KUALA PILAH HISTORY 7
THE OPIUM SHOP STORY
KUALA PILAH Opium Shop on right 198 Jalan Tung Yen
Anyone wandering along Kuala Pilah's busy streets in 2014 would never imagine that this town or at least part of it on Jalan Tung Yen named after its illustrious mining pioneer was crawling with British government registered opium addicts restlessly waiting to buy legally imported opium from a Government Opium (candu) shop at 198 Jalan Tung Yen. In Fact in the 1920's the British Government was getting almost half its revenue from legal opium shops throughout Singapore and Malaya. The second shop from the left of the picture was Kuala Pilah's Candu shop .
KUALA PILAH OPIUM SHOP SALES WINDOW AND SHOP FRONT
run by pre-war British Colonial Government
Opium was harvested from the dried sap of Paperver Sominiferum and discovered centuries ago and used even in Roman times and even used for medicinal purposes . But in the 17th Century after it was already in use in Britain and Europe a lucrative commercial use related to its relaxing, sleep producing and addictive properties was found by colonial traders in India. Until then grown and used in small amounts colonial traders using their influence on India's rulers in Bihar obtained concessions to farm opium poppy on an industrial scale using Indian labour, warehousing the same in large warehouses filled with three-pound balls packed to the roof waiting for export - to lucrative Chinese markets on opium clipper ships.
British opium warehouse in Patna India
The Lucrative opium trade by the British in India (and several European powers) mainly in China and Java led to untold wealth by traders and the newly formed banks that financed them. But the Chinese eventually objected, resisted the trade and this led to two Opium Ward in the 1800s that ended with a treaty that allowed the British to occupy Hong Kong for 100 years on a lease . This peace led to the eventual decline of the opium trade in China as the Chinese began growing their own opium in southern China.
Painting of Opium War
The colonial powers with huge colonies in south east Asia then started selling opium at first to overseas Chinese in the colonies and other locals - albeit with medical certificates required for sales. They even set up a refining factory in Singapore on Bukit Chandu and had shops selling opium in Singapore.
The Chandu(opium) Hill in Pasir Panjang , Singapore became the site of an epic battle for Singapore where Lt Adnan of the Malay Regiment fought heroically against the Japanese and was killed.
British weighing and buying opium harvest from Indian farmers
The Lucrative opium trade by the British in India (and several European powers) mainly in China and Java led to untold wealth by traders and the newly formed banks that financed them. But the Chinese eventually objected, resisted the trade and this led to two Opium Ward in the 1800s that ended with a treaty that allowed the British to occupy Hong Kong for 100 years on a lease . This peace led to the eventual decline of the opium trade in China as the Chinese began growing their own opium in southern China.
Painting of Opium War
The colonial powers with huge colonies in south east Asia then started selling opium at first to overseas Chinese in the colonies and other locals - albeit with medical certificates required for sales. They even set up a refining factory in Singapore on Bukit Chandu and had shops selling opium in Singapore.
In Singapore The Joo Chiat Post Office was the Opium Shop
Despite all the sad tragedies of WW2 one good that came out of the war was the Japanese elimination of the opium trade legal and illegal that had provided lucrative income for the British at the expense of ruined lives. The return of the British in 1945 kept the opium shops closed as a more lucrative Rubber, Tin trade was more profitable. But the opium habit only went underground with opium dens and secret societies controlling them. When the Vietnam War came about the Opium trade was rapidly replaced by the Heroin trade - a more powerful and more addictive scourge took over. Like opium heroin (and cocaine) were once medicines used legally !
Below are some pictures of opium Pipe, opium pillow and the very ornate mother of pearl opium bed that opium spawned - and an opium smoker !
Opium Bed, opium pipe and opium Pillow
More to come for those who are KP-Philes !
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