WhereIsAtlas · Healthcare

What Happened to Aw Boon Haw?

The Tiger Balm founder who turned a family remedy into a global brand — and left his fortune to a city.

Aw Boon Haw built Tiger Balm into one of the world's most recognisable healing brands and gifted Singapore a landmark — then died in 1954, leaving a legacy that still endures.

The tiger and the balm

Aw Boon Haw was born in 1882 into a Chinese herbalist family. With his younger brother Aw Boon Par, he took a family remedy of camphor, menthol and essential oils and turned it into Tiger Balm. The leaping tiger on the jar came from Boon Haw's own name, which evokes a tiger's roar — a brand born of a family, destined for the world.

Building an empire

Boon Haw was the more commercially bold of the two brothers. He reinvested his success into a wide web of businesses, including a prominent press network across Southeast Asia, and into property. His wealth and influence made him one of the most powerful overseas Chinese businessmen of his era.

Haw Par Villa

His most enduring legacy is Haw Par Villa in Singapore — a sprawling garden park filled with sculptures and dioramas depicting Chinese mythology and folklore. It was both a philanthropic gift and a statement of identity, and it became one of the city's most distinctive landmarks.

What happened next

Aw Boon Haw died in 1954, but he left behind a brand and a legacy that refused to fade. Tiger Balm is still sold in more than a hundred countries, still in its red-and-yellow jar with the leaping tiger. The company he founded evolved into Haw Par Corporation, and Haw Par Villa remains a beloved piece of Singapore's heritage.

Where the tiger is now

The tiger still leaps. Aw Boon Haw's balm went from a modest family remedy to a global household name, and the fortune he built helped create one of Southeast Asia's most recognizable landmarks. A century on, the brand he created is still going strong.

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