Meet the Indonesians saving Chinese heritage, one tomb at a time

History buff Philipus Raharjo and restaurateur Bram Luska spend their time scouring the hills of Semarang for forgotten Chinese grave sites

Protecting such sites is vital to learning how the Chinese diaspora lived, they say. But not all the tombs they find are ready to give up their secrets

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A 1912 stele in an abandoned cemetery. Photo: Handout

Published: 9:00am, 8 Aug 2021Updated: 10:17am, 8 Aug 2021

When the 40-year-old history aficionado and calligraphist, Philipus Dellian Agus Raharjo, wrote on social media in September last year about his trip to the Thio Family Mausoleum in his hometown of Semarang, Central Java, his post caught the eye of Bram Luska, a 35-year-old restaurateur.

Luska had always been intrigued by the characteristically Chinese building but had never been inside.

The mausoleum, built by a Chinese property and export-import tycoon, Thio Sing Liong (1871-1940), is one of the many historical footprints left by Indonesia’s Chinese diaspora and is now a protected heritage site.

Together Raharjo and Luska visited the mausoleum and started a collaboration which would see them scouring for forgotten Chinese grave sites around Semarang.

Luska and Raharjo at the Thio Sing Liong Mausoleum. Photo: Handout

“Chinese gravestones [known in Indonesia by the Hokkienese term bongpay] can tell us a lot about the history of the Chinese people in Indonesia; their descendants, how they lived and so on. Most people probably consider cemeteries morbid but I think they are interesting in what they have to reveal,” Luska said.