Folklore in the News

Thai Survivors Live in Fear of Ghosts
By RUNGRAWEE C. PINYORAT, AP

PHUKET, Thailand (Jan. 18) - Since the tsunami, taxi driver Wiwat Sakuldee is afraid of the dark and won't go near the beach. Like a lot of Thais on this resort island, he believes many of the disaster's victims have become restless spirits who haunt the streets after sunset. Traditional beliefs and spooky gossip are fueling ghost stories along the Asian coastlines where thousands were swept away. In Indonesia, a student saw a shadowy human shape enter a house, only to find the door locked and no one around. Vllagers in Sri Lanka hear cries for help from the ocean.

Ghost sightings are the talk of the town in the beach resorts of southern Thailand, where some 5,300 people are listed as dead - a third of them foreigners- and 3,144 others are missing.
In Phuket, Wiwat said he dreads working at night now, and he keeps away from the beaches.
Wiwat shudders in retelling a story making the rounds about a Phuket driver who recently picked up Western tourists in his tuk-tuk, one of Thailand's trademark three-wheeled, open-air taxis.
"Ten of them got in when the ride started, but there were only two left when it ended at Kata Beach,'' Wiwat said. "The driver was so scared he ran away. If any Westerners ask me for a ride to the beaches, or even one of the streets that run near it, I won't go.'' Thais don't necessarily consider ghosts malevolent, but more an unpleasant reminder of death and the possibility that unsettled spirits could lead to bad luck.

In keeping with local Buddhist and Chinese traditions, monks are holding rituals to lay the wandering spirits of tsunami victims to rest. The ceremonies vary from simple prayers and incense burning to elaborate Chinese rituals during which replicas of money, clothing and other items are burned to provide spirits the things they might need in the next world. In Banda Aceh, the devastated capital of Indonesia's hard-hit Aceh province,  residents living on the banks of the Kruengdhoi River say they heard cries of "Help!'' from beneath the water every evening for two weeks after the Dec. 26 disaster. Soldiers have recovered dozens of bodies from the debris-clogged waterway. Adek, 22, a recently graduated university student, said he was going to pray at a mosque on the river's banks when he saw two spirits. One appeared to be the owner of a home who went in but faded into a shadow. Adek said he followed  but found the door locked and no one in sight.

"The spirits aren't settled because they haven't met their families,'' said Adek, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.In eastern Sri Lanka, villagers in Kalmunai report still hearing voicesshouting for help.

"They say the voices are heard the loudest close to the sea,'' said the Rev. Clement Annadas, a Roman Catholic priest. More than a third of the 31,000 people who died in Sri Lanka lived in the
Ampara region, where Kalmunai is. There have even been several requiem Masses to pray for the repose of victims even though Catholicism doesn't believe the souls of dead people walk the Earth, Annadas said. Mawarale Baddiya, a Buddhist priest, also told of people living in fear of
spirits. He recounted a story about a woman sleeping in a temple in the southern Sri Lankan town of Beruwela who recently got up screaming and tearing her hair out.

"She had felt her neighbor, who was drowned in the tsunami, pulling her with the waves,'' he said. "All these people have been severely traumatized by their experience with the tsunami and are unlikely to forget about it for a very long time.''

In Thailand, even people who don't believe in ghosts are asking for rituals to lay the dead to rest. They say that to survive, Thailand's resorts must win back tourists, including visitors from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, where such beliefs are widespread. Pairoj Chaiwat, manager of a department store in Phuket where 33 bodies were recovered from its basement supermarket, said he doesn't believe in ghosts, but the building's owners had Buddhist monks honor the dead there so neighborhood people won't be afraid to come once the store reopens. Dr. Thaveesilp Wisanuyothin, spokesman for the Thai Health Ministry's mental health department, said worries about ghosts are common after natural disasters in the region. With such a shocking event, "you will begin to worry and be alert all the time. Even if only a leaf drops, you could be frightened,'' he said. Ceremonies to put the spirits of the dead to rest can be "a good healing method that is part of our culture,'' he said.