A Buddhist monk and several mourners recite prayers over a corpse shrouded in white, when suddenly a black cat leaps over the body. Visibly agitated, the mourners shoo the cat away, but it returns and bounds over the body twice more G? the corpse bolts upright.
This traditional Cambodian ghost story is one of seven chilling tales that will be told as part of tonight's Southeast Asian Ghost Tales, presented by the Southeast Asian Studies Association.
According to Cambodian folklore, a corpse will come back to life if a black cat jumps over it three times, said Bruce Douglas, a graduate Southeast Asian Studies student.
However, the corpse is cruel when it reawakens, and will wander around haunting people, said Sothearith Im, a graduate telecommunications student from Cambodia. Today, people living in the Cambodian countryside continue to heed the story, he said.
We try to scare the cat away from the corpse
he said.
Besides tales from Cambodia, the program also will include folklore from Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, said Sara Jones, treasurer for SEASA. One of the stories is historical, many are modern and some claim to be true, such as the tale of a haunted house in Indonesia, she said.
They're traditional to the society they are coming from Jones said.
Despite the close proximity of many of the countries, each culture has its own ghosts and spirits, Jones said.
In the south of Thailand for example, there is a day every year when the people stay in their homes and leave an offering of noodles for a tall, mute ghost with elongated limbs and a mouth the size of a pin head.
The people leave the noodles to appease the ghost, Jones said, but also in case it happens to be one of their ancestors.
Appeasement is a common theme across Southeastern Asian cultures when it comes to the spirits related in their folklore.
You want to keep them happy so that they won't bother you
she said. -
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