Around 15km south west of Ipoh and 8 km NW of Batu Gajah in Malaysia you can visit the amazing abandoned mining village of Papan which exhibits some wonderful heritage architecture. Most of the buildings are now abandoned and have been taken over by the tropical trees, bushes, creepers and plants but there are still some of the residences which are occupied and there are a couple of coffee shops and a local school in operation in the small town. However the beauty and charm of the architecture is still there to appreciate with beautiful colours and textures and designs of these wonderful heritage buildings.

History of Papan

Papan was established around 1882 under their leader, Raja Billah, and was originally a timber town. The town’s name, Papan, meaning ‘plank’ in Malay, reflected its original purpose of supplying premium wood for boats, buildings and furniture. Years later after the discovery of large quantities of tin ore in the area the town was transformed into a mining town with tin mines established in and around the area. Tin mining was a huge industry in Malaysia and in the early 1900’s was producing 50,000 tons of tin annually which was more than 50% of the world output. In the 1880s, there were already more than 13 mines and at least 500 workers in Papan.

During this time shophouses were built to accommodate the sudden increase in residents and by the end of the 19th century, Papan was flourishing. It had its own Cantonese theatre, school, dispensary, post office, football field, clubs, market, guesthouses, and even a tennis court. During this golden period, a vibrant community of many ethnicities bloomed, including Europeans, Hakka and Cantonese Chinese, Malays, Mandailings, Indians, Sikhs, Sumatranese, Minangs, Rawas, and Javanese. A British census in 1891 even revealed Papan as the 5th most populated town in Perak.

Photo Reference : https://www.ipohecho.com.my/2023/05/22/exploring-papan-with-sundra/

With the tin-mining boom and mass migration of workers however brought conflicts between rival Chinese secret societies particularly between the Hakka-dominated Ghee Hin and the Cantonese-dominated Hai San. A famous secret society conflict in Papan occured in 1887, when a fight in a brothel developed and then escalated into a full town-wide riot. This was known as the ‘Papan Riots’, and this incident was the biggest of its kind in the Kinta Valley. It was told that some 18,000 men from the two sides were ready for an all-out war.

Perhaps related, the town had seen a number of fire incidents in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The packed timber buildings and lack of fire prevention measures exposed Papan to both accidental fires and arson attacks. During its peak population of more than 2,400 people in 1901, there was a fire that engulfed the town and destroyed at least a third of the buildings.

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Radiation Scare (1982 – 2011)

In 1979, a rare-earth production company, Asian Rare Earth Sdn Bhd (ARE), started operations in Bukit Merah, Perak. The company was a joint venture between the Japanese company, Mitsubishi Chemical Ltd, and a number of local companies. ARE was in the business of extracting monazite from tin tailings, which was refined to produce the rare-earth mineral, yttrium, for use in high technology industries and products. This cracking process produced thorium hydroxide, a radioactive metal byproduct. There was initially plans to store this waste product near the small town of Parit but this was cancelled due to complaints from residents. This led the company to plan a long-term radioactive waste dump at the alternative government-selected site ofPapan.

About 1 km from the town center, concrete trenches were discreetly constructed but before waste transportation even started, the site was discovered by Papan’s residents, and widespread uproar ensued, leading to the first anti-nuclear protest in Malaysia’s history.

Multiple NGOs and international specialists got involved to increase pressure on the government to stop the company from continuing work. Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) produced radiation readings up to 88 times more than the international standards on public radiation exposure in a lake near the plant, while United Nations representatives visited Papan and declared the trenches unsafe for thorium storage.

At the height of protests, 10,000 people staged a march in Bukit Merah to demand ARE to stop work.

A new Long Term Storage Facility (LTSF) was chosen in the Kledang Range, 3km from the proposed site in Papan. Between 2003 – 2005, Mitsubishi was reported to have spent more than RM300 million in cleaning up their stocks and factory, moving 85,000 barrels of radioactive material to the new government-owned dumpsite. At the time, it was the largest and most expensive rare earth decommissioning and decontamination project in the world. Currently, the dumpsite has been upgraded and the waste is entombed in the recently built Engineered Cells EC1 & EC2, with both expected to be controlled and monitored for at least another 300 years.

By 1985 there was a dramatic drop in tin prices leading to many residents leaving the town. Today there are around 300 residents left, with 31 living in the 10 old shophouses along the main street and the other 200 living in the nearby timber houses.

Reference : https://www.roamthisway.com/post/malaysian-ghost-towns-series-pekan-papan

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Rumah Besar & Kampung Papan Mosque

Just off the main street you can find two historic buildings, Rumah Besar and Kampung Papan Mosque. The Rumah Besar was built and completed by the local chief Raja Billah in 1896. It once served as the administrative house for Papan and its bustling mining industry, and at the same time functioned as a pillar of influence for the local Mandailings and surrounding Muslim communities. While popularly known today as ‘Istana Billah’ or ‘Istana Papan’, the original term for the building is actually ‘Rumah Besar’, which is a translation of the Mandailing term for a nobleman’s residence; ‘Bagas Godang’.

Reference : https://www.roamthisway.com/post/heritage-series-istana-raja-billah-the-mandailing-village

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Sybil Kathigasu – War Heroine

One notable shophouse on the main street, known as Lot 74, belonged to local war heroine Sybil Kathigasu who was a nurse who operated in the building and who supported the resistance during the Japanese occupation of Malaya during World War II.

She was imprisoned in Batu Gajah and tortured for her role in the war. Sybil later received the George Medal for civilian courage and is the only Malayan woman to receive this second-highest British award. Today, her clinic stands as a memorial to her efforts, with newspaper clippings about her pinned to its facade.

Reference : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_Kathigasu

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Maps

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Photos

Rumah Besar & Kampung Papan Mosque

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Rolleiflex 2.8D Images

During this visit to Papan I shot a couple of rolls of film on my antique 69 year old Rolleiflex 2.8D which I felt was quite fitting given the vintage of Papan village. I shot a roll of Kodak Gold 200 and a roll of Ilford HP5 400 B&W film. Here are some selected shots to complete this post.

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Passionate Photographer …. Lost in Asia

Stuart Taylor of HighlanderImages Photography has been making images for over 40 years focusing on Asia with a documentary/photojournalistic style.

Stuart is available for a variety of assignments in subject areas of photojournalism, commercial, architectural, real estate, industrial, interior design, corporate, urbex, adventure, wilderness, and travel. 

E-Mail : staylor@highlanderimages.com

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