rojak rendezvous: A walk through Coffee Hill

Bukit Brown Cemetary with 100,000 graves is the largest Chinese burial site outside of China. Growing up in Singapore, I've never heard of it until this whole controversy about building a highway over it & the need to exhume 4000 graves. Since my parents are from China, none of our ancestors are buried there, I suppose.

I recently went on a visit with the Nature Society & was struck by how little I know about that place. Apart from the controversy, I read about it being the final resting place for a lot of the pioneers of Singapore, names like Joo Chiat, Gan Eng Seng, Boon Lay, Boon Tat - should be familiar as many places are named after them. Lee Kuan Yew's father & aunt are both buried there.

But I had no idea the size. We walked for 2 hours & covered only about 75% of the area. While we were there, we came across many people walking their dogs, running & riding (the Singapore Polo Club is close by). It really should be called Bukit Brown Heritage Park (something I came across on the internet which I thought was very apt). Why hadn't I known about this place before ? This is truly a hidden gem in Singapore.

I don't find anything morbid about a cemetery - in fact a walk through it is like a history lesson. Pere Lachaise cemetary in the middle of Paris, is well visited (not in small part due to Jim Morrison's grave). I fully intend to return & spend more time exploring before it becomes yet another casualty of our development plans.

Lovely Peranakan tiles

This is where the highway will run through

Experience it before it's gone

Interesting fauna & trees

The whole area is well shaded

hence making it a very cool place for walking & jogging

A Terra Cotta Warrior stands on guard

Little tags highlighting the celebrity graves

A tomb with a man & his 5 wives

A rich man

The number sign marks it for exhumation

Mr & Mrs Ong Sam Leong

the largest grave in Bukit Brown

Intricate stone carving depicting 24 Filial Piety stories

on the grave site of Ong Sam Leong

This is the story of Wang Pou. When his mother was alive, she was afraid of thunder. Even when she was dead & buried, he would run over to her tomb to comfort her whenever there was thunder.