Every year, for ten to fifteen days, families across Singapore get together, perform rituals, and swarm many locations to pray, to give thanks, and joyfully to reunite with their dead. The most common form of prayer paper offerings are made out of joss paper and gold foil tablets known commonly as ‘ancestral tablets‘, large and small, are placed onto ‘ancestral pedestals’ and spaces within the name and, hopefully, lives again. Indeed, during the hungry ghost month, long after most other temple or festive rituals have ended, Singapore’s two main columbaria (tomb for the Chinese dead) are abuzz with families offering gold, silver, and paper.
Every year in Singapore, during the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, the Chinese observe the Hungry Ghosts Festival. During this month, the gates of the underworld are opened, allowing spirits to roam the earth, often stumbling upon the very culture, community, and kin on whom they walked over and abused in their previous unfilial lives. To avoid mistreatment by forlorn spirits from another realm, the Chinese make offerings and pray for the spirits of their living family, to seek the intercession of guardian Heavenly Maids, to conjure protection against vengeful spirits, and the very last act of filial obligation: they pray for the spirits of their ancestors, are recognized by the safety and good fortune they bring to the living relatives, and in return for these intercessions, are then given to drink up the services due to the dead: food, warmth, clothing, financial benefits, show, and often, love and care.
Ancestral Tablets
Why are ancestral tablets important? To Chinese people, they are very important. For many reasons, and one central reason is to ensure the welfare of the ancestor can be taken care of. Chinese philosopher Confucius very highly stressed the importance of filial piety in his philosophy, fear of offending their ancestor, or having an ancestor who is upset, shows disrespect or ingratitude – and not only towards them, but also to the members of their family who could potentially be punished. Many are steadfast in their beliefs in preventing any morality from happening.
What are ancestral tablets? In both Taoism and Buddhism, ancestral tablets – made of either wood, metal, stone, or jade – are engraved with a person’s name and are treated as their spiritual representation. From the day that the tablets are installed, the ceremony has embodied a pact between the living and the dead. While it was agreed that the dead would watch over and protect the living, as well as to lessen their suffering if they were in pain, the living would honour and respect them, as well as the elder’s teaching, and make offerings of food and drink, as well as burning paper money and offerings during certain festivals in the lunar calendar. The first ancestor shrine dedicated to the ancestors might be a wooden or marble shelf containing the name of their ancestor(s); however, in later generations when prosperous families could afford to construct for their ancestors, a taller cupboard system could be purchased that features up to three different levels.
Purpose of Ancestral Tablets
What if a family member dies without leaving an heir? Or what if that member’s name is not written on any ancestral name tablet or that name has decayed with time? The person is at risk of losing their soul and, without it, risks wandering eternally—forever cut off from their ancestors and leaving the family name with void. Therefore, whenever a tablet experiences damage or a missing heir has lost his or her name on a tablet, a remembrance ceremony, whereby the paper name of the person is added to a tablet, must be performed to allow capital R-Remembering. These are sacred ceremonies and always include the offering of symbolic joss paper money, incense, and offerings. Like most sacred ceremonies, they are best performed by a Taoist priest.
2.1. Purpose of Ancestral Tablets: Why These Tablets Matter. Remember we said in Chapter 1.3 that ancestral tablets help open communication between the living and the dead? Well, this is the main reason why we have them. The idea is that, with one (or more!) ancestral tablets bearing the names of your direct ancestors, you can speak to them and ask for divine intervention when necessary. The logic goes that if your deceased grandparents’ names are written on a tablet, they will continuously look over the welfare of your family. And if something is not going well, a word to the grandparents to intercede with the gods on your behalf will make all the difference. For this reason, it is important to keep in excellent condition the ancestral tablet of one’s ancestors. Neglecting it can bring disharmony to subsequent generations. This is why we do not manhandle the tablets or use them as fans or support structures; be respectful to the ancestors bamboozling away on heaven’s end, I always say!
Traditional Designs and Materials
When it came to Straits Chinese design and architecture, however, while these traditional designs were appropriated, new materials were often used instead. As the families of the Straits-Chinese grew more affluent with time, so did the materials used. Red light aluminum and varnished zinc, all of which are considered to be almost imperishable, were substituted in place of wood compounds and teak. Following closely the Peranakan Style, these tablets were usually inscribed in Chinese or both Chinese and Jawi scripts, in a stylized Arabic lettering style, and paired with Arabic numerals on metal prints like on the belakang kubor of the Malay tombs. The designs of a typical Straits Chinese tablet consisted of scroll art, a 4-tiered fretwork dressing, a tablet, twin stem candles and pot plant holders or apices, with an oil lamp that is an absolute necessity for the grand annual rites at the top (to show that the souls were actually present during the Chinese New Year Period).
