Singapore flag.
You can take a walking tour of the Bukit Brown Cemetery, what is left of it, but hurry. Half of it is already under an expanded 8 lane motorway, and more of it is coveted, listed, as an area for a housing estate. How many graves do you think have already gone? Forty? Four hundred? Four thousand? Yes, four thousand.
The Bukit Brown station is already in place, ready for the surrounding buildings.
Do you know of the OCBC bank? (Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation!) The founder is buried here.
I admit I was keen on scrambling over cemeteries when I was in my twenties, but now I am wary of uneven ground, graves, mud and mosquitos which bite.
I am quite happy to read about the cemetery tour, research it, watch it on video. I was intrigued by the huge grave with the statues of turbaned men at either side. Sikhs were caretakers of property and bodyguards.
Where is the Bukit Brown cemetery? From Holland Village to the Botanic Gardens, you see the flyover, and it is sandwiched between the reservoir (MacRitchie reservoir) connecting the MacRitchie Viaduct and the Adam Flyover.
Bukit in the Malay language (bahasa Malayu) means hill. Bukit Brown is named after Brown, a shipping magnate and trader.
The cemetery was originally built by three wealthy businessmen from the Ong (Hokkien group) for an area to help the poor for living and work as well as burial but eventually became used only for burial. The area became used for a huge number of burials - the biggest burial site of the Chinese outside China. Many prominent Chinese people, whose names appear on local roads and landmarks, were buried here.
Apart from learning about the historical VIPs buried in the cemetery, you can hear some haunting stories about murders actually taking place on the cemetery site. The caretaker of the cemetery was murdered, presumably by thieves, because his savings went missing. On another occasion, during the funeral procession of one VIP, rival triads got involved in a scuffle and more than one person was killed.
As long ago as the nineteen forties plans were promoted for clearing the cemetry. One minister said that there was plenty of space for the dead and not enough for the living.
I feel indignant. The opposite is true. I sit on the bus and pass miles of unaccupied jungle. Singapore has room for expanding out to sea, yet no room for the heritage which can never be replaced.
I am not Chinese, only a longterm Singapore Resident (granted this official status). Yet I feel that the graves should not be disturbed.
Singapore is constantly knocking down buildings and building skyscraper ever higher. Where I live in Singapore, my block is under en bloc sales. Rooms sizes are getting smaller and smaller.
Nothing to do with the cemetery. When the cemetery land has been taken, then what? The population will just continually expand. Meanwhile, we are digging up the dead.
I don't believe in the afterlife. yet many others do. Along the streets I see little shrines where Chinese people have made offerings to ancestors and brned money which they hope will accompany the dead into an afterlife. Millions of Indians, Nigerians from Africa, and others, believe in the afterlife. We have several related but independeltly valid arguments against disturbing cemeteries.
One is the bodies - which could be preserved elsewhere, along with the gravestones. The other is the records. the other Finally, is the uneasy feelign that somehow the actual place of internment matters.
I agree, on some occasions, that money should be spent on the living rather than the dead. But when the dead are regarded as so unimportant, the result is that you can easily kill somebody because once they are dead their views and needs will no longer stand in your way.
A further factor is tourism. In many places, such as Venice and Dubrovnik, the tourists are now overtaking the numbers of locals, and the history they have come to see is diminishing. Singapore is turning into a shopping mall. Not Singapore but Shoppingmore. Places which have preserved their history will become rarer and rarer and more valued, meaning that just another shopping mall loses its attractions. Way back in the 1990 tourists were already saying, "Why visit Singapore - nothing to see. It's all modern, just a shopping stop."
The shophouses were knocked down. Later, their value was appreciated. Now it's the cemeteries.
What of the argument that cemeteries are occupying prime land? Cemetieries were originally built outside city walls, away from water sources, to protect the health of the living. Then cities expanded. But the non-prime remote lands in Singapore is getting ever nearer and more accessible. The underground railway is being expanded. So the expanding population can live in the outlying places.
I feel the urge to write a short story, about the removal of a cemetery which is replaced by a road on which so many dreadful fatal accidents occur, that the road in closed; eventually a shrine is built to the recently dead, and eventually the old cemetery is restored.
My friend Catherine Lim is a better short story writer than I am with a wider audience, especially Chinese readers. I shall ask her if she has already written something similar. If not, please do so.
LKW - here's a reminder:
Lee Kuan Yew GCMG CH SPMJ (16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), commonly referred to by his initials LKY, was the first Prime Minister of Singapore, governing for three decades. Lee is recognised as the nation's founding father, with the country described as transitioning from the "third world to first world in a single generation" under his leadership.[1][2][3]
After attending the London School of Economics, Lee graduated from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University, with double starred-first-class honours in law. In 1950, he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and practised law until 1959. Lee co-founded the People's Action Party (PAP) in 1954 and was its first secretary-general until 1992, leading the party to eight consecutive victories. After Lee chose to step down as Prime Minister in 1990, he served as Senior Minister under his successor, Goh Chok Tong until 2004, then as Minister Mentor (an advisory post) until 2011, under his son Lee Hsien Loong. In total, Lee held successive ministerial positions for 56 years. He continued to serve his Tanjong Pagar constituency for nearly 60 years as a Member of Parliament until his death in 2015.
He was cremated.
When taking a tour of the cemetery:He was cremated.
1 Use and take mosquito repellent.
2 Wear mud-proof shoes.
3 Take an umbrella.
4 Consider a walking stick.
5 Take your camera or spare portable charger for your phone.
Useful websites:
http://www.singaporeheritage.org/bukitbrownwayfinder/Bukit-Brown-Wayfinder-Guide.pdf
http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1358_2009-07-13.html
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/new-bukit-brown-cemetery-self-guided-trail-takes-visitors-through-25-tombs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm54jEZ1Gjk
This video shows a guided walking tour of the endangered Bukit Brown cemetery where you see at the end of the video the grave of LKY's grandfather.
(LKY = Lee Kuan Yew. )
visitsingapore.com
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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