| Bukit Brown Cemetery | |
| Established: | 1 January 1922 |
| Size Ha: | 233 |
| Graves: | 100,000 |
| Type: | Chinese |
| Closed: | 1973 |
| Country: | Singapore |
| Location: | 36C Lor Halwa, Singapore 298637 |
Bukit Brown Cemetery, also known as the Bukit Brown Municipal Cemetery or the Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery, is a cemetery in Novena, Singapore. Located in the Central Region of Singapore, the land where the cemetery sits was originally owned by George Henry Brown, a British merchant. Due to its hilly terrain, the land became known as Brown's Hill, which was translated locally in Malay to Bukit Brown.
In the 1870s, the land was used as a private cemetery for Chinese people of the Ong clan. The land was eventually acquired by the government, which opened Bukit Brown Cemetery there in 1922. The cemetery was a Chinese burial ground until its closure in 1973, when there were about 100,000 graves. In 2011, the government designated the area for residential development, which was met with backlash from activists who believed that the cemetery should be preserved. The following year, 3,700 graves were exhumed to build an 8-lane highway. Bukit Brown Cemetery is believed to be the largest Chinese cemetery outside of China and it is the location of many of Singapore's earliest pioneers.
The main reasons why activists believed Bukit Brown Cemetery should be conserved were because of its vegetation, wildlife, and the heritage displayed by the graves in the cemetery. Traditional Chinese festivals are held regularly at the cemetery.
The cemetery and surrounding area are referred to as Bukit Brown, after George Henry Brown, the original owner of the land. Due to its hilly terrain, the land became known as Brown's Hill, which was translated locally in Malay to Bukit Brown, bukit meaning hill.
Bukit Brown was the first location in Singapore to be known with a hybrid name, with both English and Malay in its name.[1] The hill where the cemetery is located is referred to as Mount Pleasant, which Brown named. It is also referred to locally as Coffee Hill or Kopi Sua.[2]
Nineteenth-century British merchant and ship owner George Henry Brown (1826–1882) arrived in the Straits Settlements (present-day Singapore) in the 1840s and lived there till his death, after an accident in Penang, on 5 October 1882.
Brown owned a business, G. H. Brown & Co, that was located at Raffles Place. Brown married Ellen Brown (1827–1903) in 1854 and they had multiple children. He was known for his interest in music and played the organ at St. Andrew's Cathedral. Brown also owned multiple plots of land.
One plot of land was the hilly terrain which he called Mount Pleasant, where he built a cottage which he called Fern Cottage. He tried planting nutmeg and coffee on Mount Pleasant, but was unsuccessful. The land was commonly referred to as Brown's Hill, translated locally in Malay to Bukit Brown.
Brown sold the land to Mootapa Chitty, a Chettiar, and Lim Chu Yi, who later sold the land to three Hokkien Seh Ong Kongsi clan members – Ong Hew Ko, Ong Ewe Hai, and Ong Chong Chew. In the 1870s, the trio turned the land into a private cemetery for Chinese people of the Ong clan and it became known as the Seh Ong Cemetery, managed by the Seh Ong Kongsi. All three of the clan members were buried at Bukit Brown Cemetery.[3]
The first mention of a municipal Chinese cemetery was in 1906, where Peranakan social activist Lim Boon Keng suggested at a municipal meeting for a proper burial site for the Chinese, which was unanimously agreed upon by the Municipal Commission.[4] Singaporean politician Tan Kheam Hock was also a supporter of establishing a public Chinese cemetery. In 1917, Tan asked about whether progress had been made in acquiring land at Bukit Brown to repurpose it as a Chinese burial ground.[5] When Bukit Brown Cemetery was opened, Tan managed the cemetery till his death.
