Malay Ghosts

The Malay World as I know it is plagued with ghosts. The first time I heard about ghosts was when I was a teenager living in Malacca. You wouldn't believe it if I said that Malacca is haunted.

After I was born till I was 4 or 5 years old, I lived in a haunted house in Banda Hilir. I didn't know it was a haunted house till I had left the house and returned to visit it as a teenager and then heard the stories about the old house which was possibly more than 100 years old (it was built by my great grandfather).  As a teenager, I also lived in a haunted government bungalow left unoccupied for 27 years after the Japanese war. Most Malays would tell me that double-storey bungalows are often haunted if left uninhabited for long. Similarly with single-storey houses if left unattended for long. It is because ghostly myths are high on the Malay agenda, I decided not to buy a second home but thought to take up the topic of Malay ghosts and myths under research, especially those that have to do with health and living.

I posted earlier about the ocean liner Kunak in this blog, entitled "Kunak and the Black Dragon". To my surprise, the hits to that post was rather high. It further alerted me into thinking that readers could be triggered by either the ship itself or the dragon. Dragons don't exist in real life nor in Malay beliefs or life but they are a big part of the beliefs and lives of the Chinese people. I therefore got the idea that maybe the readers that read that post were possibly mainly Chinese.

I posted two words about ghosts in Facebook on 17 November 2012 to see what the responses would be. It was rather unexpected that many FB-kians responded to "banyak hantu" (lots of ghosts).

Tonight I watched National Geographic Haunted Fridays Ghosts Ships. I then Googled "ghost ships" and read about all the phantom ships ever known in history. Then I saw a link at the bottom of the page that says "Malay" and I clicked that and got here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_ghost_myths

I then returned to my Facebook and copied the responses into this blog:

Faridah Abdul Rashid
17 November
banyak hantu
Aainaa Abdullah, Raudhah Jalilah and Daeng Andak Al Habrah like this.

Ana Abdul Razak hantu galah
17 November at 18:13 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid hantu = ?
17 November at 18:16 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid I've heard of hantu kopek
17 November at 18:16 · Like · 1

Ana Abdul Razak hahaha hantu kopek yang best tu....sexy :P
17 November at 18:17 · Unlike · 2

Faridah Abdul Rashid hahahaha.....!!
17 November at 18:17 · Like · 1

Faridah Abdul Rashid all hantoos are female?
17 November at 18:18 · Like · 1

Faridah Abdul Rashid there's also hantu lompat on tv
17 November at 18:19 · Like · 1

Faridah Abdul Rashid hantu lompat is always a male and chinese (very creative)
17 November at 18:20 · Like · 1

Ana Abdul Razak pocong you mean - bertahun dok depan jerat cina ngan kubur melayu tak pernah jumpa hantu kak, balik campfire selamba jek kami adik beradik hehehehe
17 November at 18:20 · Edited · Like · 1

Faridah Abdul Rashid it takes a hantu to see a hantu...
17 November at 18:20 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid I don't even know what a pocong is .... hahaha!
17 November at 18:21 ·

Ana Abdul Razak antu lompat le kak, hop hop hopping hantu hehehe
17 November at 18:25 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid I think Malays are superstitious and they have a lot of trust in the unseen. I'm learning about Malay beliefs and why they believe in hantu, etc.
17 November at 18:29 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid There is no definition for the Malay word "hantu". Try define that?
17 November at 18:29 ·

Ana Abdul Razak postive thinking kak.... syaitan jin memang ada menyerupai dan suka pada orang yang lemah...hantu memang takde.
17 November at 18:30 · Edited ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid The Qur'an mentions syaitan.
17 November at 18:31 ·

Ana Abdul Razak yes exactly...manusia yang bertuankan syaitan is the hantu....
17 November at 18:31 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid Pontianak (vampire) feeds on human blood. In the West, vampires were humans who had a blood disorder and there was no transfusion then, so they invented the term "vampire". In another case, they exhumed corpses of those who died "a strange" disease; today that disease is called TB. For the Malays, there must be a reason why we use the term "hantu".
17 November at 18:35 ·

Ana Abdul Razak tu kena tanya seekers kak hehehehe
17 November at 18:36 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid Seekers bertauliah or what?
17 November at 18:40 ·

Ana Abdul Razak hehehehe yg kat tv hari tu dah pencen kot.... sure there must be someone who can explain this.
17 November at 18:42 ·

Ana Abdul Razak the only way is to be near ALLAH, by reading Alquran and follow Rasullullah sunnah In Shaa ALLAH no such thing as hantu.... kan kak.
17 November at 18:44 · Unlike · 1

Faridah Abdul Rashid Seekers are specific for each community. One cannot be a Malay seeker and try to solve a Mat Salleh mystery. it won't work. Same with Malay saka (jin), it won't work in a Mat Salleh body. Mat Salleh are more superstitious than orang Melayu.
17 November at 18:45 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid A hantu has no physical dimensions but has a shadow or cast.
17 November at 18:47 · Like · 1

Ana Abdul Razak saka... is due to what actually
17 November at 18:47 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid A hantu can manifest (show itself) and usually this occurs when alone and in dim light (eg toilet).
17 November at 18:47 ·

Ana Abdul Razak teringat citer hantu askar jepun hehehe yang di citer oleh hostelite dulu
17 November at 18:49 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid Saka is an inherited jinn (jin). It is a slave of the human who acts as its master. it must be fed (sambal belacan, cili, etc). When the master dies, a new master needs to take over or inherit the slave (jin). The inherited jinn is called saka.
17 November at 18:50 · Edited ·

Ana Abdul Razak scary nye
17 November at 18:51 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid Most sites of Japanese beheadings are known to be haunted.
17 November at 18:51 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid Saka is unknowingly inherited by a person. When a person inherits a saka, she becomes insane (gila, mental) and appears crazy to those around her. When she dies, another person needs to inherit her saka. It is usually inherited by the prettiest child among her kids. Some saka are ancient, thousand years old, etc.
17 November at 18:53 · Edited ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid Depression is closely related to saka which is inherited. Depression is a big problem among Malay women.
17 November at 18:55 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid maghrib
17 November at 18:55 · Like · 1

Ana Abdul Razak orang dulu2 banyak menuntut konon untuk jaga keturunan mereka, in this moden world masih ada ek bebenda ni
17 November at 18:55 ·

Ana Abdul Razak yes
17 November at 18:56 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid Di Kelantan, mmg banyak benda mcm ni.
17 November at 20:57 ·

Abdul Rahim Abdul Ramzy mereka juga hamba allah seperti kita
19 November at 12:48 ·

Faridah Abdul Rashid This is a link for Malay ghosts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_ghost_myths