Stories by
Jacqueline Ann Surin and Liau Y-Sing
DRAWN by the lure
of the East, a young man from Ceylon arrived on the shores of Singapore in
1872. Armed with little formal education but a determined entrepeneurial
spirit, Balage Porolis de Silva would conquer the Far East in the years to come
with his finely crafted jewellery.
From its humble
beginnings in High Street, Singapore, as a business with two showcases, three
tables and three cupboards, it has evolved to become a renowned purveyor of
luxury goods known as B.P. De Silva Holdings (Pte) Ltd in Singapore and De
Silva (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd in Malaysia today.
Balage Porolis, or
BP as he is fondly called, is a Singhalese Buddhist from the port city of
Magalle on the south coast of the then Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He was born on
May 24, 1850, during a watershed period in which a rebellion had taken place
two years earlier due to unpopular tax ordinances.
The logo of the B.P. de Silva group of companies
with the image of its founder. |
According to a
book Gems of the Orient written in 1900 by a friend who signed off as
only J.A.R.V, BP had accompanied his father from Ceylon to various countries
and then to Southeast Asia in 1860 as a travelling jeweller. They visited the
then Straits Settlement (comprising Singapore, Malacca and Penang), China,
Japan, Australia, the US, Europe, Egypt, India and Burma (now known as
Myanmar).
Eventually, they
chose Singapore as the trade centre. It was a very small Singhalese community
back then as an 1871 Singapore census showed that there were only 7 Singhalese
on the island at that time as recounted in the book BPdeSilva--The Royal
Jeweller of Southeast Asia by Richard Boyle.
B.P. De Silva
Holdings chairman Sunil Amarasuriya said in an interview in Singapore that it
was BP's adventurous spirit which drove him to establish a business in
Singapore, rather than in Ceylon.
Initially, BP sold
gem-set rings to travellers and wealthy resident Chinese. In 1872, he rented a
shop for $20 a month in High Street--then Singapore's shopping and commercial
hub--and started a business selling jewellery, walking sticks, carvings and
lacquerware.
"Money was
very scarce and goods were cheap," BP said of Singapore in a letter to his
son some 50 years later. He told the son that his main customers were wealthy
Europeans and Chinese.
Business boomed
and BP had to bring in goldsmiths from Ceylon to help in the expansion.
Eventually the High Street establishment was combined with a jewellery factory.
According to
Boyle, the business was so profitable that within two years, BP was able to buy
extensive land for himself and his family and build a house in Magalle.
"It was quite
natural for my great grandfather to be involved in gems because most of the world's
gemstones can be found in Sri Lanka," De Silva managing director Sonny De
Silva told Star Business in Penang.
In venturing into
business, BP went against the grain as it was uncommon for Sri Lankans to be
entrepreneurs.
"There is no
prestige going into business. Even today, most Singhalese aspire to become
professionals and often become renowned as lawyers and doctors," Sonny
said, noting that his family had produced two justice ministers in Sri Lanka.
Nonetheless, BP
was quick to establish a reputation for honesty and integrity, and was known as
one of the first jewellers to grant a guarantee of authenticity.
"Integrity
was part of his business philosophy. He would not sell something which he
himself wouldn't buy," Sunil said of BP.
In fact, his
customers could return items within a specified time frame for a slightly
discounted reimbursement as agreed upon.
Being a meticulous
designer and craftsman, BP designed his own works and supervised the
manufacture of the jewellery, taking great pains to personally train new
goldsmiths.
Boyle said that in
his quest to perfect his art, BP travelled around the world thrice to study the
trends in different countries and identify shifting preferences.
BP's fame spawned
competitors among other immigrant Singhalese who tried to copy his business
model and piggy-back on his success and reputation.
"But most of
their customers would invariably ask for BP at these shops and would leave
disappointed that it was the wrong shop," Sonny said.
Often displaying
great vision and characteristic perseverance, BP almost singlehandedly nurtured
the business.
BP's
brother-in-law N.W.P. don Seneris de Silva joined the business in the early
1880s and proved to be an indispensable assistant to BP for 20 years.
Still, there were
some managers and distant relatives brought in by BP who broke away after World
War II and were successful in their own businesses.
BP's fame as a
fine and honest jeweller soon attracted royalty and he created many original
pieces for them.
"The legacy
he left behind was his good reputation for honesty and integrity. The name De
Silva is trusted by royalty, and even today, the Malaysian royalty patronizes
us," Sonny said. "We of the fourth generation have always maintained
this reputation."
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