Table Of ContentGolddiggers, Farmers, and Traders
in the "Chinese Districts'' of West
Kalimantan, Indonesia
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Mary Somers Heidhues
Golddiggers, Farmers, and Traders
in the "Chinese Districts" of West
Kalimantan, Indonesia
SOUTHEAST ASIA PROGRAM PUBLICATIONS
Southeast Asia Program
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
2003
SEAP
Editorial Board
Benedict R. O'G. Anderson
Támara Loos
Stanley O'Connor
Keith Taylor
Andrew Willford
Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications
640 Stewart Avenue, Ithaca, NY 14850-3857
Studies on Southeast Asia No. 34
© 2003 Cornell Southeast Asia Program.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, no part of this book may
be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the Cornell Southeast Asia Program.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 0-87727-733-8
Cover: Cover design by Judith Burns, Publications Services, Cornell University
Cover map: "Pontianak, Capital of the Residency of Borneo's West Coast, and Environs" from a
manuscript of Commissioners Francis and Tobias, ca. 1822, in Kaart van Nederlands Ostindie in
8 Bidden, ed. Gijsbert Franco von Derfelden de Hinderstein (The Hague: Imprimerie de 1'Etat,
1842) p. 7, map 18. Reproduction, Niedersáchsische Staats- und Universitátsbibliothek,
Gottingen.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents 5
List of Maps 7
List of Plates 8
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction 11
Chapter One: The Setting: The Peoples and their Histories 16
Chapter Two: Chinese Society and the Dutch to the First "Kongsi War" 47
Chapter Three: From 1850 to the End of the Kongsis 85
Chapter Four: Demographic and Economic Change: From Gold Miners to
Settlers and Traders, 1860-1940 126
Chapter Five: Community and Political Life in Prewar Times 163
Chapter Six: War and Indonesian Independence 197
Chapter Seven: Community under Duress 235
Epilogue: Repeated Violence and Uncertain Outcome 273
Glossary of Foreign Terms 279
Bibliography 283
Index 303
MAPS
Map One: West Kalimantan, showing the Chinese Districts 16
Map Two: Southeastern China, indicating approximate home areas of 30
Chinese of West Kalimantan
Map Three: Major Chinese Settlements in 1810 49
Map Four: Territories of the major kongsis, circa 1822 57
Map Five: Pontianak and environs, circa 1822, showing the 70
Chinese settlements
Map Six: Important sites in the Second Kongsi War 88
Map Seven: Dispersal of Chinese Population after the Kongsi Wars 126
Map Eight: West Kalimantan in 1967, showing areas of rebel activity 247
and "Dayak Raids''
PLATES
Plate 1: Chinese woman using dulang, about 1937 34
Plate 2: Chinese coolies and their boss in Borneo, circa 1890 56
Plate 3: Diagram of the Lanfang Kongsi Hall in Mandor in 1822 59
Plate 4: Chinese, probably from West Borneo, circa 1890 62
Plate 5: Pasar (marketplace) of Pemangkat, circa 1920 90
Plate 6: Gate to Chinese Temple on site of former kongsi hall 101
Plate 7: Picture of Lo Fong Pak, Chinese Temple, Sungai Purun 110
Plate 8: Ruins of temple to commemorate Lanfang Kongsi, Mandor 113
Plate 9: Chinese vegetable garden near Pontianak, 1998 133
Plate 10: Pasar (marketplace) of Capkala, circa 1920 139
Plate 11: Sultan of Sambas, 1919 164
Plate 12: Chinese stores rebuilt after fires of 1930s, circa 1949 166
Plate 13: Henry de Vogel, M. Hzn., Resident of West Borneo 178
Plate 14: Water containers in the Chinese quarter of Pontianak, circa 1920 180
Plate 15: Harbor of Pontianak, circa 1935 195
Plate 16: Mandor Memorial: Japanese soldiers humiliate women 204
Plate 17: Mandor Memorial: Multi-ethnic resistance to the Japanese 205
Plate 18: The Sultan of Pontianak with Resident K. A. James, circa 1920 206
Plate 19: The Mandor Memorial to victims of the Japanese massacre 209
Plate 20: Pasar, Anjungan, 2000 251
Plate 21: Lo Fong Pak memorial, Mandor, 2000 254
Plate 22: Wildcat gold miners near Mandor, 2000 263
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Over the years during which this book took shape, many people have aided
me with their writings, discussions, advice, assistance, and consolation. Those
whose writings have contributed will find their names in the bibliography. I am
grateful especially to colleagues and critics Sharon Carstens, Charles Coppel,
Myra Sidharta, Claudine Salmon, Thee Kian Wee, Mona Lohanda, Ming Govaars-
Tjia, Yuan Bingling, and Mély G. Tan; and in Pontianak, among others,
Tangdililing, Hengky, Buyung Rivai and Eta, Hendry Jurnawan, and Melanie
Susanto, even where we may differ.
Special thanks are due for material and intellectual help to Emeritus Prof.
Bernhard Dahm, former head of Southeast Asia Studies, University of Passau,
who acted as sponsor for the project in 1995-1997, during which time I benefited
from a grant from the German Research Society (Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft). Without that support, it would never have seen the
light of day. Prof. Dahm followed the project through to completion; he and
Claudine Salmon, an anonymous reader in Ithaca, and especially Sharon Carstens,
who put a careful eye to the text more than once, have offered helpful criticism,
without bearing responsibility for any of my missteps. The editors of Cornell's
Southeast Asia Program displayed patience and professionalism in dealing with a
complex and sometimes messy task.
In 1995-1996 I was a Guest of the Rector at the Netherlands Institute of
Advanced Study, Wassenaar. I am grateful to the Rector for this opportunity and to
the staff, especially the library staff, for their support. In the summer of 1993,
when the project was just taking shape, I was a Luce Visiting Scholar at Ohio
University, Athens. There, Lian The-Milliner helped me find my way into the
history of Chinese in Borneo, including those of Sarawak, whose experiences
sometimes resembled, or even touched, those of Chinese in West Kalimantan.
The most important archives and libraries used were in the Netherlands,
where I experienced unfailing patience and cooperation. These were, roughly in
order of the time I spent in them: the library of the Royal Institute of Linguistics
and Geography (KITLV); the National Archives (Algemeen Rijksarchief); the
Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD); a private archives in Den
Bosch; the Leiden University Library; and that of the Royal Institute for the
Tropics, Amsterdam.
In particular, I thank the Indonesian National Archives (Arsip Nasional) and
its staff for access to its valuable collection, as well as the Indonesian Institute for
the Sciences (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia), which facilitated my
research in Indonesia.
The libraries of Cornell University (Kroch Library, Echols Collection) and of
the University of Góttingen (Niedersáchsische Staats- und
Universitátsbibliothek) and their personnel also aided the study. Cornell is a
depository for many contemporary materials on West Kalimantan. During a brief
