May 12 Tour
2The Beautiful Hill 2 of Bukit Brown Cemetery is resplendent history: tomb stones carved in China with facial relief so expressive they will speak to you through your guide Yik Han, whilst your other guide, Peter Pak will reveal hidden in green nooks, tombs guarded by Angels and Sikh Guards. And if you are lucky macaques may swing above in the canopy of trees and birdsong fill the air, as Hill 2 overlooks a beautiful valley. Sadly the proposed highway will sliced through here. So enjoy Hill 2 while you can.
Tombs of note on Hill 2 can be found here
This tour’s highlight is however the newly cleared and cleaned up tomb of Lee Kim Soo , an early manufacturer of match sticks.
Volunteer guides, Peter and Yik Han, were joined by other Brownies on this May 12 guided tour.
The tour: Video here. (Credit: Albert Ong)
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Also on the same day, after guiding, the volunteers aka Brownies helped some descendants re-unite with long-lost relatives:
Ms Teresa has found her grandfather, whose tomb Ah Lim helped to rebuild. On the same day, she found her grandmother too:
Miss Teresa is re-united with her grand mother. This find was done with the help of Suki, Peter Pak, Chew Keng Kiat. Miss Teresa thanks the Brownies sincerely from the bottom of her heart.
In the meantime, the descendants at what is commonly called the “naked angels’ tomb” finally turned up to solve the mystery of who this man was. We discover his two other wives are buried in front of his tomb. Now to find the other relatives.
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The Bukit Brown area is about 233 acres in extent, bordered by Lornie Road, Lower Thomson Road and the Pan-Island Expressway. It lies just to the south of the Central Catchment Forest, being separated from it by Lornie Road and includes one of Singapore’s oldest Chinese cemetery. With >100,000 graves, Bukit Brown is also one of the largest Chinese cemeteries outside of China.
The volunteers, also known as Brownies, do research, plan the logistics and organize tours to help raise awareness of what is to be lost. Today’s Brownies were: Peter, Catherine, Raymond, Victor with his wife Doris, Keng Kiat and our honorable Sikh guard, Suki. Not in the photo: Yik Han (pictured below) and the photographer Ee Hoon.
((Compiled by Claire Leow, with information provided by Suki Singh and Khoo Ee Hoon.)
Dear Brownies,
I came on your tour and it was very good. An organisation is keen to have the tour conducted by you Can you reply my email ? Date of tour is 11th July . Thanks
Mag
Hi,
Have sent you an email.