For Thai Survivors, The Dead Live On In Ghost Sightings
When the tsunami waves hit here last month, the hotel where Jinda Sinta worked erupted in chaos. Ms. Jinda frantically called an ambulance to help one unconscious child, but rescuers were unable to revive him.
The next week, Ms. Jinda says, the dead boy returned to the damaged hotel lobby. Wearing the same dark-blue shorts he had on when he died, the ghost of the black-haired 10-year-old "was running around, playing," says the 40-year-old front-desk clerk. Then he disappeared.
As Thai people grapple with the physical aftereffects of December's natural disaster, they are also dealing with another serious problem: Ghosts.
For many Thais, steeped in Buddhist teachings of rebirth and even older animistic beliefs in spirits, ghosts are very real. When people die suddenly and violently, as they did in the December waves, spirits cling to their bodies and to familiar places, unsure of how to cross from the world of the living to the world of the dead, many here believe.
WAVE OF DESTRUCTION
See complete coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in South Asia.
Psychologists say the ghosts are likely a manifestation of the mental trauma suffered by the tsunami survivors, a way for people to face their fears and come to terms with what happened. But for many, the ghosts are a problem that requires a practical solution, not therapy.
"If we don't send them off, the spirits will stay around where they died," says Saengthong Suwanjan, the 60-year-old keeper of a Chinese temple overlooking the sea. "If they can't go anywhere, they will stay here and haunt us. And if they don't know how to get to the next life, they might try to take some of us with them."
Ghost stories abound. Prasert Tamnakla, a 37-year-old dive-shop owner on the devastated island of Phi Phi, says that for days after the waves hit, he could hear the spirits of the dead wailing in the night. "Mostly, it was women's voices. They were calling for help," says Mr. Prasert.
Pitak Noonoon and other night watchmen at a building facing Patong beach, where dozens of people drowned in an underground shopping center, heard a lot of banging and scraping early one morning. When they went in to investigate, they discovered that large sheets of plywood had been tossed around. "One big piece moved 10 meters," Mr. Pitak, 24, says. "Now that's not natural."
Others say spirits have visited them in their dreams. Somjai Rungchaiwitoon says her father came to her when she was asleep one night. "He seemed so real, I ran and hugged him," she says. "He told me he was trapped in a drain pipe and asked why nobody had come looking for him. He said other people were also trapped."
So Ms. Somjai, 27, traveled from Bangkok to Khao Lak, where her parents owned a grocery story that was washed away by the waves. She brought a group of Buddhist monks to pray at the site, where bodies were stored in tents in the early days of the recovery effort. They asked for her family's spirits to be freed to travel to their next lives.
In Phuket, Thailand, Keng Saeyiow conducts a ceremony intended to propel the spirits of the tsunami's victims on to the next world.
Soldiers tell tales of seeing the ghosts of foreign tourists playing on the beaches and swimming in the ocean. A monk says he saw hundreds of spirits standing by the highway along the west coast.
It was with great trepidation that 65-year-old Bayee Ouisakun moved back to her home in Nam Khem, a fishing town devastated by last month's tsunami. "I'm not afraid of the waves," says Ms. Bayee. "But every night when I hear the dogs howling, I worry about the ghosts."
So, Ms. Bayee did what she considered the sensible thing. She too called in Buddhist monks. More than 40 crowded the small ground floor of her damaged home, chanting blessings. One sprinkled holy water, reciting prayers in Pali, the ancient Indian tongue that is the liturgical language of the religion here.
"I want to make sure that those who are dead now don't come back and cause trouble for the living," says Ms. Bayee, who has also affixed a swatch of red cloth at the foot of the staircase that leads to the family's sleeping quarters. The cloth is imprinted with symbols designed to ward off evil.
In places like Nam Khem, some of the townspeople are trying to sort out a new modus vivendi for the living and the dead. "Even if we're scared, we have to steel ourselves," says 12-year-old Sunisa Kaewjan. "My brothers and sisters are all ghosts now," she says. "We have to respect them, give them offerings like in the old days."
Now, Thailand is embarking on the next phase of its post-tsunami cleanup: sending off the spirits of those who died, so they will stop haunting the beaches, villages and hotels along the Andaman Sea coast. On Saturday, the people of Phuket threw a supper for the ghosts, designed to fete them and send them on their way so they will no longer disturb the peace.
