Objects Tours & Trails

Gravestones, Calligraphy, Carvings: Singapore’s Malayo-Muslim Heritage through material culture and sites

by Singapura Stories
17 May • 02:00pm

Explore the rich histories of Singapore’s Malayo-Muslim heritage through material culture and sites. Part of the Singapura Stories Seminar 2026 Series

Register
Gravestones-Calligraphy-Carvings-Singapores-MalayoMuslim-Heritage-through-material-culture-and-sites

Register here: https://peatix.com/event/4944659/view?k=0164911e41cd22ba6f28dcfe0d152660d034ea03

*Programme tickets will go live on 22nd April 2026 12pm
Sunday (17 May): 2pm - 5pm

A wide range of artefacts and ornamentation schemes were selected by the community for use in Singapore’s mosques and gravestones from the 19th to the close of the 20th century. They provide a historical record of a community-based or popular sense of Malayo-Islamic aesthetics, both in tandem with and sometimes running counter to the colonial and modernist milieus and the challenges these posed. Explore the rich histories of Singapore’s Malayo-Muslim heritage through material culture and sites: From exquisite and overlooked examples of calligraphy, woodcarving and historical artefacts in mosques, to old gravestones from selected sites. 

Explore the rich histories of Singapore’s Malayo-Muslim heritage through material culture and sites: Gravestones from the Jalan Kubor Cemetery, Masjid Omar Kg Melaka and Masjid Hajjah Fatimah; and on calligraphy, woodcarving and artefacts in mosques

Speakers / Programmes:

Speakers / Program:

1. Dr. Imran Tajudeen (Malay Studies and Architecture, NUS): Lost minbars, carved panels, gravestones, mosque logos: Developing an inventory of artefacts of Malayo-Islamic aesthetics in Singapore
2. Ustaz Ammar Mustafa (calligrapher, Pena Seraya): Introduction to Islamic Calligraphy
3. Ustaz Hakeem Salihudin (educator): Calligraphers of Singapore.
 - Calligraphic demonstration (Ustaz Ammar, Pena Seraya) and scripts workshop (by community enthusiasts)

Part of the Singapura Stories Seminar 2026 Series


Singapura Stories

Singapura Stories is an independent collaborative platform begun in July 2012 focusing on the recovery and sharing of architectural and social histories with the associated cultural memory of buildings, neighbourhoods, settlements, and communities that are no longer extant. It is committed to public education and sharing of these place histories through seminars and forums. It has also facilitated public discussion of findings by independent researchers, with the aim of gathering like-minded individuals with shared interests in specific topics and encouraging documentation efforts by former residents of expunged places.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SingapuraStories
Instagram: www.instagram.com/singapurastories





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