This open field has always been Kapasan's living core, even as what stood on it changed again and again. Long before any building rose here, this ground was part of the dense kapuk (randu) tree forest that gave Kapasan its very name. It was in that forest that the community's kung fu (Kunthauw) tradition first took root. As the forest gave way to kampong and open field, the first Boen Bio temple was built right here, facing inward toward the community rather than the main road. It once was a humbler shrine than the grand temple on Jalan Kapasan you see today, which the congregation built later as the community grew. This original building then lived several more lives: reborn as the Tiong Hoa Hwe Koan (THHK) hall where the community council once met, later repurposed as a neighborhood kindergarten, before finally being demolished to make way for the tall, modern Graha Boen Bio that stands here now. The martial tradition born in the forest never left. It simply moved indoors, with Kunthauw still practiced twice a week inside Graha Boen Bio today, carrying a lineage that runs unbroken from forest floor to temple hall.
Archives
1932 The Boycott and Liem Khoen Hian
In 1932, a football boycott campaign organized from the 'Nan-yang society' right here in Kapasan led to the arrest of journalist Liem Khoen Hian, who, months later, would found Indonesia's first Chinese-Indonesian nationalist party from a house in this very neighborhood.
Source: delpher.nl
2021 Kindergarten
Inside the Kapasan Dalam Chinatown, there was a building that currently functions as a kindergarten. This building has a Chinese style roof with the Xuán Shān (懸 山) type.
Source: Gunawan et al, 2021.
2024 Graha Boen Bio
The Graha Boen Bio was built over the former kindergarten site. This building now functions for communal activities, such as weekly Lion dance (Barongsai) and Kungfu (Kunthauw) practices.
Source: Author, 2024.