Catalogue of Surviving Photos of 1884 Foo Teng Nyong Tomb, Before And After Demolition And Related Visual References Together With Descriptions And Brief Analyses
by Jeffery S. L. Seow
Straits Heritage Inquest
Sunday 14th June 2026
This photographic investigation provides a systematic forensic record of the 1884 mausoleum of Madam Foo Teng Nyong, a rare architectural masterwork of elite Cantonese style permanently dismantled in February 2022. By synthesizing geospatial data, pre-demolition architectural views, and salvage documentation from the municipal landfill, the catalogue provides a vital digital surrogate for a lost monument of maritime Southeast Asian heritage. The resulting 90-point dataset preserves the intricate engineering joinery, calculated cosmological alignments, and complex linguistic iconography that defined this unique pure-stone structure.
This researcher is greatly indebted to Mark A. Lay, from whose hands the vast majority of the images in this catalogue originate. This researcher is also indebted to Lim Gaik Siang and Clement Liang for their contributions.