Kathu tin mine museum, Phuket

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"Kathu Tin Mining Museum is an important and magnificent place of Phuket, where people can come for a visit and learn about Phuket's historical mining."
Kathu Mining Museum is located on Kathu district area, near Loch Palm golf course on the Kathu - Ko Kaeo road, in Phuket. The museum was established in 1999 but became tangible in 2006 and was then finished in 2008. The museum building was designed with Shino Portuguese style buildings with a large courtyard in the middle and windows decorated with stucco designs and old style arches.
Valuables and heritage remaining from the past are being displayed inside a room called the Secret Pearl of Andaman'. Collections of jewelry such as Blue Sapphire, Topaz and precious stones, beads, jades and ancient combs made from Jamree or bull horns, coins and money from the past, are also on display such as 'Deebuk' coins, and Thai plus other currencies.
Exhibitions of various types of mines are another important part of the museum. This part is called 'Mining Life', showing different types of mine techniques such as Ground Sluicing a technique used for residual deposit sites or hillsides using human power; and


Hydraulic Mining type which is an open pit mining technique and also a significantly cheaper to operate;
plus 'Openeast or open-cut mining' which was a surface mining technique used for placer deposits located in the nearby hillsides;
'gravel pumping' or opened pit mining operated by injecting water to break the surface soil;

and 'dredging' which was a mining operation suitable for a big deposit that has been surveyed for its abundant supply.
The 'Tin Processing' room plays an important part in giving students a feel of the old mining era and is also a laboratory room to teach kids about the processing of tin industrialization. Other than tin mining and development of the process, the exhibition rooms such as 'the journey of Chinese merchants' illustrating Chinese people immigrating to find good hope in Phuket island. They sailed and lived their lives while traveling for many days, months or years on the boat.
Another show-stopping exhibition room is 'the legend of old city in Kathu'

showing Chinese operas, shadow plays, boutiques, old Chinese style pharmacies and Kathu peoples old style houses, presenting the Chinese way of life and their culture back in the old days.
Wax models of Ba-Ba Hokkien or mixed Thai Chinese families present traditional weddings in houses and paintings of the old days on the walls create a unique and ancient feel to this museum.

Arunrath Sinpetch, a technocrat/curator, of Kathu Mining Museum talked to Andaman News about the interesting aspects and how it is different from other museums:
The approximate number of visitors is not less than 200,000 people per year even though the museum is not fully operating yet. This place is a long life education resource. It is a learning institute of Phuket where people come in to learn more about historical mining. Tourists from Phuket and other provinces were also paying a visit to the museum.
Our museum is called a live museum, where tourists, students and visitors can participate while having a tour inside the museum. This museum is very different from other museums; we are showing the real side of science and demonstrations. I strongly believe that tourists or students will definitely learn important information from our museum.
The museum not only shows how historical Phuket's mining has developed and faded away but also illustrates the traditional lifestyle of Thai and Chinese people back in the old times and reminds us all that culture and custom are not easily forgotten by the Phuket people. For more information on Kathu Mining Museum, please visit www.KathuTin.com
This is Zenniesha, reporting for Andaman News.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Phuket
• Thailand
• tin
• museum
• Zenniesha