Grave Digger in Singapore

In Singapore, land is in short supply. That explains why housing costs are so high. This island nation must build upward to accommodate the high population density and manage land scarcity. What about the dead, then, if living people are already having trouble keeping a property to themselves? In order to secure land for its people, the Singaporean government has been removing graves from cemeteries since the 1970s. At least 7 neighbourhoods in Singapore were constructed on top of cemeteries!

The cemetery where these pictures were taken, Choa Chu Kang, is the final location for landed burials in the nation. In order to make room for the expansion of an airbase, the Choa Chu Kang cemetery exhumation program was announced in 2017. Chinese, Muslim, and Hindu graves totalling more than 80,000 need to be moved or exhumed. 5 graves must be cleared per grave digger each day. An average time for clearing off of a burial usually takes three hours.

Mr. K (not his real name) has been a grave digger for more than 50 years. He preferred to remain anonymous because none of his friends were aware of his line of work. Many people still view working as a gravedigger as a taboo. Yet their occupation is honorable in their eyes. By ensuring a proper exhumation, they are showing respect for the deceased.

“Even to the dead, respect must be shown; every bone, no matter how small, must be counted.”

The government has given families a period of time to go back to the cemetery and retrieve the remains, but most of the time, very few families actually do this.