The Traditional Chinese Grave

A few months ago, I blogged about my Singapore trip to Haw Par Villa Hell’s museum and the 10 courts of Hell. One of the highlights of this trip was also learning about our dying cultural heritage: The Traditional Chinese Grave. This made me research Chinese tombstones and my uncle managed to provide me with my maternal grandfather’s tombstone photo, which is no longer around. They had exhumed his tomb and placed him along with my grandmother at Toa Payoh Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery in 2013. I will tell you more about why we needed to exhume him in a minute.

Burial was always the preferred traditional means of handling the dead and very few would like to be cremated for many reasons. Some people say when dead people return to visit, they would smell of smoke, they would be too dry, etc. Would you believe this? My dad did visit me in my dreams wanting me to buy him a drink as he was too hot (he was cremated in 2007). Some people would say they would not want to be scattered into the sea in case they turned into a water ghost or maybe they’d find it too cold even in spirit form. There are so many sayings and beliefs but we won’t know! In 1963, the Vatican lifted its ban on cremation for Catholics and this allowed Catholic Singaporeans to be cremated.

Singapore is such a small island and land is scarce. So from the 1960s to the 1990s, the dead had to make way for the living. Many parts of the island were redeveloped for new towns and housing estates. For example, Bishan, where my mum and sister still live, was once the land that belonged to Kwong Wai Siew Peck San Theng, a century-old cemetery that mainly served the Cantonese and Hakka communities in Singapore. In all, 75,234 graves were exhumed and made way for the construction of Bishan New Town flats in 1983.

Since the redevelopment of Singapore, the authorities encouraged cremation over burial and built crematoria to handle death. Currently, there are over 60 columbaria built. There is only Choa Chu Kang cemetery left which is still open to burials but only with a lease of 15 years. In 1998, the New Burial Policy commenced and burial was no longer forever. After 15 years of burial, the remains of every deceased will be exhumed and reburied or cremated. For deceased Muslims whose remains were claimed by their next of kin before exhumation, eight will be re-interred in one crypt. For Muslims whose remains were not claimed, 16 will share one crypt. There are two types of crypts in Choa Chu Kang Cemetery, one for fresh burials and another for re-interment. A crypt for fresh burials has been recreated on the floor.

My grandfather passed away in 1989 before this new policy commenced, but my uncles decided to exhume him to place his ashes next to my grandmother instead. This will help the younger generations to visit their ancestors in one place during the Qingming festival (tomb sweeping day).

My grandfather’s grave occupies a smaller footprint than graves constructed before the 1980s. Since the 1980s, space allocated to each grave was reduced and fixed at the Choa Chu Kang Cemetery. Before that, the Chinese used to bury their dead in plots of varying sizes depending on how much they can afford. The bigger and taller it is shows the dead comes from a rich family.

Realm of the Dead mirrors the Realm of the Living, hence the traditional Chinese graves mirror traditional Chinese houses in architecture. The Tumulus (Mu Dui) (with the grass) corresponds to the back chamber of a traditional house. The grave takes on this sloping tumulus, flanked by two ridges, in a horseshoe shape, to protect the grave from strong winds from the back or sides. It also gives the soul residing in the grave a clear view of descendants.

The altar and headstone (Mu Pai) on the grave table correspond to the main hall, which usually contains an altar bearing Ancestral Tablets. My grandfather’s headstone reflected his name and my grandmother’s name. I have no idea why my grandmother’s name is on there as she had not passed yet at that time.

The side columns correspond to the wings of a traditional house. The grave court (mu ting) corresponds to the central courtyard.

Depending on your choice (how deep your pockets are), he had a stone lion one on each side (a common choice for males) and 4 couplets in total. There are also scenes of scenery to beautify the grave. On the right side, we have the Emperor of the Earth (Hou Tu). There are two joss stick pot holders: one for my grandfather and one for the Hou Tu.

Sometimes they will leave a stone on the tombstone to inform others, they have visited.

This photo was taken during my visit to Haw Paw Villa and the traditional Chinese grave was a sample display. The lady in the photo was not a real person, in fact, it was put together with lots of past photos and recreated by computer.