Walking with the Lost Soul - Bukit Brown Cemetry

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Caption : Guided Tour to Bukit Brown Cemetry on 28 April 2013

Credit : Many thanks to Ms Jenny and her husband from the SOS Bukit Brown for guilding us around Bukit Brown Cemetry free of charge and my friend Ananda for organising the trip.

It is not my intention to put up the photos of the tombstone without the consents from the deceased relatives but these are great men and women from the past and that some of these are already printed on the press and blogs such as SOS Save Bukit Brown and Singapore Heritage Bukit Brown.

Also all the while, I had great interest in the YIN fengshui 阴宅and this trip gave me an opportunity to see some of the great work of the fengshui masters of the old.

laurence82 SG

i going to ubin on wednesday

so that i could see the last of it before its gone

SevenEleven SG

The one and only entrance into Bukit Brown Cemetry

Caption : Main Entrance into Bukit Brown Cemetry

Some 28 years ago, we (the brothers) promised my father on his death bed that we will continue to visit his father (my grandfather) grave in Bukit Brown Cemetry every Cheng Beng (one of the chinese 24 seasonal calender). Therefore I'm pleased at least with myself for I've yet to fail keeping that promised.

However, years after years, I've hastily visited the grave and hastily leave without really looking around. So, it's a real pleasure to finally be able to walk all round the Bukit Brown cemetry and guided with all the explaination and stories of Bukit Brown.

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Caption : Begining of the destruction to Bukit Brown Cemetry

News of the exhuming of Bukit Brown Cemetry along with Seh Ong Cemetry and Coffee Hill (kopi sua) had all along been on the government plans but finally in September 2011, it had been confirmed exhumation will begin after April 2013 for the new 8 lnes highway that will cut across the cemetries.

With the calls from the nature lovers and the heritage group, the government finally relented and cut down the numbers of tombstones that will be exhumed. This comes as a good news for me especially when I discovered that my ancestor's tomb will be spared for now. Not that my ancestor had a great fengshui location but that as a conventional Chinese, it is not desirable to have our ancestors restiing place disturbed.

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Caption : Plans of the overall cemetries that may not live to see 2030 when the population reached 6,900,000

Here's a little history of Bukit Brown Municipal Cementry. Bukit Brown Cementry long exist before but it was formally aquired by the British government in 1922 to serve the burial need of the large Chinese communities. The original plot of land belongs to the Hokkien Ong clans.

Bukit Brown is the resting place of many well known prominent Chinese such as Mdm Eu Kong, mother of Eu Tong Sen, Tan Lark Sye, a philantropist and a rubber magnate, Ong Sam Leong, a renowned entrepruner, Mrs Lim Nee Soon, Lim Chong Pang named after Chong Pang village to name a few.

Bukit Brown Cemetry was finally closed in 1973 with about 100,000 tombs by then.

Dalforce 1941 SG

Plans of the overall cemetries that may not live to see 2030 when the population reached 6,900,000

PAP will be gone by 2030.

SevenEleven SG

Caption : Valley with overgrown secondary forest, home to endangered birds, monkeys and insects

All the haste had let me lose out on some of the wonder of Bukit Brown Cemetry. The orchestra of the cicadas, the 15 endangered spices of birds, the huge bird nest ferns, home to the fruit bats hanging upside down.

Rainforest tree overgrown with bird nest ferns

Caption : Huge rainforest tree overgrown with birdnest ferns

Bukit Brown is now a secondary forest providing shades and shelter of many of these wild animals such as macaques and kingfishers. There are plenty of fruit trees and fishes from the little stream that keep the eco-system going.

Cheng Beng offerings provides these monkeys with additional rations of fruits and treats

Captions : Macaques feasting on leftover Cheng Beng offerings

Clivebenss SG

What's the use of remembering the past when future is not longer part of the past?

SBS2601D SG

Such is the rhetorical nature of that question that I might as well be asking what would then be the point of asking that?

Nyorai SG

Caption : Valley with overgrown secondary forest, home to endangered birds, squirrels, monkeys and insects

This forestry is worth preserving.

In currently fashionable postmodernist trends, it is usualto either deny that reality exists apart from our knowledge (usually understood as our linguistic representations) of it or todeny that our knowledge in any way 'reflects' the world as it exists in and of itself.

The phenomenal world is real in so far as it is the absoluteTruth or Reality as perceived by the relative human mind in accordance with its natural structure or phenomenal attributes.But it is false and unreal if taken as something ultimate andself-subsistent ( as some cosmological models like theSteady State or Cyclic Universe ).

As T. Isutzu once wrote : A true metaphysician worthy of the name is one who is capable of witnessing in everysingle thing in the world the underlying Reality of which thephenomenal form is but a self-manifestation and self-determination .

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What's the use of remembering the past when future is not longer part of the past?

it's only a matter of delaying the process. With the motion passed on the white paper, this place is earmarked for more new development.

Clivebenss SG

it's only a matter of delaying the process. With the motion passed on the white paper, this place is earmarked for more new development.

new migrants are more important than heritage.

nothing gonna stop the gdp growth.

SevenEleven SG

Random Tombs from Bukit Brown Cemetry

Caption : Random tombstones that are well maintained

These typical tombstone with the horseshoe heads and a drainage system are typical Hokkien-styled tombs. Chinese businessman tombs have "fu shen" （福神） stones guarding the tombs while ordinary Chinese have "hou tu" （后土） as their guarding angel on the left of the tomb.

