The Moslem Cemetery

No trip to a foreign country would be complete without a trip to a cemetery. Not sure why death is so fascinating, but it is. In this case, we walked to another Mosque, this one with tons of mosaic tile around it, primarily in shades of blue.

This was adjacent to what was the Royal Palace, before the Prince messed things up. That building, incidentally, is now the Malay Historical Museum. It reverted to the government in the early 1970’s and the royalty remaining there were relocated. Turns out they’d been lousy tenants, hadn’t kept the place up and there were too many of them, anyhow.

The Palace, however, lies between two Mosques and the second one had a cemetery associated with it. Actually, there are two cemeteries, side by side. The one we saw the most, however, lies on government land and may well be relocated to allow the property to be developed in the future.

Islam requires burial in the ground, preferably within 24 hours of the time of death. 12 is even better. There is no casket or anything – just a simple shroud is used. The headstones have no names on them, either. Some are flat with the edges carved up, while others are round like a trophy or bowling pin. If it’s flat, the occupant of the grave is female and if it’s round, they’re male. Each grave has both a head and a foot marker, and the head is oriented toward Mecca.

They put cloths on the markers as a decoration. If the cloth is yellow, it means that the person buried there is royalty. If there’s a shed or covering over the grave, it means they were a very holy person.

Next to the “Royal” cemetery was another cemetery, which by the look of it was very, very old and very, very near capacity. It was a private cemetery originally, owned by an Arabic family. They, however, have deeded the land to the Mosque, which is the only way under Singaporean law to protect it from eminent domain – Mosque land can’t be condemned and taken by the state, although all other land can. Land owned by other religious organizations wasn’t discussed.

There is one “public” cemetery in the country, used for those who want in-ground burial. It’s owned by the government, so isn’t divided by religion. If you buy and use a plot there, it’s yours for 15 years – kind of how they do in New Orleans. After that time, the body is removed elsewhere.

This was the end of the tour. It was hot. It was 12:30, and we’d been walking almost nonstop for 3 hours, so Larry was ready for a drink and some lunch after wandering around the neighborhood for a bit.

Then, of course, the subway stop had moved somehow during that time, and he had to find it again!