Visit to Bukit Brown Cemetery

Bukit Brown is one of the oldest Chinese Cemeteries left in Singapore. The area was turned into a cemetery in the 1870's for Chinese members of of the Ong clan surname and then later a municipal cemetery for the Chinese community. The cemetery was closed to burials in 1973 and was largely left alone and forgotten about. It became overgrown and wildlife moved in. 

In 2013 the Singapore Government initiated plans to bisect Bukit Brown with a major 4 lane road and proposes that in 30 years time the area be redeveloped for housing.  

A group; called the Brownies has formed to try and save the cemetery or as much of it as they can. It has been documenting the history and fauna and flora of the area and runs events to increase people's awareness of this special place.  NT, several friends and I joined a guided walk around part of the cemetery at the weekend. Some of our friends who had visited only a few months ago were shocked to see green hoardings marking out where the road construction has begun. 8000 graves (out of approximately 100,000) have already been exhumed. 

Some graves looked quite well tended, some had recently been cleared by volunteers and some were almost completely covered with vegetation and looked very neglected.

Two weeks ago it had been Qingming or Tomb Sweeping Festival, this is when families visit their ancestors 'home' for a spring clean and to replenish their needs by leaving offerings such as food, flowers and insence and to burn paper representations of worldly goods that will transfer to their ancestors in the underworld 

Our volunteer guide was very knowledgable and took us to several tombs, telling the history of the person buried there. Many Singaporean pioneers are here; Chew Joo Chiat, Chew Boon Lay, Gan Eng Seng 

Many of the tombs have guardian statues such as lions, Sikh guards and other soldiers

The biggest and grandest tomb lies on the highest hill in the cemetery, it is the grave of Ong Sam Leong, a prominent and successful businessman, his wife and their two sons who were entrepreneurs and became very wealthy

                                      

It had some very impressive statues

                             

including Spirit World guides; the Golden Boy                                              and the Jade Maiden

and carved stone friezes depicting the 24 tales of filial piety

                      Other tombs around may not have been as large but many were just as impressive

By now we had been walking for nearly three hours and the mosquitos and ants were out in force. As we made our way back to the cemetery gates dusk was falling and the occasional monkey could be seen running across the paths. Our guide told us that pangolins, monitor lizards, pythons and other snakes, owls and lots of other birds and even a pack of feral dogs live here, I wonder where they will all go if the whole cemetery becomes yet another built up area?