Bidadari Cemetery
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Bidadari Cemetery (Chinese: 比达达利坟场, Malay: Perkuburan Bidadari) is a historical cemetery in Singapore. There are two sections. The Muslim section is at the base of Mount Vernon, bounded by Upper Aljunied Road, Upper Serangoon Road, and Bartley Road. The Christian section is across Upper Aljunied Road from the Muslim section, and bounded by Upper Serangoon Road as well.
Apart from being a place of remembrance, the trails inside Bidadari Cemetery used to be very popular as a running route for members of the Gurkha Contingent. Bidadari Cemetery is no longer in use, and most of the graves have been exhumed for redevelopment. Woodleigh MRT Station now occupies part of the former site.
The word bidadari means "fairy" and is probably derived from the Sanskrit word widyadari, which means a nymph of India's heaven or a houri of paradise. The bidadari are depicted as kindly fairies and genies that preside over the union of flowers. In the local context, the name is a reference to the beauty of the wife of Maharajah abu Bakar of Johore who had a house there. The cemetery took the name after the sultan's wife ceased to reside there, the grounds were leased to a Japanese person who built moats with typical Japanese wooden bridges and a teahouse. The cemetery was a burial site of A. P. Williams, an English sailor on whose life, writer Joseph Conrad based his novel, Lord Jim. Burials were not permitted after 1972, and it was the same year that the Mount Vernon Crematorium and Columbarium was opened, which eventually closed in 2004 due to redevelopment. The government began to exhume graves in 2001 in the Christian portion of the cemetery to build a new town in the future, reportedly known as Bidadari New Town.
[edit] Notable burials
- A. P. Williams
- Douglas Campbell - British advisor in Johor
- Lim Boon Keng
- Syarif Masahor - Sarawak warrior
[edit] References
- Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2004), Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names, Eastern University Press, ISBN 981-210-364-3.