A typical teochew styled tombstone

Caption : A typical teochew styled tombstone

The above is a teochew styled tombstone. How can you tell that? Well, if you notice, the wording on the tombstone is both red and green is a tell tale sign the deceased is of teochew origin. Another tell tale sign is the 2 halves of the gourds on the left and right of the stone inscription. Of course you can confirm it if you read the inscriptions. Normally the top of the stone will tell you his origin (hometown) while the left will tell you when he passed on.The right will normally be the name of his descendants. You can also tell his affiliation to whichever Chinese dynasty or party. A “清” will tell you he's affilcated to the Qing dynasty and a "民国" will tell you he's affilicated to the Sun Yet Sen government.

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Random Tombs from Bukit Brown Cemetry

Caption : Random tombstones that are well maintained

These typical tombstone with the horseshoe heads and a drainage system are typical Hokkien-styled tombs. Chinese businessman tombs have "fu shen" stones guarding the tombs while ordinary Chinese have "hou tu" as their guarding angel on the left of the tomb.

Random grave without proper tombstone

Caption : Random tombstone without proper allocation

These are normally affilicated to the Qing dynasty or are hastily buried during the World War II during the Japanese occupation. The number on the pole you see on the pictures are those that will be affected by the exhumation exercise for the new 8 lanes super highway.

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A beautiful guardian animal on the tombstone

Caption : A beautiful guardian animal on the tombstone

It's a pity that some of these beautiful stone carving will be demolished along with the tomb. This is the one and only pair of bird carving in the 100,000 odds tombs. Other tombs are completed with a pair of boy and girl guardians and even fruits of the four seasons such as pumkins and peaches

Other guardian animals on the tombstone

Caption : Other exotic animals and angel carving on the tomb

Normally the more carving the tombstone have can tell you about the wealth of the deceased. Another would be the location of the tombstone. Those that sits on top of the hills will tell you that they are rich and those on the valley are of the peasants. This would coinside with the chinese beliefs that the tomb should "sit on the mountain face the sea"

SJS6638 SG

don't worry, my old relatives have their parent's grave there told me the big big shot by certain surname have ancestors graves there thus I don't see this will be totally gone. This certain big shot believes in feng shui.

SevenEleven SG

This page is delicated to the tombs of the famous Chinese in Bukit Brown Cemetry

Ancestor of the Lee family

Caption : The tombstone of the ancestor of the Lee Family

The tomb above is Lee Yun Long, the ancestor of our first Prime Minster of independent Singapore. He died in 1942 as indicated on the right of the inscription in the 31st year of China independence. On the left of inscription mark the date of his death in Japanese koki calender. According to our guide, he was working with the Japanese before his death. This tomb was erected by his son Lee Chin Nam who is the father of Mr Lee Kun Yew. Unfortunately this tomb looked like no one had visited it given the condition of it.

The 72nd descendent of Confucious

Caption : The 72nd descendent of Confucious

The above tomb is Mrs Kung Tiang Siong. Her brother is Kung Tiang Siong and her maiden name is Lie Sio Neo. She was the first Chinese girl student at the Methodist Girl School which probably were the school of the British girls. She died in the year 1926. Today, the Kung clans has reached it 81st generation with more the 3,000,000 descendents worldwide.

SJS6638 SG

actually , it is kind of morbid to visit cementary. I scare scare

SevenEleven SG

Tombstone of Ong Sam Leong

Caption: Tombstone of Ong Sam Leong a renowned entrepruner

This is one of the grandest tombstone in Bukit Brown Cemetry. It was said that the site used to be the size of 10 HDB flats and sits right at the top of the hill. It is so beautifully crafted and I'm very sure that it is the work of some great fengshui masters of the old. I'll attempt to read this fengshui after giving some descriptions of this site.

(Disclaimer: I'm not a professional geomancer and thus the interpretation is solely my own views)

This site fit the 阴宅 to the T. I took the bearing of this site with a compass and it pointed to the west. That mean it is sitting on the West and facing the East. （坐西向东) It is believed that facing the East would see the sun rise（阳）while sitting on the West not seeing the sun set. Furthermore sitting on the hilltop overlooking the valley fit the description (坐山向海). It command an unobstructed scenic surrounding as it is suitated on the highest of all the hill in Bukit Brown.

Caption : Ong Sam Leong tomb located on the blue colour hill in the centre

As indicated in the picture above, there's 2 other hill on the right (red) and left (blue), it also fit the description left the green dragon, right the white tiger, front the red pheonix and back the black tortoise. (左青龙，右白虎，前朱雀，后玄武). The tomb has its back on the mountain （后玄武), an unblock front overlooking the valley (前朱雀) with a short hill to it right (右白虎） and a longer range to its left （左青龙).

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Caption: A pair of lions and a skih guards gracing the ground

2 huge stone lions stood guarding the flat ground as you approach the tomb and stand guard include 2 tall skih guard which represent loyalty stood in attention. if you look carefully, in between the guard and the lion ia a groove with grey stone slab on it. On the left side are carving of dragon claws and on the right are the carving of the tiger claws representing the green dragon and white tiger. It's a (左青龙，右白虎，前朱雀，后玄武) (shape of the tomb) within a (左青龙，右白虎，前朱雀，后玄武) (shape of the terrain)

Caption : A guardian fish shaped spout used to slowdown the flow of water

Right in front of the tomb, there is a long trenchs that collect the water from the rain flowing down. The guide told us that it was used as a pond to rear carps in the old days. Although water represents wealth, stagnant water or fast flowing water is not good in fengshui termology. I strongly believed that the fengshui water theory had been applied on this site as the water is all round the tomb. Therefore it can be seen that thought and effort had been put in place.

Caption: Higher relives carving depicts stories like the 24 filial piety

Stories of the chinese idealogy are carved all over the tombstone to beautify it. For example, the above story tell of a son who would always be at her mother side whenever there are thunder and lightning. Even after the demise of her mother, he would still go to her grave to keep her company whenever there are thunder and lightning. If you look into the picture there's a man hugging the tomb and above him is the god of thunder and lightning.