The Lives of Keramat Graves in Singapore
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This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The grave that became a shrine : the lives of keramat graves in Singapore Muhammad Faisal Husni 2018 Muhammad Faisal Husni. (2018). The grave that became a shrine : the lives of keramat graves in Singapore. Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/81275 https://doi.org/10.32657/10220/47512 Downloaded on 02 Oct 2021 20:18:59 SGT THE GRAVE THAT BECAME A SHRINE: THE LIVES OF KERAMAT GRAVES IN SINGAPORE MUHAMMAD FAISAL BIN HUSNI School of Art, Design and Media A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts (Research) 2019 Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design & Media MA (Research) Programme THE GRAVE THAT BECAME A SHRINE: THE LIVES OF KERAMAT GRAVES IN SINGAPORE by BY MUHAMMAD FAISAL BIN HUSNI Supervised by ASST PROF SUJATHA ARUNDATHI MEEGAMA School of Art, Design & Media, NTU ACKNOWLEDGMENT I would like to express the immense gratitude I have for everyone who has helped me and had been a part of this endeavour to give voice to the keramat graves of Singapore. Firstly, to my supervisor, Asst. Prof Sujatha Arundathi Meegama, who has guided, mentored and inspired me throughout this journey with unlimited patience and wisdom. To Assoc. Prof Andrea Nanetti, Assoc. Prof Michael Walsh and Ms. Chia Hsiao Ching and the faculty of ADM, NTU, who have supported us through this research programme, constantly accommodating our queries and needs, and offering assistance so generously. To my fellow course mates who are constant fonts of encouragement and the occasional sources of additional research material. To my parents and family who have been understanding and loving through my academic pursuits. To my grandfather, especially, who was the first to tell me stories about keramat graves in Singapore. To everyone I have met who have contributed, in one way or another, to this study. To the caretakers and worshippers of the keramat graves for keeping these sites alive. A warm and special thank you to Lucy Davis who introduced the undergraduate me to art history and set me on my adventure into the field. TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY 2 INTRODUCTION 3 CHAPTER 1 Form and Forming Identity: The Different Identities of The Keramat Grave And the Shape They Take 26 CHAPTER 2 Where Is a Keramat Grave? Keramat Graves and Their Relationship With Trees, Water, And Heights 55 CHAPTER 3 One Offering at A Time: The Growth of Keramat Graves And the Role of Offerings in Religious Art 69 CONCLUDING CHAPTER The Lives of Keramat Graves Past and Present, And the Future of Keramat Grave Research 96 IMAGES 105 BIBLIOGRAPHY 129 APPENDIX A The Interred: An Exploration of The Categories of Individuals Buried At The Keramat Graves in Singapore 142 SUMMARY Keramat graves may be found in many parts of the Malay world. The Malay word keramat signifies venerated objects. Some of these include Malay or Muslim graves of significant and holy persons, which have become sites of worship or shrines. By focusing on the objectness and lives of these sacred sites, this paper will look at the keramat graves through the lens of art history. It aims to build upon and contribute to earlier studies on keramat graves—which have been mainly focused on ethnographic aspects of keramat grave worship or the lives of the individuals buried at these sites —by providing an art historical perspective on the topic. Just like humans, keramat graves, like any objects, have lives. Borrowing from Richard Davis’ and Igor Kopytoff’s approaches to examining lives of objects, this thesis will study the lives of keramat graves in Singapore by looking at the different aspects of their lives. It will first show how their forms inform their identity-making, and vice versa. It will then examine the relationships between keramat graves and their locations; focusing on the trees surrounding them, the height on which they were built upon, and their proximity to water. Lastly, it will examine how they change and grow in form, through the accumulation of offerings. In doing so, this research hopes to demonstrate how the form, materiality and objectness of the keramat graves grant them some agency upon their lives and how they are approached by worshippers from numerous religious and cultural background. This thesis hopes to show that keramat grave worship in Singapore, while part of a larger tradition of Islamic grave worship, still sets itself apart from the latter tradition through its localisation. It also hopes to provide one possible approach to studying religious spaces that are shared and worshipped by numerous different communities. 