Weird Thailand #1: The real-life ghostbusters

tam-lin (53)in #travel • 7 years ago

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Last Sunday a small village in Thailand had to call in some real-life ghostbusters because of some gruesome goings-on.

The village in question was Ban Na Bong in Nong Kung Si district in the province of Kalasin, which is in the north east of Thailand. The frightened members of 370 households had gathered at the village hall in order to hire a famous ghostbuster to rid them of an evil spirit which had begun haunting their village with dire consequences.

This evil spirit was a type of ghost known in Thailand as a Phi pob and it is especially feared because it eats raw meat. Many who live in the rural parts of Thailand believe that the Phi pob can possess both animals and people and then, once possessed, will kill its victim by eating their internal organs.
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The Phi pob began haunting the village on the 29th October with the possession and deaths of a number of cats, dogs, and buffaloes. If that wasn’t bad enough, the subsequent deaths of two men meant that the villagers had no choice but to take action.

Mr. Tookkul Chamaratin, who is the village headman, said that all the victims, including the animals, bled from the nose and mouth and worse from the rectum. The unfortunate victims would then choke to death. Mr Chamaratin went on to add that this also happened 50 years ago, but this time the village will be prepared.

The frightened villagers paid 124 Baht ($3.50) each to call in a hermit from a neighboring district who was renowned for his ghostbusting powers. The ghostbuster, with the help of a monk and his 20 aides, performed a two hour rite in which they were able to successfully catch at least 30 Phi pob. The captured spirits were then forced into bamboo tubes, which were then sealed with cloth, and then burnt on mass to rid the village of them forever.
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Police and District Officials were on hand to make sure everything went smoothly and afterwards the relieved villagers surrounded their homes with holy thread. In an effort to scare off future ghosts, the villagers hung vetiver grass and garlic in the front of their homes, but sadly, this wasn’t to be…

The next day another man was found dead.

The police investigated and found that there was no evidence of assault on the body of Boworn Sinthudet. This was later confirmed by a doctor at Nong Krung Si Hospital, who said that the cause of death had simply been heart failure.

On Monday, District chief Wirat Ratcharee called in public health and livestock officials to ease the villagers’ fears and to find out exactly what was going on. After some investigation, the health officials were able to determine that the deaths were not caused by an evil spirit, but instead were the result of the rat-born disease Leptospirosis, and simply, the victims’ ill health, such as high blood pressure.
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The medics and psychological counselors then had the delicate task of visiting the families of the deceased and their superstitious neighbors to try to explain to them the more earthly reason for their fears. This had to be handled extremely carefully because they had to make sure that they didn’t contradict the villagers’ own beliefs, but at the same time they had to pass on the information about the two men’s health problems. They then had to gently persuade the villagers the importance for having better health care.