SINGAPORE \u2013 I stand on a patch of soil, flecked with rubber debris, and try to imagine the scene: Was it a car crash? Four vehicles hightailing it through the forest, meeting their messy end in a tangle of vines and branches? Were they flung off the nearby Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) and left to dissolve into obscurity thereafter? <\/p>\n
They make a surreal scene, cars from the 1970s scattered beneath the canopy in various states of disrepair. Two retain a recognisable shape, though time and spray paint have chipped away at the original coat.<\/p>\n
The front door of one has been removed, as if waiting for someone to slide into the driver\u2019s seat and grip the mossy steering wheel with both hands, maybe even give the radio a go, though who knows what eerie frequency it might be tuned to these days. <\/p>\n The dashboard of one of the abandoned cars in Greater Bukit Brown.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The third lies some distance away in a roofless heap. The fourth, mostly trampled into the soil, is identifiable only by its steering wheel. Around the cars are strewn other enigmas: a bowling pin in a boot, a Senma <\/b>rubber sandal camouflaged by dried leaves. The path leading in is strewn with spare tyres and car parts. <\/p>\n A steering wheel sticking out of a pile of debris. <\/p>\n ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n This is the climax of my brief hike through the wilds of Bukit Brown, guided only by a point on Google Maps that marks the start of the Abandoned Car Trail. <\/p>\n I had seen photographs of the cars online and was gripped by curiosity, unable to believe this scene truly existed in a country as blanched of intrigue \u2013 or so it sometimes seems \u2013 as Singapore.\u00a0<\/p>\n Surely it will all make sense in context, I thought, and so set off on an unmarked path through the woodland behind the famed cemetery.<\/p>\n The dilapidated exterior of one of the cars, with its roof caved in. <\/p>\n ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Yet, as I find myself in the middle of this uncanny graveyard, I am left with more questions than answers: How did the cars get here? Why have they not been moved?\u00a0And what does it all mean? <\/p>\n I start by searching for answers in the comment section of YouTube, where many a hiker has documented his or her attempt to reach the cars, and Facebook, where others have raised similar questions. Here is where fiction ends and a more measured version of reality takes over.\u00a0<\/p>\n The consensus, as I gather, seems to be that the cars are remnants of a junkyard or mechanic\u2019s workshop back when Lao Sua \u2013 the part of Greater Bukit Brown, where the cars were found \u2013 was a bustling village. <\/p>\n This is corroborated by news articles, fished out of the depths of the SPH archive by my librarian colleagues. A 2011 piece in The Sunday Times bears this detail: \u201cVillagers remember there was a car repair shop there by the 1980s.\u201d<\/p>\n A kampung in Kheam Hock Road in the 1980s. <\/p>\n PHOTO: NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF SINGAPORE<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n This story, and eight other clippings, sketch an approximate portrait of the village, which reportedly started with a single family in the 1910s. By 1984, it housed some 200 families within wooden walls \u2013 \u201ca stark contrast\u201d to their neighbours\u2019 concrete bungalows, noted The Straits Times piece published that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kheam Hock village was a place where the living and the dead dwelled side by side in a sort of uncertain harmony that was under threat from as early as 1971. The Public Works Department had then announced in a gazette notification that the graves off Lorong Halwa and Kheam Hock Road were in the path of the proposed PIE. \u201cMore than 1,700 graves on the affected site will be exhumed\u201d, was ST\u2019s grave pronouncement.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Government took back the land in the early 1980s, the residents were urged to relocate over the next few years, and the last villagers moved out shortly before the turn of the century.\u00a0<\/p>\n But not everyone has left for good. <\/b>Several villagers were raised to care for the dead, and it is to the dead that they return every day, sweeping tombs and polishing headstones till this day.<\/p>\n Former Lao Sua resident Soh Ah Beng, who is in his 60s, is one such tomb keeper. He spends most of his daylight hours at Bukit Brown, caring for the dead on behalf of their descendants, who pay him for his services. It is his expertise I tap on my return to the cemetery, following him off the sun-beaten path and deep into the trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Grave hunter Raymond Goh spends many of his weekends in Bukit Brown.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: CHERIE LOK<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n With us are Bukit Brown regulars Raymond Goh, 61, a pharmacist, and Peter Pak, 52, an IT project manager. They often help families locate the resting places of their ancestors and, along the way, tell me what they know of the workshop that may have left these vehicles behind.<\/p>\n It was, according to a former mechanic whom Mr Goh had spoken to, not an official business. There was no signboard, nor was it likely registered. It probably popped up to serve the needs of residents, parked along a small dirt road veering off the main thoroughfare.