Chinese Hospital Batavia

From: S. Zondervan, Patients of the Colonial State, the Rise of a Hospital System in the Netherlands Indies, 1890-1940 (Vianen, 2016) 41-42: “In 1640, the Council of the Indies passed a resolution to appoint four executors of Chinese estates. They were called the Boedelmeesters (estate administrators). The Council appointed two Dutch and two Chinese to make an end to the endless disputes concerning inheritances. These Boedelmeesters soon made a request to permit the foundation of a separate hospital for the poor sick Chinese and to be maintained by voluntary and free contributions of the Chinese nation. This voluntary contribution did not work out well and so the Council decided later that a special tax should be levied on Chinese inheritances in favour of the hospital. The treat-ment of patients was given by Chinese doctors and the VOC provided an indemnification of 10 realen per month for the attendance of Company employees. In 1661 the building was ruined and a new building had to be erected. The architect (then called fabryck) was Jan Sterkenburgh, who designed the buildings of the company and who conceived ‘een vast gebou van steen ende calck’ (a solid building of brick and lime). This hospital was built at the Rhinocerosgracht next to the spinning-house. In 1740, the entire hospital population was murdered, together with all the Chinese of  Batavia in a riot that lasted for 3 days in October that year. It took several decennia to recover from this disaster, but in 1770 financial means improved and in that year the number of patients had increased to 86. Some years later, in 1776, part of the women’s house of correction (spinning-house) was integrated into the hospital in order to obtain more suitable rooms for the isolation of insane individuals. From that time, the mentally ill, including the Mohammedan community, were housed in this annex.

See Koloniaal Verslag 1913: The Chinese Hospital was closed as such on the 1st of January 1912, but it was continued as a public facility under the name Hulpstadsverband (Auxiliary Dressing Station).