Han Siong Kong


Han Siong Kong is best known as the founder of the Han family of Lasem, one of the oldest dynasties of the Cabang Atas or the Chinese gentry of colonial Indonesia. As government bureaucrats, landlords and politicians, his descendants played an important role in the colonial history of Indonesia.

History

He was born in Tianbao of Zhangzhou, in Fujian province of Imperial China. Han was from a long line of scholar-officials. His first attested ancestor is Han Zhaode, a general in the army of the warlord Tan Goan-kong, who pacified Fujian for the Tang Dynasty. Han Siong Kong's branch of the family is descended from Han Hong, who received the degree of Metropolitan Graduate in the Imperial examination of 1121, then received an appointment as Secretary in the Ministry of Inland Revenue during the Song Dynasty.
Around 1700, Han Siong Kong left his native country for Lasem, a port on the north coast of Java island. By an unnamed woman of at least part-native ancestry, Han had five sons and four daughters. According to J. Hageman, Han's wife was the daughter of the regent of Rajegwesi. Two of their sons, Ngabehi Soero Pernollo and Han Bwee Kong, Kapitein der Chinezen, would play a significant role in establishing and consolidating Dutch colonial rule in East Java.

Death

Han Siong Kong died in 1743 in Rajegwesi, Central Java. Local legend has it that in the course of Han's funeral ceremony, there was a thunderstorm. As a result, Han's children abandoned their father's coffin in the forest in order to seek shelter. The displeased spirit of Han Siong Kong is said to have cast down a curse on his descendants who dared settle down in Lasem.