{"id":11579,"date":"2025-05-25T11:51:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T03:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/?page_id=11579"},"modified":"2025-09-28T13:57:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T05:57:36","slug":"22-chew-geok-leong","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/wayfinder\/22-chew-geok-leong\/","title":{"rendered":"22 CHEW GEOK LEONG \u5468\u7389\u9f8d"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>\u00a0<\/b><b>The \u201cLive\u201d Tomb<\/b><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CHEW GEOK LEONG \u5468\u7389\u9f99 (1870\u20131940) \u00a0 Place of Ancestry: Ann Kway (\u5b89\u6eaa)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chew Geok Leong\u2019s tomb is one of the most iconic and recognisable in Bukit Brown.The Sikh guards are the only painted pair in the cemetery.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chew\u00a0 was a former Qing official who came to Singapore at the turn of the century. He fled China as he did not want to align himself with the warlord Yuan Shih Kai who was at that time consolidating his power to overthrow the Emperor. He came to Singapore\u00a0 with his family and established a Chinese medical practice and shop at 925 Geylang Road.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">His youngest daughter, Madam Chew Chwee Eng remembers\u00a0 her\u00a0 father telling her with pride they came from a family with four generations of Chinese physicians. He was still alive when he started preparing for his death. This in Chinese traditional practice\u00a0 is called\u00a0 a \u201clive\u201d tomb, encouraged, because it leaves descendants very clear as to how to handle funeral arrangements, often a source of conflict in families., Chew\u00a0 ordered\u00a0 his own coffin\u00a0 &#8211; which was stored in the servants quarters &#8211; and\u00a0 ordered the\u00a0 pair of Sikh Guards from China. The Sikh guards became his\u00a0 loyal sentries when he died,\u00a0 guarding him and his legacy. Their rank\u00a0 is\u00a0 \u2018Naik\u2019 &#8211; equivalent to Corporal, as seen by the two chevron arrows. The statues have been assigned names reflecting their duties &#8211; Home Guard (\u5b88\u5e9c) \u2013 \u201cpatrolling the home\u201d and City Guard (\u5de1\u57ce) \u2013\u00a0 \u201cpatrolling the city\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By choosing a pair of Sikh guards to protect his grave, Chew implicitly\u00a0 recognised their reputation for bravery and loyalty. The Sikh guards were brought over by the British for defence and security. When they retire, they went on to guard banks, businesses and even served as body guards.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another interesting inscription from Chew Geok Leong\u2019s tomb is his involvement in the Opium Movement or rather transliterating it correctly the Anti-Opium Movement. In the past, some of\u00a0 traditional medicines contain opium, but realising how opium addiction was growing among the community, many Chinese pioneers including Chew Geok Leong pivoted against the use of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_11711\" style=\"width: 655px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20-sikh-statue-at-the-grave-of-mr-chew-geok-leong.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11711\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11711\" src=\"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20-sikh-statue-at-the-grave-of-mr-chew-geok-leong.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"645\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20-sikh-statue-at-the-grave-of-mr-chew-geok-leong.png 645w, https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20-sikh-statue-at-the-grave-of-mr-chew-geok-leong-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20-sikh-statue-at-the-grave-of-mr-chew-geok-leong-280x187.png 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 645px) 100vw, 645px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-11711\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The City Guard (\u5de1\u57ce)<br \/>(photo credit : Ishvinder Singh)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>by <strong>Peter Pak<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0The \u201cLive\u201d Tomb CHEW GEOK LEONG \u5468\u7389\u9f99 (1870\u20131940) \u00a0 Place of Ancestry: Ann Kway (\u5b89\u6eaa)\u00a0 Chew Geok Leong\u2019s tomb is one of the most iconic and recognisable in Bukit Brown.The Sikh guards are the only painted pair in the cemetery. Chew\u00a0 was a former Qing official who came to Singapore at the turn of the century. He fled China as he did not want to align himself with the warlord Yuan Shih Kai who was at that time consolidating his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1489,"featured_media":0,"parent":11412,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11579","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>22 CHEW GEOK LEONG \u5468\u7389\u9f8d - Bukit Brown: A World Monuments Watch Site in 2014<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/wayfinder\/22-chew-geok-leong\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"22 CHEW GEOK LEONG \u5468\u7389\u9f8d - Bukit Brown: A World Monuments Watch Site in 2014\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0The \u201cLive\u201d Tomb CHEW GEOK LEONG \u5468\u7389\u9f99 (1870\u20131940) \u00a0 Place of Ancestry: Ann Kway (\u5b89\u6eaa)\u00a0 Chew Geok Leong\u2019s tomb is one of the most iconic and recognisable in Bukit Brown.The Sikh guards are the only painted pair in the cemetery. 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