The Hell deity tradition in Singapore is intimately linked to the post-mortal journey of the soul, and to objects and places associated with the afterlife. Graveyards thus play a significant role as they provide a tangible link between the realms of the living and of the dead. During Ghost Month in 2010, 2014, 2017 and 2019 I visited the 3.18 square kilometer Choa Chu Kang Cemetery to observe night-time graveyard rituals in a cemetery plot dedicated to aborted fetuses' and dead babies. This photograph is of a spirit medium possessed by the opium smoking Guinness drinking Hell Deity called Tua Ya Pek, the most popular deity in present day Singapdes , as he prepares to set fire to paper offerings of clothes and Hell Banknotes along with candy and milk cartons to the souks of fetus spirits, children and stillborn babies as described in my book in chapter 6: "Voices from the Underworld" published by Manchester University Press, and available on Amazon.
Chinese Ghost Month precedes the autumn equinox, a time associated with the harvest and subsequent waning of light and physical decay. Annually, on the first day of the lunar Seventh Month, the gates of the Underworld are opened and the multitudinous hordes of wandering spirits, referred to euphemistically as ‘good brothers’ are, for one month, allowed to return to their origins and to wander the Earth.
On 18 July 2017, under Singapore's Master Plan, a ‘joint statement’ was made by the Singapore government about the planned expansion of Tengah Air Base, and the need to exhume 45,000 Chinese graves in Choa Chu Kang Cemetery to make space for the expansion. Unlike previous exhumations to make land available for new burials, these cemetery plots would instead disappear.
Therefore, many Hell Deity Underworld temples visited the cemetery at night during Ghost Month to make offerings to the ghosts of those without descendants to worship them; and to the purposely disregarded, including lost or aborted fetuses' and babies that died at or soon after birth – in essence, to those who would otherwise be bereft of offerings, and who therefore suffer the most while wandering the Earth before returning to complete their sojourn in Hell's darkness.
All of the cemetery plots visited have since been exhumed, and cemetery rituals have become a dying tradition. These photos are therefore rare, as these rituals are unlikely to be seen again. The price of each photo reflects the rarity of the ritual being performed.
