If you visit the Whitley Road Cemetery also colloquially known as Kopi Sua, there lies a cluster of tombs, each close to each other and each with only headstones. Many of this stones dates back to late 1800s and are from the Heng Sang Teng Cemetery at Silat Road where the Singapore General Hospital is now. What is also interesting are jars that store skeletal remains of the exhumed dead are also visible in concrete container holding areas. The Heng San Teng temple and its public cemetery was established by Seet Hoot Keh (1793-1847) a prominent Hokkien. Born in Malacca, he made his wealth in tin mining before setting business in Singapore during the time when Singapore began to prosper as a British colony and port of call. In 1828, Seet Hoot Keh established the Heng San Teng temple. He eventually retired in Malacca and pass away in 1847. and is survived by 6 sons and 11 daughters. Among them are his grandson, See Ewe Lay (owner of the first Chinese paper, Lat Pau) and his great grandson, See Tiong Wah (Justice of Peace, campradore of the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, President of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and sits in Municipal Council that lead to the formation Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery.
Thanks to Raymond Goh, he shared with me two articles giving me additional insight on what could have transpired. As far back as 1894 there was already talk about acquiring new burial land at Kopi Sua ( New Heng San Teng) of 20 acres or more. The second article date 1907 was even more specific as it was a call for descendants to claim the remains and tombstones of those moved from Heng San Teng to the new Heng San Teng in Toa Payoh within 6 months or else management will bury them.
Thanks to Raymond Goh, he shared with me two articles giving me additional insight on what could have transpired. As far back as 1894 there was already talk about acquiring new burial land at Kopi Sua ( New Heng San Teng) of 20 acres or more. The second article date 1907 was even more specific as it was a call for descendants to claim the remains and tombstones of those moved from Heng San Teng to the new Heng San Teng in Toa Payoh within 6 months or else management will bury them.
Research work done by The Chinese Studies Department of National University of Singapore provides a summary that there were 469 tombstones that were arranged in rows. The tombstones date primarily to the Daoguang period (1821-1850), with a minority dating from the Xianfeng (1851-61),
Tongzhi (1862-74), Guangxu (1875-1908) and Xuantong (1909-1911) periods.
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