ABSTRACT
Attempts to situate ‘puja items’ in spaces where they are marketed alerts us to a variety of active sites, framed by dualisms of ‘local’/‘global’ and ‘real’/’virtual.’ Regardless of their actual physical location, devotees as customers are not restricted in terms of the access they enjoy to marketplaces where a range of ‘spiritual merchandise’ is traded. With due acknowledgment of the emerging role of Internet sites which advertise, publicise and sell puja accessories, retail stores in real bazaars do offer a directness and immediacy to consumers that reaffirms their value and function even in this age of cyber-everything. Nonetheless, these two trading domains are not isolated and separate but interact in interesting ways. With this grounding this chapter details the ethnography of Singapore’s LI in Serangoon Road, which is associated historically with all things Indian. Given the research focus here, I map the formally organised world of retail and wholesale businesses that deal with ‘puja items’ and which are located in the region. I detail the inventory of goods in the market that are associated with Hindu ritual domains and specify the routes through which how they arrive here. However, it is important to reiterate that the Hindu community in Singapore is a subset of a bigger global Hindu Diaspora (in India and beyond) and interacts with this broader population in a number of different contexts. I offer some brief remarks about the wider Hindu diasporic community by way of offering context for the specific discussion at hand.
