Frequent Trips to Mount Kawi: How Two Indonesian Businessmen Became Tycoons
Mount Kawi is often regarded as a place that brings good fortune. Many people make pilgrimages to the area in Malang Regency, East Java, to seek wealth. A number of business figures have also visited Mount Kawi to seek guidance before making important decisions. At least two major Indonesian entrepreneurs are known to have regularly visited Mount Kawi. Here are their stories.
Ong Hok Liong
According to historian George Quinn in the book Wali Berandal Tanah Jawa (2021), Ong was one of the businessmen who diligently made pilgrimages to Mount Kawi so that his business would achieve success. “Ong regularly visited Mount Kawi near Malang to ask Eyang Jugo and Iman Soedjono for his business to be successful,” wrote George Quinn. One of his visits took place in 1954. Ong reportedly fell asleep near the tomb and dreamt of seeing a lump of taro. When he woke, he asked the tomb keeper about the meaning of the dream, who replied that it was a sign from Eyang Jugo for Ong to change the name of his factory, which had not yet developed. At that time, he managed a factory called Stroothes-Fabriek. He then changed his cigarette brand name based on the dream interpretation to Bentoel. This came from the local Malang term for the taro that appeared in his dream. The decision became a turning point for his business. Sales from the Bentoel factory continued to increase, eventually employing 3,000 workers and becoming one of the giants of cigarette production in the country.
Liem Sioe Liong (Salim)
Another visitor was Liem Sioe Liong. The visits by the founder of Salim Group are recorded in the book Liem Sioe Liong and Salim Group: Pilar Bisnis Soeharto (2016) by Richard Borsuk and Nancy Chng. The book reveals that Salim regularly travelled from Surabaya to Mount Kawi three to five times each year. When about to start a major business, he would stay at a Chinese temple in the area to seek guidance from fortune tellers and perform a number of rituals. “At the temples where he worshipped, Liem often relied on supernatural methods to help him decide what steps to take. One method he commonly used was shaking a bamboo tube containing sticks with certain writings until one stick fell out; the writing on the stick was then read and interpreted by a monk or fortune teller,” wrote Richard Borsuk and Nancy Chng. One famous story concerns the appointment of Mochtar Riady to develop Bank Central Asia (BCA). The book notes that the appointment decision was influenced by Salim’s belief after meeting a fortune teller at Mount Kawi. “Upon returning from Mount Kawi [after meeting the fortune teller], he said with conviction that ‘I will become Tang Sheng for Mochtar’,” the authors wrote. Whether or not the belief was true, the stories of these two figures show the journeys of major entrepreneurs connected to Mount Kawi. Both Ong Hok Liong and Liem Sioe Liong built business empires that grew into business groups worth billions of dollars and hold an important historical footprint for business in the country.