Bukit Brown Cemetery:

Dead Spaces?

DR LIEW KAI KHIUN

Fast Facts on Bukit Brown

• 211 Acre between Lornie Road and Pan Island Expressway

• Legally owned by George Henry Brown before being purchased by Ong Clan in 1880s.

• 1922: Established as government municipal cemetery

• Estimated 100,000 graves till date

• Parts of Cemetery were cut for golf courses and road development.

• 2013: Road extension into heart of cemetery

Part of the Marina Drainage Basin

Nature Corridor

• Stopover point for migratory birds

• Established wildlife and plant species

• Green lungs for Thomson-MacRitche Area.

Chestnut Malkoha

History and Historical Personalities in Bukit Brown Cemetery

Design of tombstones

Decorations, Statues and design of embellishment of Graves

Mapping Bukit Brown

• Grave Identification• Socio-cultural

Documentation • Geological,

Botanical and Zoological Surveys

Bukit Brown: Nature, Culture, History, Park.

“Development” Plans for Bukit Brown Cemetery

Questions

• How to balance development and conservation?

• How to weigh the intangibles of heritage against the tangible of GDP?

• What sort of Singapore do we want?

BUKIT BROWN as World Heritage?

Bukit Brown Cemetery Okunoin Gobyo Cemetery, Mt. Koya, Japan (UNESCO World Heritage Site)

The End