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Bukit Brown Cemetery

Bukit Brown Cemetery
Location details
Type Chinese municipal cemetery
Location Novena




Bukit Brown Cemetery, also known as the Bukit Brown Municipal Cemetery or the Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery, is located in Novena in the Central Region of Singapore. The site was originally owned by George Henry Brown, a British merchant, becoming known as Brown's Hill, translated into Malay as Bukit Brown. The site was eventually given to the Seh Ong Kongsi, who opened a private clan cemetery there in the 1870s.

Beginning in the 1880s, cemeteries in Singapore grew rapidly. In 1887, the Legislative Council passed a bill that limited their creation, particularly Chinese cemeteries. The Chinese community called for a municipal cemetery, with notable supporters including Tan Kheam Hock and Lim Boon Keng. The Municipal Commission settled on the Seh Ong Kongsi's land, acquiring the site in 1919 through compulsory acquisition.

Three years later, the Commission opened Bukit Brown Cemetery. By 1929, forty percent of Chinese buried in Singapore were interred there. The cemetery ran out of unreserved plots in 1944 and was closed in 1973, containing about 100,000 graves. In 2011, the government designated the area for residential development, leading to protests from activists who believed the cemetery should be preserved. The following year, around 3,700 graves were exhumed to build an eight-lane highway. The cemetery was designated as "at risk" on the 2014 World Monuments Watch.

Bukit Brown Cemetery is believed to be the largest Chinese cemetery outside of China, and is the burial location of many of Singapore's earliest pioneers.

Etymology

The cemetery and the surrounding area are referred to as Bukit Brown (bukit meaning hill in Malay), after George Henry Brown, the original owner of the land. The name was the first official designation in Singapore to be a hybrid of multiple languages, including both English and Malay. Brown named the hill Mount Pleasant; it is also locally referred to as Coffee Hill or Kopi Sua.

History

1800s: Early establishments

George Henry Brown (1826–1882) was a nineteenth-century British merchant and ship owner who arrived in Singapore (then part of the Straits Settlements) in the 1840s and lived there until his death in Penang on 5 October 1882. His business, G. H. Brown & Co, was located at Raffles Place. He owned multiple plots of land in the colony, including a hilly plot he called Mount Pleasant, where he built a house named Fern Cottage. His attempts to grow nutmeg and coffee there were unsuccessful. The land was referred to as Brown's Hill, locally translated into Malay as Bukit Brown.

Brown later sold the land to Chettiar Mootapa Chitty and Chinese businessman Lim Chu Yi, who in turn sold it to Ong Hew Ko, Ong Ewe Hai, and Ong Chong Chew. The trio gave the land to the Seh Ong Kongsi in 1872, who in the 1870s turned it into a private cemetery for their members, leading to it being known as the Seh Ong Cemetery. The Hokkien Huay Kuan also buried their clan members there.

1900–2000: Bukit Brown Cemetery

Background

By the 1880s, expansion of the city centre was restricted by the scarcity of suitable land; surrounding land was either swampland or taken up by cemeteries. Due to the Chinese belief in burying their dead on hillsides, many sites suitable for residences were occupied by Chinese cemeteries, raising sanitation concerns and growing contention between the British authorities and Chinese communities.

In 1887, a bill authorising the regulation, licensing, and inspection of cemeteries was introduced at a Legislative Council meeting, particularly targeting Chinese cemeteries. Seah Liang Seah, a Chinese member of the Legislative Council, requested a postponement of the bill, which seriously affected the interests of the Chinese community. Following multiple petitions, the bill was postponed and left in abeyance until 1896.

The reintroduced 1896 bill gave control of burial grounds to the Municipal Commission rather than the Legislative Council. The Commission could license and inspect burial grounds, close unsafe ones, and impose penalties for improper corpse disposal. Unlike the 1887 bill, private burial grounds would be allowed if licensed.

Municipal acquisition and creation of Bukit Brown

The first official mention of a municipal Chinese cemetery came as early as 1904, when a group of Chinese residents, including Peranakan social activist Lim Boon Keng, suggested that the Municipal Commissioners set aside a burial ground. In 1906, Lim again suggested a proper burial site, which the Municipal Commission unanimously agreed to. Ching Keng Lee also agreed on the importance of a municipal cemetery, and Singaporean politician Tan Kheam Hock supported the establishment of a public Chinese cemetery. After Bukit Brown Cemetery opened, Tan managed the cemetery until his death.

The Municipal Commission considered sites at Keppel Harbour, Holland Road, and Bidadari before settling on the Seh Ong Cemetery in a meeting on 26 October 1917, particularly due to its size and cost. After multiple negotiations in which the Seh Ong Kongsi refused to give up the land, the Municipal Commission acquired a portion of the land through compulsory acquisition in 1919, along with other nearby parcels. Two years were spent creating the layout, building footpaths and facilities, hiring staff, and establishing by-laws. The by-laws were created by a subcommittee including Municipal Commissioners Tan and See Tiong Wah.