Traditionally, ancestral tablets were made of wood, with the name of the ancestor and sometimes their details carved or written in ink on the surface. The first ancestral tablets were said to have been made of thin, inscribed wooden slips suspended from a string, or placed in a niche of the household altar. By the late Neolithic period, Blue Hainan Neolithic pottery painted with white pigments became the “ancestor tablets” during the archaeological seasoning rituals. From these early on, they have taken supernatural significance, acquiring powers and status on par with deities. As such, with the entire bloodline together on the household altar, it was believed divine protection from any sickness, calamity or misfortune was ensured.
Placement and Maintenance
The amount of space in an ancestral tomb or burial plot was traditionally dictated by the volume of children produced in a family, and such limited capacity led to a shortage in land-scarce Singapore. As cremation became more popular in the 20th century, the government set up the state’s first two columbaria to store the ashes of the deceased using government lands and charged minimal fees. Following that lead, private companies forged the afterlife industry and currently manage some 100 columbaria housing approximately a fifth of the country’s deceased, either in individual niches or as urns combined with others. Catholic, Protestant, Taoist, and Buddhist columbaria are easily found. However, two large companies dominate operations and location selections for these homes, and each of these national chains houses over 10% of Singapore’s deceased.
Every deity designates a specific home for relatives, and some people may end up with temples with large numbers of deities whose names alone could fill tens of tablet blanks. Once placed, the tablet is either sealed into the pedestal or it is hinged to close like a large book. An outer door is locked over it. Doors of apartment pedestals (village temples do not have outer doors) are removed only on days the temple is open, so a devotee who knows of dozens of kouming with different village temples would have to arrange with the center in advance to visit, as those places manage access to their pedestals only on certain days each month. The most common times are lunar 1st and 15th, and the three Chinese New Year periods. To maintain the service, koumings will also make monthly monetary donations or arrange for worshippers to fulfill specific good deeds.
Pedestals
Pedestal Ancestral Columbarium Tablets were used mainly in South China regions such as Swatow. The general shape of these tablets is similar to the shape of the tablets used in Singapore, the broader base and slimming upwards. The pedestal which supports the tablet on a Columbarium Singapore shelf, however, is different. The Swatow-designed pedestal is slim, about 3 feet tall in modern-day size, no wider than a few centimeters to several centimeters (in width), just enough for the tablet to sit snugly on top, with the shape of the pedestal a long narrow rectangular box. These are often grouped in threes or fours. The back of each is a raised, raised slab, with a similar inscribed clan’s name. Like the snake and lion, the Swatow unicorns are almost identical to each other. More than 90% of the modern unicorn pedestal variations are simple, while the other 10% sport mechanical face joints to open and close the mouths of the beast’s heads.
Pedestal Ancestral Tablets. As the tablet stands on its own – not against a wall – on a pedestal, there are three or four types of pedestals to choose from. These are the serpent, double serpent, lion, and unicorn pedestals. The heads and faces of mythological animals and creatures have traditionally been found on ancestor-related items of importance and continue to ward off bad luck. While Singapore Columbarium may call these tablets “tablets” or “name tablets” of their design, a direct translation of the term most commonly used in Singapore is “pedestal tablets”, whereby the tablet stands on a pedestal. In a Hokkien speaking group, locals also commonly call it “Tan Kay” (in Hokkien dialect/talking about pedestal supporting vases).
Significance of Pedestals in Ancestral Worship
Urbanization erodes cultural and religious rituals; an absenting ceremony is a clearer example to show the degeneration of a religious practice from original to the level of mere recognitive symbol. This symbolic practice appears regularly beyond the Chinese tradition and is closely linked to the pervading spiritual phenomena of the cemetery. Divested cemeteries, whether ancient, Buddhist, Christian, or Muslim, carry essentially the same meaning; the cemetery as the dwelling place of the dead results in often-sighted portrayal of the graveyard as a spiritual landscape for the dead. The religious and spiritual link to the tombs and columbaria is visible during the Qingming Festival when descendants come to the cemetery to clear away the unruly creepers, sweep away the fallen leaves, and perform rites for the departed.