Some cemeteries initially considered to be used were the Hokkien cemetery at Keppel Harbour and the cemetery at Holland Road but the Municipal Commission eventually settled on Seh Ong Cemetery in a meeting on 26 October 1917, particularly due to its size and cost. Following this decision, the Seh Ong Kongsi stated:
"The trustees preferred to retain the land for the use of their own kongsi. There was sufficient land to last the Seh Ong Kongsi for 200 years and they preferred to reserve it for themselves rather than sell it and make use of it for other kongsis or races of Chinese who were short of burial grounds. [<nowiki/>''[[sic]]]"After multiple negotiations with the Seh Ong Kongsi, where they refused to give the land every time, the Municipal Commissioners decided that "the only other course left [for the Commission was] to approach the [British] government to appropriate the land in spite of the unwillingness of the owners." In 1919, the Municipal Commission acquired the land through compulsory acquisition despite the resistance from the Seh Ong Kongsi.In 1921, by-laws for Bukit Brown Cemetery were established to regulate burials for the Chinese.[6] It was then opened as Bukit Brown Municipal Cemetery on 1 January 1922. In 1923, the road leading up to Bukit Brown Cemetery was named Bukit Brown Road, after Brown, and another road leading up to the cemetery was named Kheam Hock Road, after Tan.[7] A cemetery temple was built with a caretaker running the temple. A priest was hired that sold joss sticks and candles.[8]
When it was opened, Bukit Brown Cemetery was not very popular with the Chinese, having its first burial in August 1922. The municipal president stated that it was "not utilized to the extent which we had anticipated", citing the main reasons being the size and layout of the grave plots, although these were put in place to maximise space. Bukit Brown Cemetery was also separated into "general" and "pauper" sections, to make the cemetery more inclusive. The general section's plots were about 14x8 feet and cost $50 Strait whilst the pauper section's plots were 8x4 feet. The pauper section was located in a low-lying area that was regularly flooded but allowed the poor to afford the burial fees, as they were free.[9]
Due to the limited sizes, families typically used two burial plots for one burial. Other complaints were that plot sizes were irregular, with some being larger than others, leading to complaints about social classes as the larger plots were owned by wealthier individuals. The Municipal Commission later consulted with the Chinese Advisory Board who changed plot layouts to better account for the Chinese, expanding the sizes of plots to 20x10 feet in the general section and 10x5 feet in the pauper section. This helped Bukit Brown Cemetery to become more popular amongst the Chinese community. Following the cemetery's popularity, rest houses and wells were built along with hiring gardeners to maintain the cemetery.[10]
By 1929, 40% of Chinese deaths in Singapore were buried at Bukit Brown Cemetery. In 1941, Choa Chu Kang Cemetery was established as Bukit Brown Cemetery and Bidadari Cemetery were both running out of space.[11] By 1944, Bukit Brown Cemetery had reached its max number of burials and no further burials were allowed except for those who had reserved plots.
In 1946, more grave plots at Bukit Brown Cemetery were released for people's whose reservations had been taken up during the Japanese occupation and used for pauper burials.[12] [13] In 1947, Bukit Brown Cemetery and Choa Chu Kang Cemetery were brought up in a municipal meeting by L. Rayman, concerned about the land use occupied by the cemeteries. An amendment was passed that limited the size of burial plots.[14] In 1965, the Public Works Department (PWD) exhumed 237 graves to realign Lornie Road off Adam Road.[15] [16] Bukit Brown Cemetery was closed in 1973 with about 100,000 graves.
From 2011 to 2012, the area was designated for residential development and many activists were upset by this decision as Bukit Brown Cemetery was "a distinctive slice of the multi-ethnic country's fast disappearing heritage"[17] and that it should be preserved.[18] [19] [20] This included exhuming 3,700 graves to make space for an 8-lane highway.[21]
In 2012, it was announced by then-Minister of State for National Development, Tan Chuan-Jin, that 5,000 graves would be exhumed to make way for a new 8-lane highway, Lornie Highway, that would cut through the cemetery.[22] This number was later reduced to 3,746 on 19 March 2012.[23] [24] [25] Construction for Lornie Highway began in 2011 and was expected to be completed by 2016 but was eventually completed in 2018.[26] During construction, Bukit Brown Road was replaced by a section of the Lornie Highway.[27] A bridge was built under Lornie Highway to help animals pass through.[28]
The National Archives of Singapore (NAS) digitised and released the burial registers of Bukit Brown Cemetery between April 1922 and December 1972 online, as well as a map of the cemetery to help descendants check if their ancestor's graves were affected by the development.[29] It was also revealed that the rest of the cemetery would make way for a new public housing town in about 40 years time.[30] In 2014, a bush fire broke out at Bukit Brown Cemetery that was the about the size of "1½ football fields" which took the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) 2 hours to put out.[31] Bukit Brown Cemetery was also named on the 2014 World Monuments Watch as an "at risk site".[32]
In 2015, following the Singapore Botanic Gardens gaining UNESCO World Heritage Site status, Bukit Brown Cemetery along with other sites were suggested for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. However, sites such as Bukit Brown Cemetery and Jalan Kubor Cemetery are "neither a building nor a monument" and are unable to even obtain National Monument status despite having rich heritage, making it unlikely that they would receive UNESCO World Heritage Site status.[33] In 2016, Bukit Brown Cemetery's gates that were installed back in the 1920s were removed from their original posts, cleaned and repaired, and reinstalled at the mouth of a new access road near its original location.[34] [35] In 2017, the Singapore Heritage Society launched a self-guided trail through Bukit Brown Cemetery that takes visitors through 25 gravestones.[36] A grave belonging to Chen Yi Kuan collapsed due to nearby construction works for Mount Pleasant MRT station on the Thomson–East Coast MRT line.[37]
In August 2024, an outdoor display, Sounds of the Earth, was opened by Bukit Brown conservation groups. The display features 80 unclaimed artifacts that were collected in 2013, during the construction of Lornie Highway.[38]
Bukit Brown Cemetery is located in the Central Region of Singapore in Novena and is bordered by the Central Water Catchment in the north, Toa Payoh in the east, Kallang in the south-east, Newton and Tanglin in the south, and Bukit Timah in the west. There are a few built attractions around the cemetery such as the Singapore Polo Club and the Old Police Academy along with roads such as the Pan Island Expressway, which borders Bukit Brown Cemetery in the south, Thomson Road, in the east, and Lornie Highway, which cuts through the cemetery.
