Shining a light on kerosene lamp lovers, fuelled by a burning passion

Discover the captivating world of kerosene lamp enthusiasts, who have elevated their passion from mere practicality to a realm of true devotion.

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 RM10,000 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.

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.

“They were needed at every corner of the home, in offices and factories, and even on the streets, so you can imagine how large an industry lamp-making was back then and how many designs and innovations they created,” Chin said.

These antique kerosene lamps were created for homes in a time before electricity became publicly available.

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.

And true enough, 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.

“I will light up two or more kerosene lamps around the common area of our campsite in the highlands.

“You can adjust the lamps until you get a deep amber glow that is warming while giving your campsite a truly relaxed ambience,” Chin said.

A group of antique lamp enthusiasts holding their first camp jamboree in Bukit Tinggi, Pahang.

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’s 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 that were no longer functioning 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.

“A bit of light welding, soldering, painting, a lot of internet research, and even buying parts from Sweden or China to try and retrofit them into a broken lamp is what I love to do.

“For me, there is no such thing as a lamp that cannot be lit,” he said.

He said there were antique lamp kerosene collectors who were not good at tinkering and would then seek out tinsmiths and various other fabricators to custom-make parts that were no longer available.

Some of these antique kerosene lamps can cost up to thousands of ringgit.

You can buy, today, run-of-the-mill kerosene lamps for RM10 to RM20. Those made with better material, as well as those that allow you to pressurise the fuel for greater brightness and efficiency, cost around RM80.

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 RM1,000 and beyond RM10,000.

“The value is in the artistry and antiquity of the lamps. If you don’t love it, you won’t pay the price,” he added.

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.