\u00a0<\/p>\n Driving was, after all, becoming more commonplace by the second half of the 20th century. In Jalan Singapura: 700 Years Of Movement In Singapore, historian Eisen Teo traces the steady ascension of motorised vehicles: A 1955 government masterplan logged around 50,000 motor vehicles, of which some 31,000 were cars. Just 20 years later, that number had swelled to over 143,000 cars and 280,000 vehicles in total.\u00a0<\/p>\n A faded Toyota logo can be spotted on one of the cars.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The two cars still relatively intact may have been fairly popular models \u2013 at least one was likely a Toyota Corona, by the estimate of vintage car enthusiast Jimmy Fong, 29, who runs the blog SG Classic Rides. <\/p>\n Why, then, did the villagers not take the cars with them when they left in the 1980s?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey must have been beyond repair,\u201d muses Mr Pak. \u201cSome of these were used for just spare parts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCars require money to fix. It might have been easier to just leave them here,\u201d Mr Soh points out in Mandarin. <\/p>\n Mr Soh adds that many families and construction companies treated Bukit Brown as a dumping ground after it was vacated. It seems like the problem continues to persist. On our way back to the main road, we encounter a \u201cno dumping allowed\u201d sign along Lorong Halwa, warning of a $50,000 fine if convicted. <\/p>\n A \u201cno dumping allowed\u201d sign in Bukit Brown.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: CHERIE LOK <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n In an e-mail reply, the National Environment Agency (NEA) informs me that it has encountered 25 instances of \u201cimproper disposal of bulky waste along the adjacent roads of Lorong Halwa and Kheam Hock Road and within the Bukit Brown closed cemetery since 2023\u201d. Most consisted of furniture and renovation dross.\u00a0<\/p>\n Such waste is removed immediately after determining that ownership cannot be ascertained, NEA adds, not elaborating on which objects are left untouched.\u00a0<\/p>\n And so, elsewhere in the undergrowth, more sentimental leftovers remain. On our two-hour trek through the rest of the forest, we stumble upon a toy truck, a purse and a chamber pot, likely gifted to a newly-wed couple.<\/p>\n Bukit Brown regular Peter Pak finds a chamber pot among the ruins in the forest. <\/p>\n ST PHOTO: CHERIE LOK<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Larger ruins punctuate the landscape too: benches, latrines, even the porch of a house.\u00a0<\/p>\n To some volunteers and heritage buffs, these artefacts do not quite possess the allure of the cemetery itself, revered for its rich collection of graves, including those of notables such as philanthropist and businessman Gan Eng Seng and Dr Lee Choo Neo, the first woman to practise medicine in Singapore. In the words of all things Bukit Brown (atBB) guide Fabian Tee, 58, a legal executive with a statutory board, this is \u201cthe real founders\u2019 memorial\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n The cars and other leftovers, on the other hand, are unlikely to appear in the National Collection any time soon, being \u201cunrelated to the burial site, and in a highly dilapidated state\u201d, as determined by the National Heritage Board (NHB). When considering items for the Collection, NHB looks at their socio-historical significance to Singapore and the region; stylistic design and aesthetics; and physical condition, like structural stability.<\/p>\n A purse left behind, perhaps by a former kampung resident.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: CHERIE LOK <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Though individually of questionable historical merit, other enthusiasts believe this collection of forgotten memorabilia coaxes together the story of a bygone way of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat it tells us is that Bukit Brown isn\u2019t only stones and bones of people who are dead. There was an entire kampung that supported it,\u201d says Mr Darren Koh, 57, a volunteer with atBB. The community group was formed after the construction of Lornie Highway \u2013 the project that bisected the cemetery \u2013 was announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese are testament to the people who used to live there, and these are testament to their stories. They may not be the big stories, but they are the stories of the people who built Singapore.\u201d <\/p>\n Former Lao Sua resident and tomb keeper Soh Ah Beng sometimes sits on these stairs while waiting for durians to fall.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: CHERIE LOK<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n For Mr Soh, a walk through the thicket is a trip down memory lane. He moves with easy confidence, needing to snap only the occasional stem to make sure he does not lose his path.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here are the stairs of a house he used to frequent \u2013 \u201can old girlfriend\u2019s\u201d, teases Mr Pak with a wink, to which Mr Soh scoffs, \u201canyhow say\u201d. He has lost contact with the family, but still returns regularly, waiting these days for durians to drop from the tree in front of their house. <\/p>\n A short walk away is the foundation of his old school, the now-defunct Chin Chung Public School. As we ascend the steps he climbed as a child, I ask if this journey brings back fond memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d is his brisk reply. \u201cI didn\u2019t like school. I was retained (a year) in Primary 3, Secondary 1 and Secondary 2. And when we were punished, we\u2019d have to run around the field there.