But the San Qing Gong Taoist Library is its first in Singapore, and its 3,000 volumes of religious texts - often abstract and mellifluous in nature - will surely provide enough hours of study for disciples of the Tao.

About half of the texts were donated from private collections, and from local and Chinese schools, including Sichuan University and Xiamen University. The rest were purchased.

The library, which opened yesterday, is part of the new Taoist College offering a diploma programme in Taoist studies.

Prof Xu Liying, the college's academic director, said she hopes to collect over 10,000 texts when classes begin in 2011.

Most of the books are written in Chinese, though some will come with English translations, she said.

The library, currently at the San Qing Gong Temple in Bedok, is open to the public.

Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times