ANN/THE STAR – For years, they only shared photos of what they loved with each other online or caught up in groups of two or three.
Then they all finally got together, priding themselves for setting up what could be the brightest campsite ever known.
These aficionados of kerosene lamps have taken their passion beyond the realm of practicality and into the domain of true love, with a few of their lamps valued at about MYR10,000 apiece.
Eight of them brought about 80 kerosene lamps to their first ever camp jamboree in Bukit Tinggi, Pahang, though more than half of the lamps assembled actually came from three of them.
Their one-night campsite glowed golden and became an impromptu exhibition of collectible artefacts.
“Some of the lamps have verifiable manufacturing dates going back to 1904,” said Steven Chin, 59, one of the founding members of the Malaysia Kerosene Lamps and Stove Networking, Buy and Sell Station.
Chin explained that before the generation, distribution and sale of electricity became a public affair in the beginning of the 1900s, kerosene lamps were the chief source of lighting after dark almost throughout the world.
Today, aside from the need for aesthetics and retro ambience, kerosene lamps, especially the pressurised ones, have become a necessity only for outdoor activities after dark.
Chin admitted that many lovers of kerosene lamps began as campers who realised how useful they are.
The bright amber glow of a kerosene lamp does not attract insects, and certain oils can be added to the kerosene to repel them effectively.
“Turn on any kind of white lamp at camp, and in minutes, you will have thousands of insects flying around you,” Chin said.
The lamps have another advantage for Chin, who loves car-camping in Fraser’s Hill and Cameron Highlands: when the sun sets and the temperature drops, sometimes to teeth-chattering levels, his kerosene lamps give out warmth.
Chin, who has tackled some of the tallest mountains in Malaysia, like Gunung Korbu and Gunung Tahan, said his love for kerosene lamps grew during COVID-19 movement control order. “We couldn’t go camping or mountain climbing, so while stuck at home, I began looking more deeply into kerosene lamps. I stumbled into old lamps for sale on the Internet and decided to buy them and try to fix them,” he said.
Chin happened to be an amateur handyman, and when faced with something that was broken, he would try to get it to work again.
Today, run-of-the-mill kerosene lamps can be bought for MYR10 to MYR20. Those made with better material, as well as those that allow you to pressurise the fuel for greater brightness and efficiency, cost around MYR80.
But these are below the radar of true kerosene lamp lovers.
They want to own the truly old ones that cannot be found in shops anymore, made with the design rationale of yesteryear.
Chin said these works of art tend to fetch prices of at least MYR1,000 and beyond MYR10,000.
Not surprisingly, Chin said antique kerosene lamp collectors are usually high-net-worth people who are so busy that their first ever camp jamboree in Bukit Tinggi was hard to organise because everyone was so busy with their businesses.
“But we loved it, and we are planning a second camp jamboree, probably at Janda Baik in Pahang next,” said Chin. – Arnold Loh
