Hantu kita, warisan kita . . When I was growing up in Lumut, Sitiawan and Ipoh (in the 1970’s and 1980’s), there were many ghosts. Almost everybody in my circle of family and friends claimed to have seen or heard ghosts and ghost stories were plentiful – although I personally have never seen, heard, touched or smelt a ghost in my life. Ghosts were supposedly everywhere – at graveyards, at schools, at hospitals, at bus stations, at old houses, at army camps, and even at temples. . . The variety (or is it species) of ghosts was amazing. There was the ubiquitous pontianak – a female ghost who is always dressed in white whose raison d’etre was simply to harass humans. Then there was the langsuir or langsuyor or lengsayur – another female ghost that was supposed to be a blood sucker. When I was in secondary school in the 1980’s, toyols were the in-thing. Toyols are supposed to look and behave like small children. Apparently some people kept toyols to help steal stuff. There were often rumors that so-and-so person keeps toyol but I have never seen a toyol in my life. . . Then there was the hantu raya which could be kept at home as a pet/servant or aide. I never figured out what the hantu raya’s speciality was. Apparently hantu raya was like a spiritual zombie with the ability to take on any form its master instructs it to do. The downside of hantu raya was it had to be fed frequently. . . There were a whole load of other ghosts. Hantu bungkus, hantu polong, hantu jepun, hantu laut, hantu kumkum, hantu kopek, hantu tetek, hantu stokin, jerangkung, jin tanah, jin air, etc. Hantu tetek apparently had the ability to hide children within its boobs. Each type of ghost had its own DNA, the type of damage it could cause and preferred place of work and rest. Majority were females. Some ghosts were unique to certain states. I have never seen any of these ghosts in my life. . . Now, my question. Where have all these ghosts gone? Nowadays you hardly hear about any of these ghosts. Where are all these hantus which at one time terrorised (the minds of) many Malaysians? . . Have they gone extinct like many of our wildlife? May be we have cleared too much of forests which was their main habitat. May be they don’t like to live in cities, preferring to stay in the kampungs and estates and forests. I think life in KL would be too difficult for them – the traffic, haze, bright lights, dumb KLites, high concentrations of politicians – not a good place for ghosts to live and raise a family. May be they have migrated to other countries like Singapore. . . The point is there are a lot less ghosts now compared to say 30 years ago. I say we form a Royal Commission of Inquiry to get to the bottom of this case. How could we have let our ghosts go extinct or migrate to other countries? They are our ghosts. Hantu kita, warisan kita. . . p.s. I do not believe in any type of ghosts
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 00:17:16 +0000
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