The Merlion's Forgotten Grief
Singapore's most beloved icon was sculpted by a man whose father had buried a baby brother in the soil of Bukit Brown — a family grief carried quietly across two decades, before those surviving hands shaped a nation's face. 新加坡最著名的地標，出自一位雕塑家之手，而其父曾在武吉布朗為幼子立碑。
The Tomb
In Block 3B of Bukit Brown Cemetery, Plot P96, there stands a small, unassuming grave. The burial record names the deceased simply as Lim Nguan Lee — age one month and sixteen days, date of death 1 December 1943, in the darkness of the Japanese Occupation. By the Chinese reckoning on the tombstone, the child had lived exactly fifty days.
The stone was erected by the infant's father, 林世宗 (Lim Seh Chong), for his youngest son, known by his other name 佛添 (Hood Thiam), whose actual name was 林浪利 (Lim Nang Lee). The inscription is spare and heartbroken.
Tomb of Hood Thiam, infant son of Lim Seh Chong, who passed away at fifty days
"In days of tears and hardship, we leave this record"
The phrase 淚日難中留紀 — "in days of tears and hardship, we leave this record" — speaks to the weight of loss during wartime. The father had lost an infant son in the depths of the Occupation. He buried him at Bukit Brown, and carved his grief in stone.
Death of Lim Seh Chong
Tablet detail
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Tablet detail
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| Deceased 林浪利 · 佛添 | English Name Lim Nang Lee (Hood Thiam) |
| Age at Death 50 days (1 month, 16 days actual death days) | Date of Death 1 December 1943 |
| Father 林世宗 Lim Seh Chong | Location Bukit Brown Blk 3B, Plot P96 |
Newspaper Archives
Nearly two decades after that wartime burial, a newspaper notice appeared in the 星洲日報 (Sin Chew Jit Poh) on 8 June 1962, announcing the passing of sculptor 林浪新 (Lim Nang Seng)'s father:
The same 林世宗 who had erected the infant tomb at Bukit Brown in 1943 was the father of 林浪新 (Lim Nang Seng) — the man who would sculpt Singapore's Merlion. The obituary notice bridges the wartime grave to one of Singapore's most celebrated artists.
The Merlion Connection
The infant grave at Bukit Brown Block 3B, Plot 96 is the tomb of 林浪利 (Lim Nang Lee), milk name 佛添 — the younger brother of Lim Nang Seng, sculptor of the Merlion. The father who erected this wartime tomb for his fifty-day-old son is the same man whose death in 1962 was mourned publicly as the father of Singapore's most celebrated sculptor.
The Family
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林氏家譜 · Lim Family
林世宗
Lim Seh Chong · Father · d. 1962
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林浪新
Lim Nang Seng · Merlion Sculptor · 1917–1987
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林浪利 · 佛添
Lim Nang Lee (Hood Thiam) · Infant · d. 1 Dec 1943
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林世宗 (Lim Seh Chong) was a father to at least two sons: the elder, 林浪新 (Lim Nang Seng), who survived, and the younger, 林浪利/佛添 (Lim Nang Lee/Hood Thiam), who did not. It was 林世宗 himself who erected the infant tomb, carved the inscription, and bore the grief of burying a fifty-day-old child in the middle of the Japanese Occupation.
林世宗 died in 1962 — by which time his surviving son had already established himself as a sculptor of note, and was on the cusp of the commission that would make him immortal in Singapore's civic landscape.
The Sculptor and His Icon
In 1971, Lim Nang Seng was selected to sculpt the Merlion statue for Merlion Park along the Singapore River. Work began in November 1971 and concluded in August 1972. The project was a family affair in the most literal sense: all eight of his children took part in its creation.
林浪新 (Lim Nang Seng) born in Kuching, Sarawak.
His infant brother 林浪利/佛添 dies at 50 days during the Japanese Occupation. Their father 林世宗 erects the tomb at Bukit Brown Block 3B, Plot 96, inscribing his grief in stone: 淚日難中留紀.
Father 林世宗 passes away. 星洲日報 identifies the bereaved son as sculptor 林浪新.
Lim Nang Seng co-organises Singapore's first sculpture show, and designs the 1967 Singapore coin collection.
Sculpts the Merlion at Merlion Park, together with all eight of his children.
Lim Nang Seng dies on 17 November 1987 at Singapore General Hospital, during Merlion Week, aged 69–70.
Lim Nang Seng died on 17 November 1987 — during Merlion Week, as if the city's calendar had arranged a final symmetry. He had not wanted his children to follow him into sculpture, knowing it brought little financial reward. Yet eight of them had stood beside him and helped give Singapore its enduring face.
Why This Matters
The grave of 林浪利 · 佛添 is one of the most ordinary-seeming tombs in Bukit Brown — a wartime infant burial, unmarked by fame, recorded only in a brief burial entry and a stone inscription of forty characters. Nothing on the tombstone announces its connection to Singapore's most visited landmark.
Yet the father who carved those forty characters into stone in 1943 was the same man whose son would, three decades later, give Singapore the Merlion. The grief of that wartime burial — preserved in 淚日難中留紀, "in days of tears and hardship, we leave this record" — is the hidden underside of a story that Singapore has celebrated for decades without knowing this chapter existed.
This is precisely what Bukit Brown holds: not only the graves of the prominent, but the family histories of the people who built Singapore. The infant tomb of 佛添 is not a footnote to the Merlion's story. It is part of its foundation.
This post is part of the Singapore Tombstones Epigraphic Materials (S.T.E.M.) project. The infant tomb of 林浪利 · 佛添 was first documented on this blog in November 2017. The connection to sculptor 林浪新 (Lim Nang Seng) and the Merlion was identified through cross-referencing the 星洲日報 obituary notice of June 1962 with the Wikipedia entry on Lim Nang Seng and the Bukit Brown burial record.
Sources & References
- — Tomb inscription, 林世宗㓜兒五十日仙逝佛添墓, Bukit Brown Block 3B, Plot 96
- — Burial record: Lim Nguan Lee, age 1 month 14 days, d. 1 Dec 1943, Blk 3B P96
- — 星洲日報 (Sin Chew Jit Poh), 8 June 1962, Page 7 — 泥塑家林浪新令尊林世宗先生逝世
- — 星洲日報 (Sin Chew Jit Poh), 15 June 1962, Page 6
- — Wikipedia: Lim Nang Seng (林浪新), Singaporean sculptor (1917–1987)
- — The Straits Times (Overseas Ed.), 21 November 1987 — "Merlion sculptor dies after surgery"
- — tombs.bukitbrown.org — S.T.E.M. Project, original documentation November 2017