Pedestals are significant in community ancestral worship as traditional belief holds that when an unworthy person sets out to pay ritual homage before the tablet of a virtuous elder, the latter will automatically rise from his seat of honour so that the former can do his duty from a higher standing position. An indigenous idea—practices related to this are not found in urban cities of new migrants where the belief is only adhered to in households of ethnic Chinese that primarily reside in older Housing Development Board flats or pre-war shop-houses. The story from which the practice of the senior directing the junior to pay homage to the righteous elder is derived, first came from the Confucian thought in which rituals are seen to be what distinguish humans from animals.
Types of Pedestals
Both use and mourning top flanged stands could be refitted with ornate brackets, but the most ornate brackets were deployed in the Import Paktans: The Flanged Stands, Motor Cars, and Pedestals. The wood pedestal used flanged stands even after ornate brackets were available. The third design was metal pedestals that resembled a bomb disposal unit that was placed on the floor. However, a 24 inches wide version was adopted by some, and it looked like a sliding gate when juxtaposed besides the narrower units. The metal pedestals could hold 48 urns. The first metal pedestals did not contain any brackets, and no offerings could be placed on it. Subsequently, a thicker top panel was added, and after three months, mourning top units were shifted from the floor to the pedestal.
Firstly, when we look at the Chinese pedestals that are termed afterlife altars by some researchers and practitioners, there are three varieties: wood designs, marble units, and metal pedestals. In the 1960s, the wood pedestals were produced in Singapore workshops while the marble and metal designs were imported. The width of the wood pedestals was lesser than that of the metal and marble pedestals. The main unit was placed on a kickstick base, a wooden flanged stand, or was kept on the floor, with an upper panel bearing the names of the deceased placed on ornate brackets. The sections could be adjusted to allow more urns to be housed on it to accommodate the larger number of deceased family members. World War 2 and the earlier wars as well as civil wars had decimated the population in China, so in some Singapore families, one of the brothers will marry the wife of his deceased brother so could increase the numbers of the deceased family members.
Symbolism and Decorations
A piece of felt or cloth is sometimes attached to the back of the memorial tablet, such that one can use its specially carved wooden base to prop the tablet up on the funeral table. The base is specially designed and will bear notches so that one can adjust the steepness of the memorial tablet from shakiness through a series of adjustments. It is also these bases that are brought into the columbarium with the first ancestor in the row and placed back on the frontal memorial tablets for other ancestors that will begin on the ends of the oldest tablet in the row and are then proceeded inwards on the following design years when tablets are placed.
3.3. Symbolism and Decorations. The marble or jade ancestral tablets that you see laid out in Chinese homes or temples are, by tradition and use, of symbolic significance and have some form of decoration or artwork. The front of the ancestral tablet is normally inscribed with the deceased’s Chinese name, typically with the courtesy name as well, and some calligraphy of the family surname. In the majority of cases, most Chinese families carry either the older generation tablets or are newly related to some persons who have passed away, so they also have relatives who are still living and take care of those remaining behind. If the front of the memorial tablet does not have the start and end years of the deceased, these may be inscribed on the back. Families are also free to enhance the memorial tablet by adding a wooden panel with pyramidal end finials tied on the tablet, overlaid with the man’s white hair tassel and the woman’s black hair tassel.
Columbaria in Singapore
Some concerns have been manifested over the price of the units, over the scale of the multi-purpose space, and over the number of years of the tendered occupancy of an assigned unit. The tender exercises for the operating rights of the consecutive first 2 columbaria which were put up. During the tender exercises, there were more than 10 single bids for three of the nine operating and management rights blocks of the first Toa Payoh Columbarium. Recently, the operating rights tender for 5 blocks of the Leuk Tuan Kew Columbarium at Potong Pasir closed with a top cash bid of S$852,500 ($164 per leasehold entitlement). It is expected that parts of the highest sites of the Mandai Road Columbaria will look out over the Central Church and wild animal rendering zone also slated to be erected in the near future with the development of the Upper Seletar Reservoir.
The limited amount of burial space available in Singapore’s land-scarce environment means that alternatives have to be found for the respectful relocation of ancestral bones and ashes. The HDB has come up with a proposal to erect multi-storey complexes to house the ancestral tablets and bones of the Chinese community in Singapore – on their HDB flats. Known as columbaria, the first concrete addresses for ancestral tablets in Singapore are to be built in 2007. A 4.46km² site north of Sengkang New Town along Mandai Road is planned to house 8 columbaria blocks of 8 to 9 stories tall. Residents of HDB flats who perform “tenanted burial ritual” can choose to place their ancestral tablets in these columbaria sites, where they will be provided cellars beneath the multi-purpose hall, where sacrificial ceremonies and death anniversaries can be performed en masse. The temple-like cum multi-purpose halls will be on the top floor where columbarium visitors will be able to enjoy a bird’s eye view of the Singapore Rural areas.
