By ELAN PERUMAL
elan@thestar.com.my
Photos by T.K. LIM

ARE you one of those who have been rattled by too many ghost stories of the olden-day kind – and other tales of the supernatural – told by your grandparents and other elderly relatives in the best storytelling traditions, as a result of which you have spent many a sleepless night?

An image of the female 'jenglot' on display.

Here is an opportunity to keep a date with genies, ghosts, flying coffins and other such objects that are associated with the supernatural.

The 'langsuir', one of the ghosts widely believed to exist by the Malay community, is among the exhibits.

Make your way to the State Museum in Shah Alam and you can acquaint yourself with some of them, including the creatures of Malay supernatural folklore such as toyol, langsuir, jenglot, puchong and nyai bolong.

More than 70,000 people, comprising both young and old, have visited the museum since the Mysteries, Genies, Ghosts and Coffins exhibition was launched on July 4.

It is the first time in the history of the museum that such eerie artefacts – which the museum authorities claim, are alive – are being displayed for public viewing.

“All those creatures, such as ghosts and genies, that are displayed in glass cases, containers and bottles are real and alive.

“They have been captured and 'immobilised'so that visitors can have a closer look at them,” said acting museum director Mohd Lotfi Nazar.

Ustaz Safuan Abu Bakar, the owner of the genies and ghosts, had kept the supernatural beings under control so that visitors would not be troubled by their presence, Lotfi said.

A replica of the scene at the Malay cemetery in Ampang Pecah where a flying coffin was allegedly sighted.

He added that he had personally touched them.

“The toyol, which looks like a doll, is actually alive and it smells like a corpse if you take it out of the glass case. How can it produce such a stench if it is not alive?

“I also spotted its fingers bleeding,” he said, adding that the exhibition offered a unique experience to visitors.

Lotfi said all those living creatures that were exhibited, as well as some of the other exhibits which belonged to Safuan, had been brought from his private museum in Kuang.

Besides the Malay genies and ghosts, he said, replicas of a cheongsam ghost from China, Balinese grave, homes of bomoh, gory trees and branches shaped like snakes, were also exhibited.

The 'toyol' smells like a corpse, according to Lotfi.

Also on display is a yellow Volkswagen which had often been often sighted at the end of tunnels along the Karak, Ipoh and Jelapang highways.

“A tombstone has been placed inside the car to tell visitors that this car has caused many fatal accidents,” he added.

Safuan, 48, a Sufi religious teacher from Kuang, said he and his team had been stationing themselves at the exhibition centre from 10am to 10pm daily so that there would be no untoward incidents.

A bottle in which a genie is said to have been trapped.

Safuan, who is also a spiritual healer and claims to have received a holy tongkat from Puteri Gunung Ledang during his 10-day meditation retreat on the mountain 15 years ago, said he had mastered the art of capturing and trapping the supernatural creatures.

He said he had gone to the mountain after the princess appeared to him in a dream.

“Since then, I have been seriously involved in this field of the 'seen and unseen', as a result of which I have been collecting various artefacts that are related to genies and ghosts.” Safuan said.

He added that most of his living creatures were brought from Indonesia while some came from Thailand.

Together with his 15-man team called Paranorma – which means “beyond the normal” – he had been actively involved in ghostly adventures that required them to stay in haunted grounds for several nights, Safuan said.

He said he feared no evil power as he had strong spiritual conviction and believed nothing was more powerful than the Almighty.

“As I'm using the mystical powers to overcome evil, I have nothing to fear,” he said.

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