My Roots

(Photo in Bawean island taken in the early 1960s. The second man from the left was my grand-uncle, the youngest brother of my maternal grandma.)

The Boyanese or Baweanese are virtually Muslims. Hence, their customs and traditions are those influence by Islam. Previously, stretching back as far as in the 1950s, it was still the culture of the Bawean people in the Bawean Island, to get married at a very young age.

(My relatives in Bawean island in the early 1960s. The old women in the photo was my father's paternal aunty, the elder sister of my paternal grandfather. )

Once a girl regardless of her age, experienced menses, according to Islam, she had attained the age of puberty. Thus, she is no longer considered a girl but a young lady ready to be married off by her parents. That was exactly happened to my maternal grandmother. She married at a tender age of 10 to my maternal grandfather who was then about 10 years her senior. This happened somewhere around the 1930s.

(My grandparents on board a vessel performing Haj Pilgrimage in 1960s)

After marriage, my maternal grandparents lived in their own home in Bawean. My granddad was of a noble birth. He came from a generation line of wealthy family that owned huge lands in the Bawean Island. Due to some misunderstanding on the distribution of estate left by his deceased father, my maternal granddad decided to leave the island for good to a distant land in the Malay Peninsula to build a new life. He settled in Ipoh for few years before living in Johor Baru and finally migrated to Singapore in the 1950s.

(My maternal grandparents on board the ship to Makkah )