Wednesday, February 16, 2005

sambung cerita

I knew my great grandfather had two wives, which was normal at their era. My grandmother was the daughter of the younger wife. The elder didn’t have any children.

While both my great grandmothers’ photographs are on the ancestral tablet up on the wall, neither of their ashes are kept in the niche. There is a logical explanation to this.

It was/is normal for people to reserve their niches in memorial halls or temples even while they are still alive. All to secure auspicious registration numbers and locations within the hall as well as to ensure they get it at a good price before inflation sets in. Yes, very Chinese.

Anyway, my elder great grandmother was baptised just before she passed on, so she was laid to rest as a Christian. Yet since the niche was already paid for, the family thought might as well we have her picture up in the Chinese memorial hall anyway. As for my other great grandmother, it came as a rude shock when one year, as my grandmother went to visit her mother’s grave, she found that it had disappeared. It seemed that after 10 years, families are requested to move the remains of their kin so as to make way for others. (Recycled grave space- how charming.) Anyway, we never received the letter informing us of this, so the caretakers took the liberty of removing the bones and burying them under a tree somewhere. Grandmother was naturally heartbroken.

Great grandfather has a traditional carved ancestral tablet laid in our clanhouse. We belong to a big formidable Chinese clan it seemed. With more mahjong going on inside than kungfu practices nowadays, I wonder if the clan is more of a toothless tiger on a stroller than a menacing teething monster. Anyway the clanhouse is reportedly so dark and so eerie, none in my family has ventured in there in years. Mother recounts a life-sized wooden figure with arms outstretched in front, right at the front door. I am glad I don’t need to take any tiffin carriers in there to be honest.

Okay it is late and I am spooking myself out. End of entry.

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