\u201d He gestures to the forest floor, now crowded with enough vegetation to trip even the most skilful of sprinters. <\/p>\n Mr Soh climbing the steps of his old school, the now-defunct Chin Chung Public School.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: CHERIE LOK<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Mr Pak has a more sentimental take: \u201cYou can imagine how daunting it must have been for Ah Beng to climb these steps as a young boy. You\u2019d think your school was the biggest thing in the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n To him, the school, which he and Mr Soh finally tracked down in 2021, is an exceedingly exciting discovery. By piecing together its ruins and old photographs, he is able to visualise how it must have looked in its heyday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Perhaps, then, these relics exist not just for the benefit of those who know what it was like to live and move among them, but also for those too young to remember, or those who no longer have a physical remnant of their past to cling to. As Ms Catherine Lim, 66, a retiree and founding member of atBB, points out, the settlements around the graves in Bukit Brown are also \u201cmicrocosms of other kampungs at the time\u201d. <\/p>\n Retiree Daniel Ho looking through old photos of his time living in a kampung.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: CHERIE LOK<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Mr Daniel Ho, 79, and his five siblings once lived in Whitley Road, in a compound that fit three houses and five families. Certain details stick out in the mind, particularly that it was \u201csuper big\u201d, crowded with fruit trees \u2013 \u201cdurian, rambutan, coconut, you name it\u201d, he says \u2013\u00a0and built with wood.\u00a0<\/p>\n He and his family remember the tiny spring opposite their home, ever-flowing, clean, fresh and perfect for swimming, \u201clike a big bathtub\u201d. The homespun fun they had flying kites and catching birds. The weather, too: the bucolic cool of life beneath the trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mr Ho, now retired, left the village in 1978 and moved to a Housing Board flat in Telok Blangah. <\/b>\u201cI miss the open space and the fresh air,\u201d he muses. \u201cAnd the peace of the graveyard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n (From left) Mr Daniel Ho with his sister Jenny, cousin Nee Yong and brother Danny. They used to live in a kampung along Whitley Road.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: CHERIE LOK<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n With their former playground along Whitley Road now paved over with modern developments, places like Bukit Brown, with its still-towering fruit trees and stubborn kampung walls, are the closest things the family has to a remnant of their old way of life.\u00a0<\/p>\n And it is this material link to the past that makes Singapore interesting, says Mr Goh\u2019s brother Charles, a regional safety manager in a construction firm. He stumbled upon the cars nearly two decades ago, when he was leading ghost tours around Bukit Brown and looking for ways to spice up the journey to this \u201cunderworld\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople always talk about wanting to leave Singapore, but there is heritage here, there are stories to be told,\u201d says the 57-year-old.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we bring people to these places, we want to tell them about Singapore\u2019s past. It\u2019s something we can be proud of, something that should be treasured and conserved if possible.\u201d <\/p>\n What does it mean to keep Bukit Brown alive?\u00a0Is its legacy anchored in the dedication of individuals like 59-year-old researcher Khoo Ee Hoon? She can often be found hunched over burial records at the National Archives, painstakingly working out the number of graves in Bukit Brown, or mapping out the layout of the village with the help of former villagers.<\/p>\n Or is conservation a community effort \u2013 atBB and its faithful band of self-proclaimed \u201cBrownies\u201d leading weekly tours, putting together a self-guided trail of 32 graves, complete with QR code essays and an Instagram campaign?\u00a0 <\/p>\n A tour of Bukit Brown Cemetery led by all things Bukit Brown guides Catherine Lim and Fabian Tee in 2024.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Bukit Brown is unique in the devotion it inspires. Clearing cemeteries to house the living is par for the course in Singapore \u2013 Bidadari and Bishan are a few examples, but neither has a Facebook group with over 12,000 members and daily posts. So why is Bukit Brown the exception? <\/p>\n \u201cI think a few factors were aligned,\u201d says anthropologist Hui Yew-Foong, who led the documentation of some 4,000 graves that were affected by Lornie Highway\u2019s construction.<\/p>\n The tomb of Miss Soh Koon Eng at Hill 5E was unaffected by the construction of Lornie Highway. Miss Soh died in her home in 1942 while protecting her niece from bombs dropped by the Japanese. She was 19 years old.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n For one thing, he thinks society has matured beyond bread and butter issues, and is now concerned also with \u201cfinding the soul and identity of the nation\u201d. Plus, Singapore\u2019s early \u201cdevelopmental warpath\u201d and the trail of exhumations it left in its wake make Bukit Brown a \u201crarity that helps to anchor our collective memories and sense of belonging\u201d.