A digital self-guided trail of Bukit Brown Cemetery, called the Bukit Brown Wayfinder, was released by the Singapore Heritage Society in 2017. The guide divides a small section of the cemetery into blocks, labelled 1 to 3, with signs to direct users to 25 gravestones.[39] [40]
Formerly, there was a kampong village along Kheam Hock Road, known as Kampong Kheam Hock or Kheam Hock Village. In 1949, a Municipal survey estimated that there were 250 huts at Kampong Kheam Hock whilst in 1984, an estimated 200 families lived there.[41] Kampong Kheam Hock was listed for development in 1984 and its residents were moved to Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats in Potong Pasir and Hougang before being demolished.[42]
Currently, the Mount Pleasant planning area is under construction by the HDB, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and the Singapore Land Authority. When complete, it will border Bukit Brown Cemetery in the south-east.[43] Two non-operational Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations are located in the Bukit Brown area, Mount Pleasant MRT station and Bukit Brown MRT station. Mount Pleasant MRT station is planned to be opened in conjuncture with the Mount Pleasant planning area to serve its future residents whilst Bukit Brown MRT station will open once Bukit Brown Cemetery has been redeveloped.[44] [45]
Due to Bukit Brown Cemetery's high Chinese population, traditional Chinese festivals are held at Bukit Brown Cemetery annually. For example, the Qingming Festival is held regularly at Bukit Brown Cemetery, usually requiring traffic police to regulate the high traffic flow into the cemetery.[46] [47] [48] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government advised visitors to Bukit Brown Cemetery and Mandai Crematorium and Columbarium to be in groups of 4 and to refrain from bringing elderly family members.[49]
The Hungry Ghost Festival is another festival that is regularly held. The festival is usually performed by representatives of Chinese temples who, despite having no relation to the deceased, perform the rituals and offering to them. This is seen as a form of charity by the representatives as the deceased do not have descendants to perform the ritual for them.
Due to its dense vegetation, Bukit Brown Cemetery helps to prevent flooding from rain caused by surface runoff and serve as a "carbon storage" site. In a position paper by the Singapore Heritage Society, they stated that Bukit Brown Cemetery should be kept for these reasons. Other organizations also requested the government to carry out "a comprehensive environmental impact assessment" of Bukit Brown Cemetery. Some plants seen include the terentang and giant mahang.[50]
In the 1950s, Bukit Brown Cemetery was cleared of its vegetation, only for the cemetery to be overgrown with vegetation again.[51] This has led Bukit Brown Cemetery's vegetation to be described as a "neglected space" with an "unrecognisable landscape". In 2014, a bush fire broke out at Bukit Brown Cemetery that was the about the size of "1½ football fields" which took the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) 2 hours to put out.
A study carried out from 2019 to 2022 by the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum studied the plants at Bukit Brown Cemetery along with surrounding cemeteries, referred to all together as Greater Bukit Brown. 233 species of plants, of which 158 were considered native, were found at Greater Bukit Brown. Of the 158 species, 76 are considered nationally threatened.[52] Some species of plants found at Greater Bukit Brown include:
See also: List of mammals of Singapore and list of birds of Singapore. Bukit Brown Cemetery is known for its wildlife, being populated with mammals and birds. This has made Bukit Brown Cemetery a popular location with photographers, nature lovers, and bird-watchers. In 2012, Nature Society (Singapore) recorded 90 resident and migrant birds along with 48 species of animal living at Bukit Brown Cemetery. Mammals and birds seen at Bukit Brown Cemetery include:
From July 2012 to October 2012, a study was held by the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum that studied fishes at two separate streams at Bukit Brown Cemetery, called Bukit Brown Stream and Mount Pleasant Stream respectively. 11 species of fish were found with only 4 being considered native.[55] The 4 native fish were:
Graves at Bukit Brown Cemetery were built with different materials from Europe and East Asia using traditional building techniques from the 1920s and 1930s. Other materials used to build graves include bricks, commonly from Alexandra Brickworks and Jurong Brickworks, and plaster from Shanghai, China. Graves also represent different social statuses of people through decorations on graves such as decorative tiles from Europe and Japan. Other types of tiles include Peranakan tiles, tiles named after Chinese immigrants who came to Singapore and inspired Straits Chinese culture. Graves were also traditionally built on the side of hills due to feng shui practices by the Chinese.
Graves typically included inscribed stone panels, stone reliefs, and statues with materials from quarries in Singapore or Malaysia. Shops selling sculpted stones imported from China were also found commonly along Kheam Hock Road. Marble headstones with lead lettering were also used, being imported from Europe. Graves were also decorated with ceramic portraits of the deceased in an oval shape on the headstone. The techniques to make these portraits emerged from France and due to the frequency of these portraits shows that it had reached Singapore around the early 20th-century.
Due to Bukit Brown Cemetery's long history and multiple graves, it is believed to be the largest Chinese cemetery outside of China with about 100,000 graves. It is also the location of many of Singapore's earliest pioneers.[56] [57] Notable burials include: