Remembering Seah Eu Chin
5Today, 27 descendants of Teochew pioneer Seah Eu Chin went to Grave Hill in Toa Payoh to visit the clan patriarch. Amazingly, after the event, we realised today is the 129th anniversary of his burial.
Map expert Mok Ly Ying starts the visit by trying to get the precise coordinates of Seah Eu Chin’s grave by using this LTA marker as a reference (Photo: Claire Leow)
Seah descendants at Grave Hill, flanked by the Goh brothers (in All Things Bukit Brown T-shirts) as they had found this grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Making tracks to visit Seah Eu Chin (Photo: Claire Leow)
Making tracks to visit Seah Eu Chin (Photo: Claire Leow)
Making tracks to Seah Eu Chin’s grave: see the others in the dense bush (Photo: Claire Leow)
The young ones lead the families as they make tracks to Seah Eu Chin’s grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Disappearing into the bush: Making tracks to Seah Eu Chin’s grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Reporters follow: Making tracks to Seah Eu Chin’s grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Young and old making tracks to Seah Eu Chin’s grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Making tracks to Seah Eu Chin’s grave with offerings (Photo: Claire Leow)
Making tracks uphill to Seah Eu Chin’s grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Making tracks uphill to Seah Eu Chin’s grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Climbing a steep parapet as they make tracks to Seah Eu Chin’s grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Voila! They espy the tomb in the dense undergrowth to Seah Eu Chin’s grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Matriarch, 80, arrives at Seah Eu Chin’s grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Matriarch prepares the offerings at Seah Eu Chin’s grave (Photo: Claire Leow)
Remembering Seah Eu Chin (Photo: Claire Leow)
Offerings for Seah Eu Chin (Photo: Claire Leow)
Offerings for Seah Eu Chin (Photo: Claire Leow)
Watch the Facebook video of the families taking turns to pay their respects.
Seah Eu Chin remembered (Photo: Claire Leow)
The inscription shows 2 wives, sisters from the same hometown. Some relatives meet each other for the first time and share notes. Some are unaware Seah had 2 wives.
After the relatives left, the Brownies did some exploring.
Chalking the couplet on the fallen pillar to be deciphered (Photo: Claire Leow)
His earth deity is more than 30 metres away and took some exploring to be located:
Sean Eu Chin’s earth deity took some bush-bashing to be found (Photo: Claire Leow)
Hoping to help researchers and descendants, Mok Ly Ying steps in with his mapping skills:
Mok Ly Ying with one of Seah’s Teochew lions, seeking a GPS signal from a passing satellite (Photo: Claire Leow)
This is what Ly Ying had done previously:
3D view of SEC’s tomb: 3D view from the southeast looking towards northwest. Elevation exaggerated by 2.5x. (Photo: Mok Ly Ying)
In post-event fun, Brownies celebrated the find with Raymond:
Happy Brownies after Seah visit (Photo: Khoo Ee Hoon)
Lunch after Seah’s visit (Photo: Claire Leow)
Soil investigation at Grave Hill (Photo: Claire Leow)
Sadly, on our way out, we encountered soil investigation drills, indicating the start of the project to build the North-South Highway. We hope Seah Eu Chin will still be able to rest in peace in the future…
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Comments from relatives today:
Grace Seah Heartfelt thanks to all the fabulous brownies for giving up your Saturday morning for the Seah descendants. Lovely to meet everyone today. We will bring this wonderful memory back to Perth to share with our boys
Irene Seah Today is an incredibly awesome day for the Seah descendants who made it to Seah Eu Chin’s tomb. All thanks to the wonderful brownies who made this possible. We even met extended family members for the first time! This means so much to us. THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. *HUGS*
SK Seah Thank you everybody for making this visit possible.
Thank you so much for such a lovely day.
You all have been great.
With much appreciation.
Claire: +10! Nice write-up of the hike to SEC’s tomb…so vivid that i can feel myself going up Grave Hill with the 27 of my extended SEAH family tho I couldn’t make it this time! Well done anywayz for all surviving the trek! Great mapping and 3D rendering of the tomb’s location! Truly another living page for Singapore’s history books as its being recorded here! cheers again!
We are very grateful to the Brownies and both brothers for discovering Seah Eu Chin’s tomb.
The visit to grave hill was really very meaningful for all Seah’s descendants.
thank you so very much.
From descendants of
Seah Eu chin
Hi all,
I only had the chance to follow up on the site visit and am very grateful to all for the postings and photos and even videos (which I’ve yet to watch).
Am still trying to find out from which of his sons I come from – but that will be a future investigation (in the near future I hope).
Hi All, Glad that you guys met up at Seah Eu Chin’s Tomb. Seah Eu Chin is my great great grandfather. My great grandfather is Seah Song Seah, grandfather is Seah Eng Cheng. Anyone remember there was a bungalow right on the spot of Seventh Day Adventis Church, at the road junction of Thomson Road and Marymount Road?