There’s an obscure temple on Pulau Ubin, believed to contain the remains of a German girl who lived with her family on the island over a century ago. Local folklore says that she died during the Japanese invasion in World War II. According to the National Heritage board however, it actually happened during World War I, when she ran to the mountaintop to escape from British soldiers before slipping off a cliff, meeting her untimely death.
Villagers found her body and began praying to her, asking for winning lottery numbers. When many of them started to strike it big, they built a small shrine to worship her.
Ever since the 1930s, numerous devotees from Singapore and Malaysia have taken regular trips to the island to pray to this powerful shrine, even though its origins are an enigma to many of them — a story that’s been passed on through the generations.
Intrigued by this tale, several Singaporean filmmakers came together to craft a documentary short, titled German Girl Shrine. Watch it below.
For more short films and documentaries, check out Viddsee.