Definition and Purpose of Columbaria
Religious diversity and the state’s standpoint influence the religious space design in contemporary Singapore. Since ancient times, people have been accustomed to having memorial or burial spaces to visit, pay respects, present offerings, and communicate with ancestors, commemorate, and perform rituals. Traditions that continue for centuries also embody the establishment of temples. Through the development in architecture, one key component is the importance of connectivity and social and cultural values between the existing spaces, people, the landmark, and a sense of belonging to the cultural roots of Singapore. According to Singapore’s land scarcity, the most common method is columbaria. The forms and elements used represent a constellation of spiritual and philosophical ideals. Most design elements are religious-oriented with some architectural aspects.
Columbaria are defined by the BCA based on the context of development control. No heritage and building guidelines were found that address the design and planning of columbaria holistically. In relation to Singapore’s CASE, it was mentioned as a successful example. The paper proposed a definition of columbaria reflecting the device use within its actual framework: “A permanent structure where niches contain sealed urns, located on a single fixed location, which is an individual, free or with a collective use, usually in connection to a religious group, and where there are also available facilities such as a community worship area, mortuary, installed with a prayer area, and auxiliary facilities such as beauty services.” The goal of the paper is to propose universal design and design guidelines for columbaria according to the Singapore context to improve the current situation, which leads numerous citizens to give their belongings in the first row and be an environmentally revital exploration in the process.
Features and Facilities
With the rising inter-marriages and waiting time of a year or more for cremation slots in Columbaria, HDBs allowed up to 10% of the total number of residential units in any block for both religious and values-specific columbarium. The void deck of HDB blocks, originally designed to cater to residents’ social and community activities to build racial harmony, has since seen changes to accommodate and incorporate modern family lifestyles and values with heritage preservation. Amenities such as musical and dance studios, funerary services, commercial (mini-marts, coffee-shops, clinics and child-care facilities) have since been provided at the void deck level, adjoined to a public space with seating and gathering areas within the sheltered walkway. In multi-tenant blocks, storefronts will be oriented towards a dual frontage at the exterior and interior Central Area to serve both the residential and non-residential communities. HDB also introduced the “CLO-RA-CER NO. x” Façade Design Programme in the Design Manual for Residential Building to improve the architectural design and the environment of public housing.
4.2. Features and Facilities. The void deck roofs of HDB blocks are sometimes adapted for use as funeral parlours during Buddhist/Taoist funeral services, with the windows and doors of the void deck opened out to the sheltered area to expand the space, albeit not the best place for the wake. Some older estates are also long and rectangular in shape, and the design that diffuses the side of the block to allow for a wider sheltered area has the added advantage as it is more suitable for wakes with larger numbers of visitors. In the late 60s, HDB flats typically had a 3-room and below model or a 4-room model, the newer, larger flats with 5-room model being introduced only in late 70s, 40 years after the first HDB flats were built at the Queenstown area.
Cultural Significance and Practices
Columbaria, which is a common feature in the estate of Chinese ethnic architectural and veneration cultures, form a pedestal that expresses religious belief ideologies and economic upturn. It can be used to observe the link between private family issues, social practice, and government policies. The main goal of this study is to examine if society and government have an influence on the use of family columbaria or the use of public family columbaria. Gan and Chen (2016) state, “Whether to construct a family niche at home or not is affected by living in a public cemetery (i.e. graves for the poor are inaccessible). The policies that encourage families to construct family niches for unclaimed corpses indicate the importance of reflection in Chinese social conditions, which are closely related to an ideal way of conduct for a parent-based eudaemonia ideological system.”
The four major events in a Chinese man’s life are being born, getting married, dying, and ancestors’ worship. Ancestor worship is an important part of Chinese religious and clan heritage, passed on from generation to generation and through cultural migrations. Traditional teachings point to the responsibility of offspring preserving clan line, honor, wealth, and keeping lineage united. The principles of respecting ancestors are deeply ingrained in Chinese belief and were embedded into laws until the early Republic of China. Estates of issueless landowners will escheat to the state after being deserted by their owners. There are broad-ranging concerns over the minister unable to diffuse sins of extended family after the family line extinguishes, causing emperors to have fewer offers.