2 INTRODUCTION Nestled before a HDB flat at Bukit Purmei, Singapore, Keramat Bukit Kasita sits resolute against land development, at least for now. To get to it, one would need to enter the unlit hut-like threshold, pass feral cats and the loyal resting caretaker, to the worn stone steps leading to the entrance of the sacred space—a large bricked and gated archway. Keramat Bukit Kasita is not a single grave but a small cemetery of individual keramat graves. One is forbidden to cross the gates and into the burial ground, the caretaker warns, or one’s feet would swell. And no photography, she adds, or the pocong1 will come for you in your sleep. So, one stands in this patio, this permissible space, in front of the archway, and observe or worship. The rectangular graves fit around each other like jigsaw puzzles; some are were concrete grey, others bright yellow. A few of them have shelters; wooden posts with green fabric tent-like covers. The gravestones on the graves—two on each—seem similar to those found in Muslim cemeteries in Singapore. Cloths of green and yellow have been wrapped around these gravestones. A large petrified tree, grey as ash, punctuates the centre of the cemetery. At the gate, vessels of incense and joss sticks have been placed on the ground. One may even find garlands of jasmine buds and loose flowers. Giant trees, banyan mostly, surround and shelter the site. The smell of the green of leaves and burning incense enfolds the air. The place is so quiet. They are the graves of Malay royalties, the caretaker remarks. Keramat graves may be found in many parts of the Malay World. 2 They are venerated graves that have become sites of worship or shrines. Some include, the keramat graves of the Wali Songo3 in Java, Indonesia, Keramat Datuk Machap in Malacca, Malaysia, and Keramat Habib Nuh in Singapore. This thesis will focus only on those found in Singapore and proposes studying them as religious art, 1 Malay ghosts that appear in the form of a corpse, still wrapped in burial fabric. 2 I acknowledge that definitions and boundaries of the Malay World continue to be debated. For the purposes of this thesis, I use the term to encompass Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Southern Thailand and Singapore. However, evidence of keramat grave worship can be found mainly in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. 3 A group of nine famous awliya (Islamic saint-like figures) who are revered in Indonesia. 3 through the lens of art history, specifically, as objects with lives. Most of the studies on keramat graves have been mainly ethnographic or focused largely on the lives of the persons interred beneath them. This thesis hopes to add an art historical perspective to the study. Keramat Bukit Kasita, described earlier, is an example of the few keramat graves that are still present in Singapore. In 2009, Keramat Siti Maryam in Kallang, Singapore, was exhumed and demolished. A 2011 exhibition, The Sufi and the Bearded Man: Re-membering a Keramat in Contemporary Singapore, by curator Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, scholar Teren Sevea and photographer/researcher Nurul Huda B. A. Rashid, presented at the National University of Singapore Museum (NUS Museum), looked at the stories and histories surrounding this particular keramat grave and the burial ground it resided upon.4 It is not the first and only keramat grave to have been removed or destroyed, and sadly, it may not be the last. This situation has spurred me to begin my research as time is of the essence, to study the surviving keramat graves before it is too late. Hence, this thesis focuses on the following keramat graves in Singapore 5 (Map 1): i) Keramat Habib Nuh at Mount Palmer (Fig.1 and Fig 2) ii) Keramat Sharifah Rogayah at Duxton Plain Park, Outram (Fig.3) iii) Keramat Iskandar Shah at Fort Canning (Fig. 4) iv) Keramat Radin Mas Ayu at Mount Faber (Fig. 5 and Fig. 6) v) Keramat Kusu at Kusu Island (Fig. 7) vi) Keramat Bukit Kasita at Bukit Purmei6 (Fig. 8) vii) Keramat Tok Lasam at Siglap (Fig. 9) 4 Teren Sevea, Shabbir Hussain Mustafa and Nurul Huda B. A. Rashid, The Sufi and the Bearded Man: Re-member in a Keramat in Contemporary Singapore. (Singapore: NUS Museum, 2011). 5 There may be other keramat graves still surviving in Singapore, however, these few are the ones that I have found while researching on the subject. Towards the end of this research, I have discovered three possible keramat graves in Kubur Kassim on Siglap Road, with evidence of worship. I will include them in future studies of keramat graves in Singapore. 6 Photography is prohibited at Keramat Bukit Kasita. An illustration of the site has been made for the purposes of this thesis in place of photographs. 4 Assuming that Keramat Iskandar Shah is in fact grave of the fourteenth-century ruler of Singapore, who died in 1413,7 this keramat grave is probably the oldest in this research project.