Clippings From Malaysia & Malaysian Forteana

[Krepostnoi]

The first of what will certainly be irregular, and possibly a series: we were invited by friends to stay in Port Dickson over the weekend, PD being the closest stretch of coastline to the KL konurbation (apologies: this is the Klang valley, not the Kerrang valley). On hearing of my Fortean interests, my friend pointed out the following dilapidated house on the main drag through PD (the image is not mine, it's from Google Streetview, but I can confirm that it still looks more or less the same as of a couple of days ago).

The sharp-eyed among you will note that the property is To Let. Apparently it never stays tenanted for very long. The story goes that a young woman of Chinese descent was working as a maid there. She was raped by her employer, and in her pain and humiliation hung herself in the building. At the funeral, her family dressed the body in red garments, which is apparently not only a form of protest at the turn of events, but also enables the vengeful spirit to remain in the material realm and haunt those who wronged it. I was not told exactly how the haunting is supposed to manifest. Nevertheless, the building remains unoccupied. This is relatively recent history: the unfortunate young woman went to school with my friend's sister, so it would have happened no more than 30 years ago.

If it's a wind-up of a gullible foreigner, I'd be surprised: it's not in my friend's nature, plus she raised the matter quite casually in the car, and her brother chipped in as though it was common knowledge (they both grew up in the town). It was a very naturalistic performance, if performance it was.

ETA I realise this is rather thin gruel, but I am rather taken by the detail of the red funeral garments: a social protest and also practical magic!

 

[ramonmercado]

The first of what will certainly be irregular, and possibly a series: we were invited by friends to stay in Port Dickson over the weekend, PD being the closest stretch of coastline to the KL konurbation (apologies: this is the Klang valley, not the Kerrang valley). On hearing of my Fortean interests, my friend pointed out the following dilapidated house on the main drag through PD (the image is not mine, it's from Google Streetview, but I can confirm that it still looks more or less the same as of a couple of days ago).

The sharp-eyed among you will note that the property is To Let. Apparently it never stays tenanted for very long. The story goes that a young woman of Chinese descent was working as a maid there. She was raped by her employer, and in her pain and humiliation hung herself in the building. At the funeral, her family dressed the body in red garments, which is apparently not only a form of protest at the turn of events, but also enables the vengeful spirit to remain in the material realm and haunt those who wronged it. I was not told exactly how the haunting is supposed to manifest. Nevertheless, the building remains unoccupied. This is relatively recent history: the unfortunate young woman went to school with my friend's sister, so it would have happened no more than 30 years ago.

If it's a wind-up of a gullible foreigner, I'd be surprised: it's not in my friend's nature, plus she raised the matter quite casually in the car, and her brother chipped in as though it was common knowledge (they both grew up in the town). It was a very naturalistic performance, if performance it was.

Oddly your image isn't showing in the post but when I reply to it I can see the pic in the response.

 

[ramonmercado]

Caves contain ancient graves, likely neolithic.

Archaeologists investigating caves in Malaysia ahead of their flooding for a hydroelectric reservoir have discovered more than a dozen prehistoric burials they think are up to 16,000 years old.

The caves, in the remote Nenggiri Valley about 135 miles (215 kilometers) north of Kuala Lumpur, will be underwater if the reservoir fills as planned in mid-2027, creating a 20-square-mile (53 square km) lake to feed a 300-megawatt hydroelectric power station.

Zuliskandar Ramli, an archaeologist at the National University of Malaysia, told Live Science that most of the skeletons seemed to be from the pre-Neolithic culture of the region.

Some scholars suggest this was a branch of the hunter-gatherer Hoabinhian culture, who made distinctive stone tools found in other parts of Southeast Asia, from southwest China to Indonesia. Scientists also think the Hoabinhian peoples used many wild plants — including pepper, broad beans and betel nut — that are domesticated in the region today.

Ramli, who led the excavations at the Nenggiri Valley, said his team had found a total of 16 individuals buried in 13 limestone caves at four sites.

Fifteen of the skeletons were buried in a crouched or "fully flexed" position, which indicates a pre-Neolithic burial in this region, Ramli said. But the other skeleton had been buried in an extended position, and dating of the sedimentary layers in the cave, including radiocarbon dating, suggested it originated in the Neolithic period about 6,000 years ago. ...

https://www.livescience.com/archaeo...and-stone-tools-discovered-in-malaysian-caves