The history of a cemetery for Chinese residents of Paramaribo goes back to the late nineteenth century. Just before the turn of the century, the Kong Ngie Tong Association established a final resting place for the Chinese community. People would be buried there for over forty years.
Initially, the dead were buried in and near Fort Zeelandia, especially the senior officers and civil servants. With the arrival of a middle class, there was also a need for a suitable church and a cemetery.
The death rate among Europeans was high in the tropics. The Briton Stedman was employed by the Republic as captain of a corps of volunteers sent to Suriname to quell an uprising of runaway slaves. In 1773 he was in Paramaribo and wrote the following:
Op deezen tijd woedden ‘er veele ziekten onder ons scheepsvolk; bijna elken dag wierden ‘er viif of zes matroozen van de koopvaardij-schepen begraaven. Het lot van deeze soort van mensen is in dit land over het algemeen zeer slegt; […] Zij stillen hunnen honger met enige bananen en pisangs, eeten oranjen en drinken water, hetgeen hen welhaast van alle kwaad verlost, door hen naar de eeuwigheid te zenden. Duizenden worden op deeze wijze in het graf gestort, die, volgens den gewoonen loop hunnes levens, nog veele jaaren zouden hebben kunnen tellen. [1]
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