David Kong, or Kong Hon Kong as he is known as, was born in Lipis, Pahang State. When his father in law died in 1985, there were no private cemeteries in Malaysia, and he found the whole process of finding and choosing a burial plot difficult, time consuming and not at all something that he thought grieving people should have to go through. So, her decided to do something about it. He was granted a license to operate a private cemetery and Nirvana Memorial Park was opened five years later in Semenyih.

Nirvana Asia has since grown incredibly, now operating funeral homes, private cemeteries and columbarium facilities throughout Malaysia as well as in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and mainland China, and is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.