At sunset, Keng Saeyiow, 63, stood on a beach at the south end of the island in a black robe. He chanted in reedy Hokkien, a Chinese dialect, summoning the spirits of those killed by the tsunami in Thailand. With his left hand, he swung a long bamboo pole, with a two-tiered paper "spirit trap" on the end, its red streamers trailing in the wind.
Once he had collected the spirits in the trap, he walked it over and placed it at the head of a long table set for a feast. On the table were 24 place settings of fruit, chicken, fish, squid, Chinese liquor, water and 140 bowls of rice for the spirits to eat. A row of empty plastic chairs lined one side of the table. On the other, scores of townspeople crowded around to pour drinks and offer the food to the spirits.
After more singing by Mr. Keng the spirits were again gathered up and taken over to two miniature wood-framed houses covered with colorful paper. The houses were surrounded with paper facsimiles of money and other things the spirits might need in their next life -- including television sets and red and blue Nokia cellphones.
The pile was set ablaze. As burning embers flew into the night sky, Mr. Keng chanted in Hokkien: "Go, go to the spirit world."
"If we hadn't done this, the spirits would be stuck here. At night they'd keep coming back. But now they've been sent off to heaven," says Senee Mornphan, a 34-year-old tour-company operator, who participated in the ceremony. "I feel much better now. I think we all do."
Just to be sure, a local charity group plans to scour Thailand's west coast for errant spirits later this week, using two men who act as spirit dowsers, locating lost souls and collecting them. The enterprise is being funded with donations from a group of Singaporean tour operators, according to Somsuk Jitkaew, manager of Good Morning Holiday & Tours Co. in Phuket.
"I think once we do this, then the tourists won't worry so much about the ghosts," says Ms. Somsuk, whose company mainly arranges tours for people from Singapore and Malaysia. "Some people are definitely worried about the ghosts. They believe. And if we do this, they will feel better."
As for Ms. Jinda, the hotel receptionist, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She went to a Buddhist temple and made an offering of toothpaste, soap and other necessities to the monks there. She said a prayer for the little boy who had perished in the lobby. "Let him go in peace," she pleaded. He hasn't been seen since.
