Letnan Cina Oey Thai Lo (also known as ''Oey Thoa'' or ''Oey Se'') was a notable

Chinese-Indonesian 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 ...

tycoon who acted as a '' pachter'' (tax farmer) for tobacco in the early 19th century.

Early life

He was born in Hokkien province in 1788 and died in

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

in 1838. He is the father of Betawi playboy

Oey Tamba Sia Oey Tamba Sia (1827 – October 7, 1856), also spelt Oeij Tambah Sia, or often mistakenly Oey Tambahsia, was a rich, Chinese-Indonesian playboy hanged by the Dutch colonial government due to his involvement in a number of murder cases in Batavia, ...

, grandfather of bureaucrat and landlord Kapitan Cina

Oey Giok Koen Oey Giok Koen, Kapitein der Chinezen (died in 1912) was a Chinese-Indonesian public figure, bureaucrat and ''Landheer'', best known for his role as '' Kapitein der Chinezen'' of Tangerang and Meester Cornelis, and as one of the richest landowners ...

, and ancestor of the Oey family of Tigaraksa, a family of the cabang atas Peranakan aristocracy of colonial Indonesia. COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM De Chinese hoofdstraat te Pekalongan versierd met katoenenbanen in vlaggenmasten TMnr 60019868

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM De Chinese hoofdstraat te Pekalongan versierd met katoenenbanen in vlaggenmasten TMnr 60019868

Oey Thai Lo migrated to

Pekalongan Pekalongan ( jv, ꦦꦼꦏꦭꦺꦴꦔꦤ꧀) is a city of Central Java, Indonesia. It was formerly the seat of Pekalongan Regency on the northern coast of the province, but is now an independent municipality within the province. The city is Cen ...

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 mos ...

, the Dutch East Indies around 1810. According to his descendant Oey Kwie Djien, Oey Thai Lo was the son of a poor Chinese barber.

Career

Local folklore states that Oey Thai Lo found Dutch debt securities at the house of a poor, Javanese farmer. He exchanged the securities for money, which gave him the initial capital for his tobacco business empire. According to Thio Tjin Boen's Tjerita Oeij Se, Oey Thai Lo moved from Pekalongan to Batavia because of the embarrassment of his daughter's inter-ethnic marriage to an indigenous man, namely the son of the Regent of Pekalongan, which was frowned upon by the local Chinese community. In Batavia, Oey was known for philanthropy and eventually became friends with Tan Eng Goan, ''Majoor der Chinezen'', head of the Chinese government administration in Batavia. Oey provided financial support to the Majoor, who had financial difficulties. Because of his services to the Majoor and his charity work towards for people of Batavia, Oey Thai Lo was given the position of '' Luitenant der Chinezen'' in the Kongsi Besar area.

Legacy

Oey married a local

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, ...

woman, who gave birth to a daughter and three sons: Oey Holland, Oey Tamba and Oey Macau. Luitenant Oey Thai Lo died around 1838 in Batavia, and passed down a supposed inheritance of 2 million guilders for his children. One of his children, Oey Tamba Sia, gained notoriety for his womanizing, and more fatally for masterminding several murders, which he tried to impute to his social rival

Lim Soe Keng Sia Lim Soe Keng Sia (1819–1883), also known as Liem Soe King Sia, Soe King Sia or Lim Soukeng Sia, was a prominent '' Pachter'', or revenue farmer, in Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, best known for his rivalry with the notorious Betawi p ...

, the Majoor's son-in-law. After he was convicted, the young Oey was sentenced to hang by the Dutch East Indies government. The life story of Luitenant Oey Thai Lo and his son Oey Tamba Sia formed the basis of many Chinese-Malay literary works, and are part of Betawi folklore. Through his youngest son, Oey Macau Sia, Luitenant Oey Thai Lo is the grandfather of Oey Giok Koen, who served as '' Kapitein der Chinezen'' of

Tangerang Tangerang ( Sundanese: , ) is a city in the province of Banten, Indonesia. Located on the western border of Jakarta, it is the third largest urban centre in the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area after Jakarta and Bekasi; the sixth largest city ...

and bought the '' particuliere land'' (private domain) of

Tigaraksa Tigeraksa is a district located in the Tangerang Regency of Banten in Tanah Pasundan, Indonesia. It covers 48.74 km2 and had 119,245 inhabitants in 2010 and 155,557 inhabitants in 2020.Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. The administrative head ...

. Today, descendants of Luitenant Oey Thai Lo are the owners of the Tigaraksa and Sintesa conglomerates in Indonesia.

References

{{Reflist 1788 births 1838 deaths Indonesian people of Chinese descent Businesspeople from Fujian