You’d think from the title that I’d be referring to Haw Par Villa, but I’m not – looking at Jerome’s pictures from his stroll through the Bukit Brown Cemetery, one finds a treasure trove of art and sculpture amidst the tombs of up to 100,000 people – many of whom were significant people in the times of early Singapore.
The other thing that strikes you about Bukit Brown is the sense of timelessness and serenity, having been tucked away and almost forgotten for so long. Jerome writes about the peacefulness of Bukit Brown:
Strange as it may seem, the cemetery for some is regarded as a recreation space. Many seeking solitude and serenity have found it in a stroll or a jog through the meandering paths that weave through the grounds. The cemetery has not just become a place to escape, it is a place where horses I was told are sometimes ridden, as if ridden through a countryside that many of us do not realise is there. It is not just for the historical value but for the beauty that the serenity of Bukit Brown brings to us that makes any proposals to preserve it certainly worth reconsidering, for if it does go the way in which the highest bidder wins, it won’t just be the dead, but the living that would have lost a peaceful resting place.
Check out Jerome’s stroll through Bukit Brown cemetery in his post The unkempt beauty of Coffee Hill.
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