Charcoal Legend and Sibu Charcoal Industry

Charcoal tongkang from downriver charcoal kiln.

We as a family used a lot of charcoal because my parents loved the way food tasted cooked on top of a Japanese charcoal stove.

My mother, being the frugal housewife, always praised the use of charcoal as a good and economical fuel. I do agree as the burning of charcoal gives off a better aroma, the kitchen smells so good and food tastes better definitely.

Then, we had to buy charcoal from our friend grocer (Chai Hong) by the katis (weight).

In fact charcoal is not really heavy to carry and it is a fuel that lasts for a while. My mother had a wooden box for the chocoal pieces which we kids had to  break into smaller pieces using a machete (parang).

While waiting for my maternal grandmother to arrive in Sibu, I used to watch the charcoal merchants unloading their charcoal boat in the Sibu wharf, which today is not longer a business. It was a past. It is history as the young people would say. An era has gone by.

Many years down the road, people started advertising "charcoal baked chicken, charcoal cooked chicken rice"...and today we even have charcoal bread!!

A legend goes like this: In the Warring States Period, Sun Bin and Pang Juan were the pupils of Guiguzi.



It is said that to test his pupils, Guiguzi asked them to find firewood that did not produce smoke. Deeming it impossible, Pang Juan was unwilling to look for it; while Sun Bin took several classmates into the mountain to search for it. They cut some tree branches and lit them, only to find they were all smoke-producing. So he covered the branches with some earth. They continued their task the next day. When Sun Bin saw the earth-covered firewood pile, he removed aside the earth and found a few segments of black firewood. When lighted again, the firewood no longer gave off smoke. This was the charcoal. Thereafter, charcoal began to be used in the room to cook or make heat. Charcoal making became an industry.





Sun Bin is a descendant of  Sun Tzu (The Art of War)

PS..........In Miri there is a place called Charcoal Plant but there is no charcoal production. It would be nice to write a history about it.