Singapore: City of Restless Spirits

Źródło: Gość dnia
2010-02-26 16:33
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Much of the modern city of Singapore is built over countless cemeteries and this, say the residents, is why it is so haunted. MAREK LENARCIK is taken on a tour of Singapore’s most haunted sites by a local ghost investigation team, whose methods are quite different to those of ghost hunters in the West. Surnames have been repressed at the request of the investigators.

Out of the shadows of the soaring skyscrapers emerges the unknown face of Singapore – the haunted city built on the sites of cemeteries. At the Bishan metro station I have arranged to meet Carol, head of investigations with Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI). It’s an apt choice, for this is allegedly the most haunted station in Singapore. Why? Because it has been built on an old Chinese cemetery.

Singaporeans gossip about ghosts sighted on the trains as they pull into the station. Chinese cemeteries feature strongly in the ghost beliefs of Singapore. One of the characteristics of these burial grounds is that the graves are placed irregularly – on the hills and on the plains, on the open fields and under the trees. Among richly decorated graves there are others in a state of disarray, from which the bodies have been exhumed by order of the government. Singaporean law states that the dead can be buried for no more than 40 years. The regained space is then used for new bodies... or a new housing estate. Many modern buildings are built on the sites of former graves.

Mount Pleasant cemetery is infamous for sightings of Pontianacs. In Malaysian legend a Pontianac is a woman who died during the childbirth and who is revived to seek revenge. Halfghost, half-human, she hides in the banana trees, and then jumps down on her victims, killing them savagely using her sharp teeth and claws. Many taxi drivers refuse to drive to Mount Pleasant – or should that be "Unpleasant"? – for fear of the Pontianacs. Carol told me -Many taxi drivers say that when they have come here they have found their money has turned into leaves and flowers. - [Recalling Euopean fairylore – Editor]. One isolated grave is proving of particular interest to SPI. Located at MacRitchie Reservoir, no one knows the identity of the woman who was buried here almost 130 years ago.

- People have reported to us that a ghost lives in the reservoir - said Carol. - It drowns people who come here at night. - Is the spirit of the woman in the grave responsible? So far SPI have been unable to find out but their investigation continues.

Horror hospital

We continue our ghostly tour with a trip to one of Singapore’s most notoriously haunted sites,the Old Changi Hospital. On the way we pass Changi Beach, where during World War 2, the Japanese massacred many people on the coast. It is no surprise to learn that the beach is also reputedly haunted. - We have received reports about victims’ ghosts running around the beach and a woman in a white dress seen sitting on a tree - Carol told me. But this is just an appetiser before the main attraction.

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