Toward a History of Chinese Burial Grounds in Manila during the Spanish Colonial Period

The study of the Chinese burial grounds in Manila provides a window to the world of the Chinese community and the Spanish colonial regime. In the first two and a half centuries of Spanish rule, the Chinese were buried in church or temple grounds, demonstrating the prerogative of religious authorities over the lives of these colonial subjects. In the nineteenth century, the rise of the Chinese population and new approaches to public sanitation paved the way for the establishment of an extramural Chinese public cemetery. The regulations, and the issues that came with administering this cemetery reflect how Chinese elite interests intersected with attempts by a declining colonial power to assert control produced a cemetery like no other in Southeast Asia.