Oen Giok Khouw

Khouw Oen Giok Sia (1874 – 1927), later more popularly known as Oen Giok Khouw or O. G. Khouw, was a philanthropist and landowner in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). He gained notoriety for acquiring Dutch citizenship, thus breaking down the race barriers of colonial society. Today, he is best remembered for his extravagant mausoleum in Petamburan, Jakarta.

Family

Born in 1874 in Batavia (now Jakarta), he was a scion of the Khouw family of Tamboen, part of the Cabang Atas or the Chinese gentry (baba bangsawan) of colonial Indonesia. The Chinese lieutenancies of Khouw's father, uncles and grandfather were honorary appointments without any of the entailed governmental authority.

As a descendant of Chinese officers, Khouw was born with the courtesy title of 'Sia'. His brothers, including Kapitein Khouw Oen Hoei, and many of his cousins, such as Kapitein Khouw Yauw Kie and most notably, Khouw Kim An, the fifth and last Majoor der Chinezen of Batavia, would later acquire substantive and ever higher appointments in the colonial administration.

Despite his lack of involvement in the colonial bureaucracy, Khouw was nonetheless well-known as a generous patron and benefactor of many charitable causes, both in Indonesia and Europe. (His cousin, Majoor Khouw Kim An, would later marry Phoa Keng Hek's daughter.

Together with Mas Asmioen and Oey Tiang Hok, he shocked Dutch colonial society by becoming naturalized citizens of the Netherlands in 1908. In so doing, they bypassed the racial caste system of colonial Indonesia. His ashes were transferred from Europe to Indonesia on board the SS Prins der Nederlanden.

His last resting place, Mausoleum O. G. Khouw in Petamburan, is now a local landmark in Jakarta. It was constructed in the Art Deco style by G. Racina, an Italian contractor, at the then massive cost of f 500,000 (around US$250,000 at the time; or US$4.5 million in today's money). One commentator noted that Khouw's mausoleum was considerably more expensive than the burial memorial of American billionaire William Rockefeller in Sleepy Hollow, New York.