Direct iron smelting in Southeast Asia

Bronson and Charoenwongsa (1989) have collected a number of descriptions of metal mining and smelting by foreign travellers in Southeast Asia. These are mostly very brief. The only one with enough detail to make it useful for us concerns the Kui or Kuay people of Cambodia (Kampuchea), who were famous for their iron production throughout the region. Bronson and Charoenwongsa’s description is a summary of descriptions in French by Moura (1882; repeated 1883: 43–46) and Fuchs and Saladin (1882: 286–292, summarized in German by Beck (1891:1009-11)). Another description in French is by Boulangier (1887, translated here). These illustrations are taken from the two descriptions:

Sketch of Kuay iron-smelting, reproduced from Boulanger (1887) by Pryce et al. (2014: 144)

Sketch of Kuay iron-smelting furnace by J. Moura (1882: 436; 1883: 9)

The same type of furnace is shown in this short film, only three minutes long, which was placed on Youtube by Michael Rogge. He says it shows iron smelting by ‘hill tribes in Thailand’, but gives no information at all about who made the film or when or where. Professor Pira Venunan of Silpakorn University, Thailand, has told me that the persons in the film do not look like Thailand hill tribesmen. He suggests that the film probably in fact shows Kuay tribesmen in Cambodia.

The furnace shown in the film matches the descriptions by Bronson and Charoenwongsa and Boulangier, but its operation appears to be somewhat different. In the film we see an elongated open hearth like that in Boulangier’s and Moura’s illustrations, pumped with air (through the bottom?) and charged continuously with what seems to be a mixture of ore and charcoal. Slag is tapped out, and finally a long bloom is removed. The bloom is perhaps 2 metres long and weighs perhaps as much as 50 kg. It is difficult to guess how much time the production of this bloom required – I suppose a day or more. The film ends with a short sequence showing a blacksmith at work.

References

Beck, Ludwig. 1891. Die Geschichte des Eisens in technischer und kulturgeschichtlicher Beziehung. Erste Abteilung: Von der Ältesten Zeit bis um das Jahr 1500 n. Chr. Zweite Aufl. Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn. ia802604.us.archive.org/21/items/diegeschichtede05beckgoog/diegeschichtede05beckgoog.pdf

Boulangier, Edgar 1887. Un hiver au Cambodge. Chasses au tigre, à l’éléphant et au buffle sauvage. Souvenirs d’une mission officielle remplie en 1880–1881. Tours: Alfred Mame et Fils. gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5844358h

Bronson, Bennet, and Pisit Charoenwongsa. 1986. Eyewitness accounts of the early mining and smelting of metals in mainland South East Asia. Bangkok: Thailand Academic Publishing.

Colquhoun, Archibald Ross. 1885. Amongst the Shans. New York: Scribner & Welford. ia800909.us.archive.org/4/items/amongstshans00colqrich/amongstshans00colqrich.pdf

Fuchs, Edmond, and M. E. Saladin. 1882. ‘Mémoire sur l’exploration des gites de combustibles et de quelques-uns des gites métallifères de l’Indo-Chine’. Annales des mines 8. série, tome 2.: 185–298. Summarized in German by Beck (1891: 1009–1011). patrimoine.mines-paristech.fr/items/viewer/211#page/Image+106/mode/1up

Moura, J. 1882. ‘Fabrication de fer chez les Cuois du Compong-Soai’. Revue d’ethnographie 1: 435–437.

Moura, J. 1883. Le royaume de Cambodge, Tome premier. Paris: Leroux. ia802907.us.archive.org/15/items/leroyaumeducamb00mourgoog/leroyaumeducamb00mourgoog.pdf

Pryce, Thomas Oliver, et al. 2014. ‘The Iron Kuay of Cambodia: tracing the role of peripheral populations in Angkorian to colonial Cambodia via a 1200 year old industrial landscape’. Journal of archaeological science 47: 142–163. doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.04.009

Last edited by DBW 28 February 2023
Stylistic changes 7 June 2024