泰国救灾新阶段：超度亡灵
上月海啸来袭时，金达?森塔(Jinda Sinta)工作的酒店一片混乱。金达拼命叫来一辆救护车救助一个不省人事的孩子，但是救援人员未能挽救他的生命。
金达说，第二周，那个死去的男孩又回到了满目疮痍的酒店大堂。这个10岁的黑发男孩的魂灵穿著死去当天所穿的那条灰蓝色短裤，“四处跑动，玩耍。”40岁的前台文员金达说道。然后男孩消失了。
在泰国上下竭力修复这场自然灾难留下的物质创伤之际，当地人还在处理另外一个重要的问题：鬼魂。
许多泰国人对佛教的转世和灵魂的教义深信不疑，对他们来说，鬼魂是真实存在的。许多当地人相信，当人死于非命时，比如12月的这次海啸灾难，灵魂会守住他们的躯体，在熟悉的地方飘荡，因为他们不知道如何穿越冥界。
心理学家称，看到鬼魂可能是海啸幸存者精神受创的一种表现，他们以此面对恐惧并接受已经发生的事情。但是对许多人来说，鬼魂问题需要拿出一个切实的解决方案，而不是心理治疗。
Saengthong Suwanjan说，“如果我们不把他们送走，这些鬼魂将呆在他们死去的地方。”Saengthong Suwanjan是一座面朝大海的中国寺庙的住持。“如果他们无处可去，就会呆在这里缠住我们。如果他们不知道如何转世，可能就会取走我们一些人的性命。”
鬼故事四处流传。Phi Phi岛上一家潜水商店37岁的老板Prasert Tamnakla说，灾难发生数天后，他在夜间听到亡灵哀号的声音。Prasert说，“主要是女人的声音，他们在求救。”
Patong海滩附近一座建筑的地下购物中心有数十人被海水淹死，这里的夜班门卫Pitak Noonoon等人在一天早上听到了很响的撞击声和刮擦声。他们前去看个究竟，结果发现几大片胶合板被扔得四处都是。24岁的Pitak说，“有一片胶合板移动了10米。这可不是自然现象。”
另外一些人说鬼魂给他们托梦。Somjai Rungchaiwitoon说，她父亲在一天晚上来到她的梦中。她说，“他看起来如此真实，我奔上前拥抱他。他告诉我，他被困在一个排水沟中，问我为什么没有人去找他。他说还有一些人也被困在里面。”
于是，27岁的Somjai从曼谷来到Khao Lak，她父母在这里曾经开了一座杂货店，但在海啸中化为乌有。她请了许多僧侣来这里念经。救援初期，找到的尸体曾在这里的帐篷中堆放。僧侣们念经，请求她家人的灵魂获得转世投胎的自由。
士兵们称，他们看到外国游客的鬼魂在海滩游玩，在海中游泳。一个僧侣说，他看到数百个鬼魂站在西海岸的公路边上。
65岁的Bayee Ouisakun战战兢兢地回到她在Nam Khem的家中。Nam Khem是一个渔村，上月被海啸夷为废墟。“我不害怕海浪，”Bayee说，“但是每晚我都能听到狗叫，我很害怕鬼魂。”
于是Bayee做了一件她认为明智的事情。她也叫来了佛教僧侣。40多个僧侣挤在那间被摧毁的房子的一层，颂经祝祷。一个僧侣撒著圣水，用巴利语(古老的印度语，在当地是宗教语言)背诵著祈祷文。
Bayee说，“我希望那些死去的人不要再回来给活著的人制造麻烦。” 她还在通往卧室的楼梯口贴了一块红色的布条。布条上印著一些抵挡邪气的符号。
在与Nam Khem相似一些地方，当地居民竭力为生者和死者找到新的生活方式。“即使我们害怕，我们也必须让自己坚强起来。”12岁的Sunisa Kaewjan说。“我的兄弟姐妹现在全都成了鬼魂，”她说。“我们必须敬重他们，供给他们祭品。”
现在，泰国正进入灾难善后的另外一个阶段：送走亡灵，这样他们就不会在安达曼海的海滩、村庄和酒店出现。周六，普吉岛的居民向亡灵供奉了晚餐，送他们上路，好让当地获得安宁。
傍晚时分，63岁的Keng Saeyiow身著黑色长袍站在普吉岛南端的海滩上。他用福建话诵念著一段经文，召唤在泰国葬身于海啸的亡灵。左手执一根长竹竿，竹竿顶上挂著一个两层纸做成的“招魂箱”，红色的长条在风中挥舞。
他将魂灵收到“招魂箱”之后，把它放在长长的祭奠桌的一端。桌上有24处水果、鸡肉、鱼、鱿鱼、中国白酒、水以及140碗米饭，供鬼魂食用。桌子一侧摆放了一排塑料椅子。另一侧，众多围聚在一起的村民将酒撒在地上，并向亡灵供奉食物。
Keng再唱一段经文，把这些亡灵再次召集到一起，将他们带到两个盖著彩纸的微型木屋中。木屋周围放满了纸钱和亡灵在来世可能需要的其他东西－－包括电视机、以及红黑相间的诺基亚(Nokia)手机。
人们点燃这些祭品。燃烧的灰烬飞向夜空，Keng用福建话唱著：“去吧，去往灵魂世界。”
“如果我们不这样做，灵魂将被永远困在这里，一到晚上就会出来。但是现在他们被送往了天堂。”34岁的旅行公司老板Senee Mornphan说，他也参加了这次仪式。“我现在感到好多了。我想大家的感觉和我一样。”
当地一家慈善团体计划本周末在泰国西海岸搜索游魂野鬼，他们找来两个人从事这项工作。这两人将寻找走失的灵魂并把他们领走。位于普吉岛的Good Morning Holiday & Tours Co.的经理Somsuk Jitkaew说，这个项目的资金来自几家新加坡旅游公司的捐赠。
Somsuk说，“我认为这样做了之后，游客就不会那么害怕鬼魂出没了。”Somsuk的公司主要为新加坡和马来西亚的游客安排旅游路线。“有些人的确怕鬼。他们相信这个。如果我们这么做，他们会感觉好一些。”
至于酒店接待员金达，她决定自己解决问题。她来到一座寺庙，向僧侣们布施了牙膏、香皂以及其他一些生活必需品。她为在酒店大堂死去的小男孩祝祷，“让他平静地走吧。”从那以后，她再也没有看到这个男孩的亡灵。
