It's a Jungle Out There!

A pottery jungle that is.

 Scott's sister Karen is visiting with us for a few days so we set out this afternoon to explore this jungle of pottery, we enjoyed it.

  Did you know there really is a dirt road in Singapore, it leads to The Pottery Jungle and Dragon Kiln.  Located at 85, Lorong Tawas.

Guan Huat Dragon Kiln (龙窑) has a brick-built kiln constructed on a hill side with the fire box in front and side-stoking holes at the sides. During firing, the kiln resembles a recumbent dragon with fire spewing from its nostrils (fire box). The dragon kiln technology was brought to Singapore by immigrant Chinese artisans in the early 1900s.

The name of Pottery Jungle is very appropriate, you do feel like you are in a jungle, and really you are I guess, there is plant life and tress all over the place and plenty of places to rest on your visit.

I met this couple from Singapore while we were there, they were enjoying the peace and struck up a conversation with me, he has been in Singapore since 1965, he came when he was five years old and she was born here.

The Thow Kwang Industry which runs the "jungle" was founded in 1965 and according to the pamphlet I have they want to keep traditional and Chinese ceramic artistry alive in Singapore. 

You will see many beautiful items if you visit pottery jungle.

I fell in love with this bench, it is made from tree roots, so cool, I wish I could transport it home with me but since I can not I opted for just having a seat for a moment.

In every "good Chinese business" there is a temple so this must be a good Chinese business.

We realized that we were not the only United States visitors to come to pottery jungle, look who was here before us.

They do offer classes on pottery making, here is where you would sit.

and this is the teacher, we chatted with her for about 20 minutes, nice lady.

and this is where they will fire your pottery for you.

and here is some of the clay they use.  I may try to get a group of home school kids and moms to take a class, she said she would do a class for us if we have a total of 15 people.

The variety of things available is impressive, here are some of the many things you could purchase or just enjoy looking at if you choose to visit.

I would recommend you take a trip to pottery jungle if you are visiting Singapore, it is very peaceful and yet, you never know what you might find when you turn the corner.

Karen named this place the pottery grave yard.

And this is the desk, they will call a taxi to come a pick you up, you can buy a cold drink or register for a class but really I took the picture just because I liked the desk.

Singapore Our Dwelling Place

We received a package in the mail yesterday from a friend in Cedarburg, WI. 

Her sons' grade school class in doing a geography book and they are to send the book to somewhere very far away to have a page done and then they send it far away etc.... Well Singapore is very far away from WI.

So today we did our pages.  As I was putting the pages together it struck me that maybe some other school children, or even adults would like to know some of our information so I have decided to put the pages into a blog.  Note: it is written for grade school children :)


We are The Miles Family and we live in Singapore.  Can you find us on your map?  Here is a hint: Singapore is in Southeast Asia and it is a small island, about the size of Milwaukee County.  We are 90 miles north of the equator so it is very hot and sunny all of the time.  We get a lot of rain!

Monkeys live here.

We saw this monkey while riding bikes.

These are palm nuts, the birds like to eat them.

The Merlion is the national symbol of Singapore.

There are many people who live in Singapore, five million!

and they come from:

Malaysia,

India,

and China.

Chicken and rice is the national dish of Singapore.  We eat with chop sticks and there are many outdoor food centers called "hawker centers"

Most people in Singapore eat at a hawker center at least once a day.  You can get chicken and rice for $3.00.

Fresh coconut milk is delicious when you are hot.

This is ice kachang it means "red bean ice"

Ice kachang is a very popular dessert that came from Malaysia.  It is like a snow cone but it has creamed corn on the top and red beans and grass jelly on the bottom.

This is a receipt, do you see the Chinese characters?

 你好 Ni hao (nee how) means "hello".

In Singapore there are many bridges and boats in the center of its city.

There are many different kinds of buildings in Singapore.

Singapore is known as a "city state" that means it is one city that is also a state and a county. It has one government to rule and protect it.

The Singapore flag was adopted on December 3, 1959.  The white crescent represents Singapore as a new nation, the five stars symbolize democracy, equality, justice, peace, and progress.  The white is representative of the purity and virtue of the people and red stands for universal brotherhood.

We hope you enjoyed visiting Singapore, our dwelling place. ~The Miles Family.

Civilized

We live in such a diverse world and yet one thing that strikes me over and over as we travel and interact with many different countries and cultures is.... people are people.

  Between the two of us Scott and I have been to 15 different and diverse countries at this point in time and our boys have experienced six of those with us. 

Each culture has different roots, there are many different religious beliefs and practices but all are people. Since all are people all have emotions the same as yours the expression or lack thereof of the emotion is what is different but in every country we have been in, teens like to have fun, people laugh, moms take their children to parks, families picnic and life and death are experienced by all.

We want to learn as much as we can about the Asian cultures while we are here living in Singapore.  It is a very unique island, Singapore, as there are many different Asian cultures living in one small area. 

The main people groups that settled in Singapore are, Chinese, Malaysian, and Indian.  Given that, there are many many countries represented on this tiny island, in our church alone there are over 52 different countries represented in our congregation.  Singapore is an international business hub.

The Asian Civilizations Museum has been on my list of things to do while in Singapore so this past Friday, Scott took off a couple of hours early and we went. 

Currently there is an exhibit for the Terracotta Warriors, the terracotta army was buried near the tomb of the First Emperor of China and remained buried until 1974 when it was discovered. 

Much has been learned about ancient Chinese civilization and burial practices from this archaeological discovery.

The pieces in the exhibit are really amazing, they are big, and most of them are in great shape!  These terracotta items were made during the 2nd century B.C. making it all the more interesting to us as they are so very old.

One of our favorite pieces was this coat of arms made from terracotta pieces and copper

There were over 100 artifacts at the exhibit.  We also of course went through the rest of the museum.  A large part was devoted to the religious artifacts for the different cultures, also the clothing, dishes and some tools of the trades.

This picture really intrigued me!  The accuracy of the anatomy was amazing, to think of all that was known about the human body long before modern medicine.

One floor of the museum was dedicated to the performing arts which of course is a big part of every culture.  Here is an entire early Asian orchestra it is a bit different from our modern day orchestra.

Shadow puppet shows have been a part of the Asian culture for centuries.

Then there is the daily life for all cultures this includes the gathering, making and eating of food.

As you enter the museum you are reminded that the past is what makes up who we are in the present.

As we left the museum we were reminded that our culture will leave a mark on future generations. 

If you have a chance to go to the Asian Civilization Museum take time to explore the grounds around the museum its self.  It is in the heart of downtown.

How will our civilization be represented in the future?