This is a Hakka cemetery tucked behind Blk 32 of Holland Close, one of the streets leading away from Holland Village. The memorial stones are packed close to each other, like a Roman army formation. My colleagues tell me that the memorial stones are for civilians who died during the second world war. They also say that LKY's grandfather's memorial stone is supposedly among the thousand-odd stones. There was a worker re-doing one of the larger memorial stones when we visited yesterday.
Update: LKY's grandfather is not at the Holland Close cemetery but was at another Hakka cemetery at Holland Lane Holland Link. There were talks to acquire the Holland Lane Holland Link cemetery in 1971. Please see Gelyn's clarification in the comments section of this post. Thanks.
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Yin Foh Kuan Cemetery
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14 comments:
I was told LKY's ancestor is precisely the reason why the cemetary is still there. I walked past the cemetery everyday during the six years of my primary school education. Some of my ancestors were buried there, and my parents still visit it every Qing Ming. There was a run-down temple and a tortoise pond, wonder if still there? The temple used to be a school and my dad studied there when he was small.
Wow. So I guess you are Hakka?
Yup, I heard that that was the reason why it hadn't been relocated too. But I didn't write that down in case it sounded like I was accusing LKY of getting favours of sorts. Both the temple and turtle pond are still there. Temple (with bright blue roof) looks renovated too!
So I guess there are bodies underneath the stones? Colleague told me they were only memorial stones.
Yes, I'm a true blue Hakka who doesn't speak a word of that dialect. Sad right?
I remember my dad told me that the bodies were unearthed from their original graves long ago and cremated, and only the remains of the cremation are lying beneath now. Which means this site could have been moved from elsewhere. Which also means that the rumour may not be true if the cemetery was moved before. Hehe.
Temple with bright blue roof? Sounds like it's a new one. The old one was just beside the pond and smallish with red roof.
Hmm.. very intersting. Thanks for the info.
I did a search at the National Archives online site and found photots of the Hakka Ancestral Hall at Holland Road. (See here, here, here, here, and here.) Is this the temple you remember?
Apparently LKY had talks with the Hakka Association about buying over the land for PSA to build an inland container depot in 1971. Not sure if the talks went through, but if it did, why is the ancestral hall still there? Unless it is a different Ancestral Hall..
There was also mention of a Hakka cemetery in City Hall at that same time. ("LEE KUAN YEW, (PM) MEETS FOONG YONG CLAN ASSN COMMITTEE MEMBERS AT CITY HALL (HAKKA CEMETERY) 28 Dec 1971"
Quite intriguing...
I think it should be the one. Really bring back a lot of memories. Thanks.
Hi
Pls note there are TWO Hakka ceneteries.
I am a pure Hakka and was an Executive Secretary of a Hakka clan assn for 6 years. I am doing oral history and have interviewed people regarding Hakka's cemeteries. I supposed I am quite familiar with this topic.
The discussion in the blog confused two Hakka cemeteries. There is one at Holland Lane which belongs to Fong Yong Thai Clan. LKY's grandfather used to be there. The other one near Holland close (near Commonwealth MRT) belongs to Yin Fo Clan.
1st Chinese cemetery acquired in Singapore was the one at Holland Lane (where LKY's grandfather was buried). I was told by one of the trustee that LKY did so, so that he could face other dialect groups when government acquired theirs.
The meeting of LKY had with Foong Yong Thai Clan held at Chinese Chamber of Commerce. One of my interviewee gave a detail description on the meeting. And what happen to the cemetery was also a long story. i don't think I can type all out.
If anyone is interested, maybe u would like to contact me at gelyn_lye@yahoo.com.sg.
OPs, missed out something. As mis_nomer said, there was a meeting at City Hall too. Also regarding Holland Lane (Foong Yong Thai Clan's cemetery)
Thanks Gelyn for your clarifying comments. Thanks also to Ottoman for the link.
I was wondering why the Holland Close cemetery was still there even though there were talks to acquire it in 1971, and knowing that there are two hakka cemeteries to begin with makes a lot more sense now.
Also, I now know for sure that LKY's grandfather is not at the Holland Close cemetery!
Is the Holland Lane cemetery still around? Can't seem to find it on streetdirectory.com...
Hi all,
I met Gelyn who clarified that she actually meant Holland Link.
See the map here.
Cheerio!
Otterman
Thanks Otterman for the clarification and the link!
And I'm sorry about calling you Ottoman.
Replying BT's email: For cemetery land, most of the case govt only acquired part of the land. For eg the Teochew cemetery at Tanglin/Orchard which has became shopping area, the Teochew still own part of the land that has been built into Takashimaya. For Yin Foh, the HDB flat, factories and school areas were used to be cemetery. Those were the areas that has been acquired and developed. The Clan is allowed to keep part of the land (if not wrong should be less than 15% of the original size of the land, exact figure need to check with the Clan) and the Clan decided to keep their Ancestor Hall and built Ashes Tower to ‘host’ the ashes of their clan people. Similar case for land that govt acquired from Fong Yong Thai cemetery at the Holland Lane (near Bt Timah) area, it is surrounded by expensive apartment and detached houses. You might be wondering why they could keep their Ancestral Hall and built Ashes Towers in residential areas. My personal opinion is, govt will never want to touch the Ancestral Hall as it is a very ‘sensitive’ building and definitely cause unhappiness among the Chinese. Just like they will never want to touch a mosque or a Indian temple. The Ancestral Halls has been there for more than hundred years and the new title deeds of the two areas remain as "cemetery, ancestral hall and temple" land. For the acquired land SLA has changed the ‘used of the land’.
My interviewee Mr Foo who was involved in the talk in 1971 told me that LKY started the acquisition of cemetery land by setting his first target at Hakka because he is a Hakka. And thereafter the other dialect groups have nothing to say as LKY’s clan’s cemetery was the first to be acquired.
I find Mr Foo’s interview on the part on the talk in 1971 very interesting. Lam Tian (Hakka who was LKY’s political opponent) was at the talk too. Mr Foo was helping LKY during Tangjong Pagar elections. It is a pity that he told me a lot of “off-record” things about LKY vs Lam Tian, if not it could be written into an interesting paper “Why Hakka support LKY (who local born and can’t speak Hakka, know little about Hakka, more like Peranakan at that time) and not Lam Tian (Hakka leaders) during election”.
By the way the blur tower is the new Ash Tower.
Add-on:
In the interview, Mr Foo recalled what LKY said during the Talk in 1971, translated from Mandarin: "You (refer to the clan representatives)have done enough for the dead, we (the govt) have to do something for those who still live" .
No one could talk back, thus case close, land acquired.
regarding the Yin FOh Kuan Cemetery...what are the future plans when if they need more space
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