Tin Museum, Pangkal Pinang

About this place

A museum telling the story of tin, the metal that made Bangka island's history, in an elegant Dutch colonial building in central Pangkal Pinang that once housed the tin company's administration. Since the eighteenth century, under the Palembang sultanate, tin has been dug from the island's soil; thousands of workers came from southern China for it, the Dutch later monopolised it, and Bangka is still one of the world's largest tin producers. The museum shows old mining tools, models of the giant dredges that raise tin from the seabed, pieces of ore and ingots, historical photographs of the Chinese miners' lives and quarters, and explanations of extraction and smelting. Entry is free or by small donation, and the museum is small, an hour is enough. It helps explain the whole island: the turquoise lakes left by the pits, the Chinese community and its temples, the towns that grew around the mines. It is close to the town centre and its markets.