Tiger Balm has risen from the ancient courts of Chinese emperors to worldwide prominence.
It all began when Aw Chu Kin, a Chinese herbalist working in the Emperor’s court, left China and set up a small medicine shop called Eng Aun Tong in Rangoon in the late 1870s, where he would make and sell his special ointment that was effective in relieving all kinds of aches and pains.
When Aw Chu Kin died in 1908, he left his business to his two sons Aw Boon Haw (meaning ‘gentle tiger’) and Aw Boon Par (meaning ‘gentle leopard’). They took the business to Singapore and successfully sold their ointment to surrounding countries like Malaya, Hong Kong, Batavia, Siam and various cities in China. Aw Boon Haw was the marketing genius who named the product Tiger Balm.
Tiger Balm has since been immortalized as one of the world’s best-known pain-relieving formulations. The rest as they said, was history.