Chinese Indonesians Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have l ...

have lived in

Bangka Belitung Islands The Bangka Belitung Islands ( id, Kepulauan Bangka Belitung) is a province of Indonesia. Situated off the southeastern coast of Sumatra, the province comprises two main landmasses— Bangka and Belitung—and numerous smaller islands. Bangka Beli ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

for centuries.Peranakan Tionghoa di Bangka-Belitung
''historia.id''. 18-10-2016Melayu-Tionghoa Bersaudara Tanpa Sekat
''edukasi.kompas.com''. 18-10-2016 Bangka Belitung is one of the regions with the largest Chinese population in Indonesia besides

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

Riau Riau is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south. Accord ...

, Eastern Sumatra and

West Borneo West Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital city is Pontianak. The province has an area of 147,307&nb ...

. Chinese immigrants came to the Bangka Belitung Islands in several waves during 1700–1800s. Many Hakkas from various parts of

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

came to the islands to work as tin miners. Bangka Island Chinese is quite different from Belitung Island Chinese because the first Chinese generation who were entirely male and arrived in Bangka Island, left China without women, they took local women as wives, so many Chinese in Bangka had mixed blood (''

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

'': "

Peranakan The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, th ...

"), especially those who lived in the Eastern part of the island. Bangka Island Chinese language is a

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...

mixed together Malay and Hakka words. Belitung Chinese is considered purer (''Indonesian'': "

totok Totok is an Indonesian term of Javanese origin, used in Indonesia to refer to recent migrants of Arab, Chinese or European origins. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was popularised among colonists in Batavia, who initially coined ...

") because they were the first generation who arrived on the island, and they did so with Chinese wives after the 1800s. Although some town in Bangka Island, purer degree of Hakka can be heard as well, the Hakka-Malay mixture language is uniquely of Bangka Island Chinese. In Belitung, Chinese people adapted well with local culture. They changed their clothes and would like to wear Malay baju kurung with

kebaya A kebaya is an upper garment traditionally worn by women in Southeast Asia, notably in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Southern Thailand. Outside of Southeast Asia, it is worn by Javanese, Malays and Portuguese Eurasians in Australi ...

, pants with

sarong A sarong or sarung () is a large tube or length of fabric, often wrapped around the waist, worn in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, Northern Africa, East Africa, West Africa, and on many Pacific islands. The fabric often has woven plaid o ...

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

is spoken among the majority of Chinese speakers on the islands with a minority

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

-speaking population.

Notable Chinese from Bangka Belitung

* Lim Tau Kian, Chinese-Muslim known for his contribution in first tin mining. * Lim Boe Sing, businessman during

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...

period. * Tjoeng A-tiam, Chinese Major of Mentok. * Tan Hong Kwee,

Kapitan Cina Kapitan Cina, also spelled Kapitan China or Capitan China ( en, Captain of the Chinese; ; nl, Kapitein der Chinezen), was a high-ranking government position in the civil administration of colonial Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo and the ...

of Mentok (year 1832 – 1839). * Tony Wen, born in

Sungailiat Sungailiat (, ) is a city and district (''kecamatan'') of Bangka Regency, in the Bangka-Belitung province of Indonesia. It is also the regency seat. It is the second-largest settlement on the island, right after the provincial capital of Pangka ...

, Indonesian independence activist. *

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (, Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ''Chûng Van-ho̍k''; born 29 June 1966) is an Indonesian businessman, politician, and former governor of Jakarta. He is also known by his Hakka Chinese nickname Ahok (). He was the second minority gover ...

or ''Ahok'',

East Belitung East Belitung Regency (''Kabupaten Belitung Timur'') is a regency (''kabupaten'') of Bangka Belitung Islands Province, Indonesia, encompassing the eastern half of Belitung Island. It covers an area of 2,506.91 km2 (including 141 offshore isla ...

Regent (2005 - 2006) and Governor of

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

(2014–2017). *

Myra Sidharta Myra Sidharta (born Auw Jong Tjhoen Moy on 6 March 1927) was born in Belitung. She is an expert in Tionghoa Malay literature, a psychologist and a columnist for Indonesian magazines including ''The Jakarta Post''. She has an autobiography tit ...

, writer and

sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

. * Rudianto Tjen, politician, AKA Bacu. * Hidayat Arsani, Vice Governor of Bangka Belitung Islands. File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Portret van Lim A. Pat Luitenant der Chinezen in Muntok TMnr 60011467.jpg, Lim A-pat File:Basuki Tjahaja Purnama.jpg, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama

References

{{Overseas Chinese Bangka Belitung Islands Chinese diaspora in Indonesia