<\/p>\n The 12,000-strong Heritage Singapore \u2013 Bukit Brown Cemetery Facebook group keeps the fire burning too. \u201cIn the age of social media, the digital public sphere facilitates platforms where like-minded people can easily find one another, share ideas and nourish their passion for a cause, leading, sometimes, to further offline activities,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n It has been 14 years since public interest in Bukit Brown was most acutely kindled after a detailed government announcement designating the area for residential use. In that time, the Brownies have swelled their ranks, but interest among the young has started to plateau, according to the observations of Singapore Heritage Society (SHS) president Fauzy Ismail.\u00a0<\/p>\n Together with atBB, SHS put out an open call for Bukit Brown heritage guides in December, receiving 100 applications. However, once training concluded, none of the 20 selected trainees followed through with organising their own tours.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFew people have time to do things for free in Singapore. Especially for the younger generation, it\u2019s removed from their periphery,\u201d he says. \u201cTheir parents and grandparents know about Bukit Brown because they might know people who were buried there, but Gen Z doesn\u2019t know anyone there. There are more pressing issues for them, like housing and wages and jobs. So their voices are missing on this issue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A tour of Bukit Brown conducted with younger participants in 2024.<\/p>\n PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO FILE<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n This does not mean, however, that the movement is doomed. Members of atBB say curiosity among university students is growing, especially after the pandemic drove them to take a closer look at their backyard. And though this interest does not yet translate into volunteer hours, the important thing is that a passion for heritage has been seeded in the youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWho knows? Maybe if Bukit Brown is still around when their careers are more stable, they may come back,\u201d says Mr Koh, a Malaysian citizen who has been a permanent resident here since 2001. \u201cSo I\u2019m not so worried. I think the interest is there, and cometh the hour, cometh the man.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone stumbles upon Bukit Brown in search of the dead. Some are lured by other curiosities \u2013 the abandoned cars, in my case, or the \u201cAvatar\u201d trees, ficus trees so nicknamed because they resemble the trees in the 2009 blockbuster movie.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to recognise that the way these young people are exploring the space is very different from our generation,\u201d says another Brownie, Ms Bianca Polak, 53, a Dutch citizen and Singapore PR who has lived here for more than 25 years. <\/p>\n \u201cAt least they are coming through the space, and while they are here, they will stumble upon some of the graves, and maybe they\u2019ll discover our Wayfinder guide and start exploring the history of the cemetery.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Chinese graves situated along the path to the abandoned cars in Bukit Brown Cemetery.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n One of atBB\u2019s long-term goals is to have the cemetery enshrined as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Ms Lim says the country\u2019s only World Heritage Site, the Singapore Botanic Gardens, tells mainly the story of its colonial past, and Bukit Brown completes the picture. \u201cIt represents our migrant story.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It preserves, too, the exchanges between Singapore\u2019s different cultures, says Mr Koh, pointing me to the words of local playwright Alfian Sa\u2019at: \u201cA dialogue between histories, between the Nanyang and the Nusantara, between the past and the future, the living and the dead.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But such a bid first requires a closer look at the archives. \u201cNot enough research has been done to determine how intersectional Bukit Brown\u2019s history is,\u201d says Mr Fauzy.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, conserving Bukit Brown is a good goal to have, but it still needs to be balanced against Singapore\u2019s developmental needs and the interest of the public. If we conserve it, but the public does not see its value, then we\u2019re just keeping a white elephant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Ms Catherine Lim (left), a founding member of all things Bukit Brown, approaching the tomb of Chinese physician Chew Geok Leong, which is flanked by two statues of Sikh guards.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n For now, part of Greater Bukit Brown has been zoned for residential use, while the existing cemetery areas will be \u201ckept for as long as possible\u201d, to be reviewed only in the long term \u201cwhen the need arises\u201d, so said the Ministry of National Development in a 2022 written reply to a Parliamentary question.\u00a0<\/p>\n Which means Mr Soh, who lives in an HDB flat in western Singapore but returns there only to sleep, can cling on to his \u201creal\u201d home in Bukit Brown. Plying the same paths he has followed all his life, he is not yet nostalgic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhy should I miss it? I\u2019m here every day.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Down The Rabbit Hole is a series in which reporters at The Straits Times chase down answers to niche questions and follow where their curiosity leads them.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/picture><\/div>
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