Tan Liok Tiauw Sia

Tan Liok Tiauw Sia (1872 - 1947) was a prominent Chinese-Indonesian landowner, planter and industrial pioneer in the late colonial period, best known today as the last Landheer (or landlord) of Batoe-Tjepper, now the district of Batuceper.

History Family background Born in Tangerang, Dutch East Indies in 1872, Tan hailed from a family of landlords and Chinese officers, part of the 'Cabang Atas' or the Chinese gentry of colonial Indonesia.

His father, Tan Tiang Po, served as Luitenant der Chinezen in Tangerang from 1877 until 1885, while his grandfather, Luitenant Tan Kang Soey, sat on the Chinese Council (Dutch: 'Chinese Raad'; Hokkien: 'Kong Koan') of Batavia or modern-day Jakarta, capital of Indonesia. Through his mother, Lim Hong Nio, Tan was a grandson of Lim Soe Keng Sia and Tan Bit Nio, as well as a great-grandson of Tan Eng Goan, the first Majoor der Chinezen of Batavia (1802-1872).

Tan's sister, Tan Him Nio, was married to Khouw Yauw Kie, Kapitein der Chinezen (died in 1908). He was given a traditional Chinese education, but also had a private Dutch tutor. In July 1923, Tan hosted Dirk Fock, the 30th Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies at Batoe-Tjepper as part of the latter's official visit to Tangerang.

Tan inherited other agricultural landholdings from his father on the latter's death in 1912. Many of these estates were consolidated in the landholding firm N.V. Landbouw Maatschappij Tan Tiang Po, which was incorporated in 1899. The company controlled the private domains of Rawa Buaya, Tanah Kodja, Pondok Kosambi, Minggoe Djawa and Kapoek, stretching from the western part of modern-day Jakarta to Tangerang. A wide range of agricultural crops were cultivated on these landholdings: ranging from rice, coconut, other fruits and vegetables, and on to grass for animal feed. These plantations were among the largest privately owned estates in Sukabumi, and had been established in the 1870s by the tea pioneer B. B. J. Crone, an uncle of the Indo-Dutch writer E. du Perron.

As Director, Tan Liok Tiauw also headed N. V. Landbouw Maatschappij Tandjong West, a syndicate of landlords which purchased the old, eighteenth-century ‘particuliere land’ or estate of Tandjong West in 1917, today part of Jagakarsa in South Jakarta. Beyond Java, Tan acquired Hacienda del Coco in Lampung on the southern tip of Sumatra, a formerly struggling British-owned plantation, founded by The Lampong Coconut Estates, Ltd. These Sumatran estates grew coconut and pepper, and — like many of Tan's other landholdings — were run by professional European estate managers.

Tan died in 1947 in Batavia, was buried at his family's private burial grounds at Kebon Besar in Batoe-Tjepper, Tangerang.