Learn more about Chinatown's rich history by visiting our Heritage Markers. Installed at places of historical significance around Chinatown, each plaque provides a short history of the location in three languages - English, Simplified Chinese and Japanese.
This shrine was built by the Chulia community of southern India between 1828 and 1830. Originally named Shahul Hamid Durgha, the shrine was built in honour of a holy man of the same name who had visited Singapore. Unlike mosques, shrines do not have to be built facing Mecca, and so Nagore Durgha conforms to the street grid. Unlike most shrines, Nagore Durgha contains no bodily relic of the person it commemorates. A controversy surrounds the date of the shrine's construction. Descendants of the founder claim that the shrine was built much earlier than 1828. According to them, the shrine was in existence before Sir Stamford Raffles arrived in 1819. The first shrine was made from wood and attap. It was rebuilt in 1815 using limestone, and again in 1818 with materials imported from India. If this is true, it makes Nagore Durgha the oldest religious monument in Singapore.
