Matang Charcoal Makers

In the village of Matang, in Perak, Malaysia, my wife and I visited a factory that is still practising the age-old art of charcoal making. We were there with members of the Penang Heritage Trust. We were given a briefing on how charcoal is made. We explored the kilns and even had a chance to enter one - it was excruciatingly hot inside. The following photo gallery provides a photo essay of the making of charcoal in Matang.

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Bakau minyak, the mangrove tree used for making charcoal

Lumber transported to the charcoal factories by boat

View inside the charcoal factory with the kilns all lined up on one side

Worker manning a kiln in the charcoal smoking process

Stands of fresh wood waiting to be smoked

Tim and Chooi Yoke, owners of EarthDocumentary, at the Matang Charcoal Kiln

This article is researched and written by Timothy Tye. The content is available under GNU Free Documentation License. Wikipedia is one of the sources. You are free to use it for your travels. Photographs appearing on this website are governed by licenses as captioned below them; they can only be used under terms of the licensed. Copyrighted photographs may not be reused unless you first obtain permission from the owner. Contact us at this email address. EarthDocumentary is a Christian-run site.