Interlude At Bukit Brown Cemetery

(Photos, care of D)

The first thing that strikes you is the serenity of Bukit Brown Cemetery. Opened in 1922 and closed in 1973, many buried there are Chinese pioneers of Singapore, and this is one of the last lush areas of verdant green we'll see in the country. Those old trees tower above us, majestic and stately. When this oasis is gone, our memories of this spot will remain.

You know how much I love wandering through cemeteries. The girlfriend is just as enamored with cemeteries and graveyards. So on a day when the weather cooperated by being cloudy and overcast, we hopped over in a heartbeat. The best part, there were no other visitors but us. YAYYYY!

I've visited a long time ago as a young imp, but highlights of the trip had been forgotten. Probably two decades later, meandering through the paths feel, different. Honestly, I've never felt a sense of history to the graves nor the place. It's historical, yes, a resting place to the ancestors of our founding fathers, and of the people who built this country from soil and toil. But that is all, I don't feel anything more. The country moves on, we look forward and think little of the past. We've sprung forth as a country of immigrants, and going by our current policies, we'll always be a country of immigrants. If you ask me how much I care, I'll tell you, it's damn little. If this place has to be gazetted, it has to be done. I've no illusions about it. We've no land and we (not me) want to hit a population of 7 million soon. This country is near overflowing with imminent housing issues; something's gotta give. But I hope that a portion of it could be kept to preserve what little memory we have of old Singapore.

The graves are tranquil in the undergrowth. Many are clearly abandoned, but some have been lovingly cleared and tended to. Many fresh oranges have been left at these graves, and incense and paper offerings burnt for them. Even the graves have a sort of fashion. The older graves don't carry faded photos and the later-era ones do. Even the design and the 'guards' of the graves follow the fashion of the day. It's fascinating especially when our assumptions correlate with the year of death in the similar time period.

The girlfriend takes an avid interest in birds. She can spot them way faster than I ever could, and tell me the species. Win. But the birds weren't keen to be photographed today. We could hear them loud and clear, but the physical forms eluded us.

We leisurely strolled around for the hour. While you could stay on the even path, we chose to brave the mozzies to trudge up and down the overgrown trails to peer at photos and wordings on the headstones. The API has thoughtfully set up directional tapes and placards with tiny markers to indicate whose grave might be of notable interest to visitors.

We cleverly didn't bother with a walking map. Well, how lost could we be? This is an urban sprawl. We meandered through the paths to a big fork. Luckily GoogleMaps indicated that we were walking away from our intended exit. We saw passing cars (wondered where they went, because they all turned back very quickly!) and stopped one to ask if they had come from the Lorong Halwa entrance. They did. So we made a turn and within minutes, we were back at where we started.

The girlfriend had fun capturing the scampering monkeys through her lens. I'm super wary of monkeys and inched closer to the car. Ugh. Monkeys simply spell trouble! In spite of the almost cool weather, the humidity was sapping. After wiping down, I was quite happy to plonk in the car with the air-conditioning turned on.

(Do also hop by to read notabilia's and Flora's thoughts on this cemetery, and Liz McKenzie's 'elegy'.)