Facts

I stumbled upon a site which lists the top Haunted places in Indonesia. Although I haven’t been to that place, but people always tell me that Indonesia is a place where the culture is abundant and that goes without mentioning the mysterious supernatural and unexplaiable side of Indonesia.

Jakarta

• Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital - A place full of ghost stories. One particularly popular one would be the one about a doctor with a surgical knife and hands full of blood or a nurse who always warns the doctors if there’s an emergency patients.There are also the spirits of dead people floating around in the hospital. They usually they wander at night and show their form to someone who’s alone.

• Jakarta History Museum - This place was used by the Dutch Colonials as a city hall whereas the main court was used to hang a number of Chinese people. In the night a few ghosts can be seen there. The prison was believed to be haunted by number of ghosts. Perhaps due to the historical horrors, there’s a strange feeling when you enter the building

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Just imagine the sudden windfall you have when you just bought your dream home for an extraordinary price. Too good to be true? It probably is. Perhaps it was the influence of horror movies or books that always gives us the benefit of the doubt that when you buy a reasonably fantastic house for an unreasonably cheap price, its probably “occupied”. So how do we spot a haunted house? Here are some basic guidelines and tips to spot your future house and analyse if its a haunted house or not.

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Hungry Ghost Festival falls on the 7th moon, 15th day of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, making it on the 30th August for 2004, 19th August for 2005 not too sure about 2006 though but in 2007, the hungry ghost festival would fall on the coming 13th August. The build up to this festive date begins roughly a week before where Chinese Opera’s and Chinese Puppet Shows are put together for audiences, those living and the non-living alike, at temples and certain Chinese Associations for a week prior to the big day. These performances are more rampant in towns and villages that are more Chinese dominated like in Penang, Perak , Malacca etc.

Seats in the front row are often reserved for the ghosts whereas the living would happily occupy the back seats. Hungry Ghost festival is originated during the Buddhist fusion with Chinese filial virtue. With the introduction of Buddhism entering China, Buddhism was immediately faced with the opposition of Confucian’s filial virtue. Buddhism believed that one would have to leave one’s home and family in favour of chasity and begging (meaning one would have to leave all ancestral commitments). Confucianism, on the other hand, emphasizes on on filial virtue and the honouring of ancestors. To adapt to the country, Sanskrit sutras then included obedience to family and upholding family traditions which would be passed onto the male heir of the family.

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