Kovil Sri Mariamman is Singapore's oldest Hindu Tamil temple, founded in 1827, just eight years after the East India Company established a trading settlement on the island at the southern end of the Straits of Malacca.

The temple is dedicated to the deity Sri Mariamman, in South India the name for the goddess Lakshmi, the goddess of beauty and good fortune, who surfaced during the Churning of the Ocean of Milk (fig.), seated on a lotus flower. She became Vishnu's consort and was incarnated with him each time he incarnated as one of his avatars on earth. As such, the temple features depictions of many of these Hindu deities in their various forms, as well as of characters and scenes from the famous stories in their lives, their mounts and attributes.