- Bidadari Cemetery
Bidadari Cemetery (Chinese: 比达达利坟场, Malay: "Perkuburan Bidadari") is a defunct
cemetery inSingapore . There were two sections: theMuslim section was at the base of Mount Vernon, bounded byUpper Aljunied Road ,Upper Serangoon Road , andBartley Road ; theChristian section was 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 cemetery was a burial site of
Augustine Podmore Williams , an English sailor, on whose life writerJoseph Conrad based his novel "Lord Jim ". Burials were not permitted after1972 , the same year that theMount Vernon Crematorium and Columbarium was opened, which too eventually closed in2004 due to redevelopment. The government began toexhume graves in2001 in the Christian portion of the cemetery to build anew town , reportedly known as Bidadari New Town.Name
The word "bidadari" means "fairy" and is probably derived from the
Sanskrit word "widyadari", which means anymph ofIndia 's heaven or ahouri of paradise. The "bidadari" are depicted as kindly fairies andgenie s that preside over the union offlower s. In the local context, the name is a reference to the beauty of the wife ofMaharajah abu Bakar of Johore who had ahouse there. The cemetery took the name after thesultan 's wife ceased to reside there. The grounds were leased to a Japanese person who builtmoat s with typical Japanese woodenbridge s and ateahouse .Notable burials
*
A. P. Williams
*Douglas Campbell - British advisor in Johor
*Lim Boon Keng
*Regent Alfred John Bidwell - British architect ofSwan and Maclaren
*Syarif Masahor - Sarawak warriorReferences
*Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2004), "Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names", Eastern University Press, ISBN 981-210-364-3.
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