Kubor Muslim Cemetery is the oldest recorded Malay cemetery in Singapore. It is labeled as the ‘Tombs of the Malayan Princes’ in J.B. Tassin’s map of 1836. Surprisingly, before the heritage trail, we do not know the existence of such a cemetery nor the noble background/origin. We were not even sure if we were at the right place. The cemetery was pretty unkempt and deserted and the tombstones were not arranged in any manner. In addition, we tried to locate a sign or board for information about this cemetery but there was none in sight. This was probably the reason as to why no knew the existence of this tombs of the Malayan princes.
Similarly, we could not gather information on the stonemasons and tomb-carvers from the site. We initially thought they could have been arabs due to the heavy Arabian influence in this area. However, after the lecture, through Dr Lim, mentioning something about the Chinese community involvement in Kampong Glam and further research, we realize that the stonemasons were probably from the Chinese community. This points out the fact that there were some forms of interaction between these two communities even in the early stage of Singapore history.
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