such as fingers, may be made from resin and glued on, like a jigsaw puzzle.
At Say Tian Hng, all statues are made from a single block of wood, the traditional way.
For restoration jobs, however, we are able to work with statues of different materials.
We use 24K gold.
In Taoism and Buddhism, statues are gilded, i.e. covered in gold. Why?
Gold is a material that does not tarnish over time, representing the eternity of the divine. Its brilliance draws the attention of devotees, evoking a sense of awe and invoking a sacred atmosphere. It is also an offering of man's most prized possession to the deity.
There are different ways to gild, such as using gold paint or gold foil.. Although cheaper and more commonly used, gold paint does not shine as bright. Over years, it becomes a dull darkish yellow.
At Say Tian Hng, we gild statues only using gold foil, which are featherlight films of 24K, 99.9% pure gold so that its shine - and everything it represents -can last you for decades.
Stringent iconography
Iconography - the unique combination of visual elements such as weapons, garments, head wear, skin tone, eyebrows, beards, poses and others to represent a specific deity - is critical in Taoism and Buddhism.
It is, after all, the only way to identify a deity in the pantheon of numerous deities.
While there is some room for artistic interpretation, boundaries are important. For example, Tua Peh Kong (Granduncle) and Tu Di Kong (Earth God) are two elderly, white-bearded, staff-wielding, seated gentlemen who look almost identical, yet have different origin stories and functions. The way to tell them apart is via the iconography: Granduncle sits on a throne while the Earth God - as his name suggests - sits on a rock ledge. Without knowing this, one is confused for the other.
Eyebrows are another example. We use more than 10 designs: Thin elegant ones for goddesses like Guan Yin; wispy, unkempt ones for elderly gentlemen like Tua Peh Kong, ferocious phoenix-esque ones for warriors like Guan Gong, and squiggly ones for mischievous child gods like Ne Zha.
Skin tones matter, too. Maidens need a fairer biege, warriors a sun-kissed biege, child gods a rosy biege, underworld gods a sickly, greyish-biege.
Taoist statue-making is art, but not freestyle art. Ultimately, it must serve it role to provide an accurate and precise representation of a story more important than itself.
At Say Tian Hng, we have a large body of archival knowledge, accumulated and documented over time, to do this.
Trusted by generations of customers, in Singapore and around the world.
Different shops craft statues in different ways. There is no right or wrong, as beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
At Say Tian Hng, we use traditional iconography and techniques passed down over generations in our family.
According to university researchers, ancestors of our family learnt the craft in the 14th century from a renowned master in Tong’an, Nan’an county (同安, 南安县), Quanzhou of southern Fujian province in China.
Sometime during the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th century), they migrated to Kinmen Island (part of modern-day Taiwan just off the coast of Xiamen, China) so as to avoid competing with our master's descendants out of respect.
In 1896, as the Qing Dynasty crumbled and China roiled from internal strife, two brothers of the family, still in their late teens, migrated from Kinmen to set up a branch in Singapore, serving the needs of Chinese migrants carving out new lives in the bustling British colony.
Named Say Tian Kok Buddha Shop (西天国佛铺) at first, the shop was renamed Say Tian Hng Buddha Shop (西天园佛铺) in the 1950s.
Meanwhile, in China, the Cultural Revolution dealt a devastating blow to religious worship and craftsmen involved in statue-making in the 60s and 70s.
Our shop in Kinmen Island survived as the communist-led Cultural Revolution did not reach Taiwan. However, it finally closed in the 2010s due to lack of successors.
In Singapore, the branch set up by the 2 teenage brothers - Say Tian Hng Buddha Shop - hangs on, keeping alive the ancient craft somehow miraculously passed down over the centuries amid war and turmoil.
Our customers span generations. We often receive statues to be restored that were made decades ago by our late grandfather, by customers who themselves are grandchildren of the original owners.
Our customers come not only from Singapore, but also Malaysia, Indonesia. Nowadays, we also see an increasing number of customers contacting us from Europe and the USA who are part of the Chinese diaspora or are non-Chinese who love Chinese culture. They include temples, households, art collectors and culture lovers looking to connect with an ancient culture via an ancient craft.
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Ancient craft passed down over generations.
Tightly-guarded secrets, never written down, passed down within the family.
Skills honed over a lifetime.
Trust by generations of customers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Europe and US.
Still lovingly made by hand, every single piece.
Our effigies are lovingly hand-crafted in the traditional Say Tian Hng style involving the use of early Qing Dynasty techniques recognised as an official Intangible Cultural Heritage of China. All our effigies are made of wood, an organic material that customers appreciate for the difference in energy transfer during worship. Wait time ranges from 2 to 4 months.