Opening of Bukit Brown and subsequent use

The cemetery was officially opened as Bukit Brown Municipal Cemetery on 1 January 1922. In 1923, the road leading to the cemetery was named Bukit Brown Road, and another was named Kheam Hock Road after Tan. The cemetery was initially unpopular with the Chinese; its first burial occurred in August 1922. It was separated into "general" and "pauper" sections, with the pauper section having no monetary cost for plots.

The fixed positioning of plots was unpopular, as the Chinese preferred individualised plots following traditional geomancy practices. The Municipal Commission eventually consulted the Chinese Advisory Board, who amended the by-laws to better suit Chinese preferences, expanding plot sizes and changing layouts to face south or east. These changes made the cemetery more popular. By 1929, 40% of the dead among the Chinese community in Singapore were buried at Bukit Brown. In 1941, Choa Chu Kang Cemetery was established as Bukit Brown and Bidadari Cemetery were both running out of space.

During the Japanese occupation, mass communal trenches were dug to bury thousands of unidentified victims of Japanese bombings. By 1944, the cemetery had reached its allotted number of burials and no further burials were allowed except for reserved plots. In 1965, the Public Works Department exhumed 237 graves to realign Lornie Road. Bukit Brown Cemetery was closed for new burials in 1973, with about 100,000 graves. From 1992 to 1993, 600 graves were exhumed from nearby cemeteries to widen the Pan Island Expressway.

2000–present: Redevelopment plans and conservation efforts

In 2011, the area was designated for residential development, upsetting many activists who felt the cemetery should be preserved. After the Ministry of National Development announced plans to convert the cemetery into a housing estate by 2030, groups such as the Rojak Librarian, All Things Bukit Brown, and SOS Bukit Brown were formed. In 2012, National Development Minister of State Tan Chuan-Jin announced that 5,000 graves would be exhumed to make way for a new eight-lane Lornie Highway.

During a budget debate, Tan acknowledged the importance of heritage conservation but restated that the highway was needed to connect the northern–northeastern region and reduce congestion on Lornie Road. On 19 March 2012, the number of graves to be exhumed was reduced to 3,746 after consultations with the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan, the Singapore Heritage Society, academics, and grave experts. A documentation project helmed by anthropologist Hui Yew-Foong was formed as a government concession.

Former politician Goh Choon Kang disagreed with comparisons between Bukit Brown and golf courses, stating that the dead should make way for the living. The Land Transport Authority was criticised for keeping its biodiversity impact assessment private. Bukit Brown activists contemplated launching a judicial review, but an analysis found this unlikely to halt construction.

Construction of the Lornie Highway began in 2011 and was completed in 2018. Exhumed remains were either reinterred into smaller plots or cremated by the National Environment Agency. The National Archives of Singapore digitised and released the burial registers of Bukit Brown Cemetery between April 1922 and December 1972 online. Bukit Brown Cemetery was listed on the 2014 World Monuments Watch as an "at risk site".

Geography

Bukit Brown Cemetery is located in Novena in the Central Region of Singapore. It is bordered by the Pan Island Expressway to the south and Thomson Road to the east, and is bisected by Lornie Highway. The area within these roads contains multiple other cemeteries, so the terms "Bukit Brown" or "Greater Bukit Brown" can refer to the collection as a whole. Two non-operational Mass Rapid Transit stations are located in the area: Mount Pleasant MRT station and Bukit Brown MRT station.

Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Mount Pleasant Cemetery, also known as Kopi Sua Cemetery or Coffee Hill Cemetery, is located near Thomson Road. Formerly part of Bukit Brown Cemetery, it was separated when the government exhumed six hundred graves in 1993 to widen the Pan Island Expressway. In November 2021, a portion was planned for redevelopment by the Housing and Development Board, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, and the Singapore Land Authority, though the planned road was later adjusted following an environmental evaluation.

Seh Ong Cemetery

Seh Ong Cemetery was first established sometime in the 1870s on land bought by Ong Hew Ko, Ong Ewe Hai, and Ong Chong Chew, who gave it to the Seh Ong Kongsi, a Hokkien clan. In 1919, the Municipal Commission acquired the land. The total number of graves between Bukit Brown and Seh Ong is estimated at around 200,000.

Notable burials

Bukit Brown is the burial place of many of Singapore's earliest pioneers. Notable burials include:

Lee Hoon Leong (1871–1942), a Straits-born Chinese businessman buried here, was the grandfather of the first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and great-grandfather of the third Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

See also

References

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