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Ghost of Tu-Po — The Hungry Ghost

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After the Chinese nobleman Tu Po was betrayed by his own king and fellow nobles, he became a vengeful ghost, or Hungry Ghost as it is known as in Buddhism. Even in his afterlife he sought revenge on those who betrayed him and fought to restore his honor.

The concept of a ghost with unfinished business is found around the globe. In the eastern part of the world they are often known as Hungry Ghosts and they are deadly.

China has such a varied an long history, diverse culture, with different regions, religions and traditions as most ancient countries has. The tales and beliefs changes according to the ebb and flow of time and the legends of the hungry ghosts are many and varied.

Read More about: Chinese Ghosts and Haunted Places

The Hungry Ghost in Chinese Mythology

Before delving into the legend about Tu Po and how he was betrayed by his own king, let us have a closer look at exactly what a Hungry Ghost is.

As much of Chinese folklore and mythology comes from Buddhism, there are many similarities to other Buddhist countries. In any case it has been believed that every living person will become a ghost when we die known as a guǐ 鬼. It will then weaken, and fade away, dying again for a second time.

As mentioned earlier, the Hungry Ghost is not only a Chinese phenomenon, but a Buddhist as well as Asian one. Ghost stories of vengeful ghost can be found also in Japan with the Onryo or Korea with the Virgin Ghost for example.

This concept of the spirit of the deceased weakening before disappearing is seen as only natural and how it is supposed to be. The ancestors are honored, given sacrifices and held in esteem, thinking they have a part in the world as much as the living. Ancestral worship is the original basic of Chinese religions, and it is a core belief there is an existence after death. A deceased person’s soul is made up of yin and yang parts called hun and po. They are not immortal, and need offerings before going to the underworld for eternal rest.

When Revenge is more Important than Peace

The trouble with ghosts however is when that spirit is driven by anger and malice rather than a peaceful afterlife. This is called a Hungry Ghost (餓鬼 èguǐ and quỷ đói) and only happens on rare occasions as most spirits only wants to be at peace.

The Hungry Ghost: The concept of hungry ghost is found throughout Buddhist traditions. This is from the Sixth section of the Japanese Hungry Ghosts Scroll located at the Kyoto National Museum. The scroll depicts the world of the hungry ghosts, one of the six realms of Buddhism and contains tales of salvation of the hungry ghosts. This particular section shows Ananda, a disciple of Shakyamuni, teaching an incantation to achieve salvation to a hungry ghost who continuously belches flames from his mouth.

The creation of a Hungry Ghost happens when a person’s death has been exceptionally violent or unhappy. The ghosts are often given quite animalistic traits in the ghost stories and records. Although there are different categories and types of hungry ghosts, one common trait among them are that they are seeking a type of revenge of those who wronged them, or simply those who got in the way.

Although most accounts of Tu Po doesn’t give him animalistic traits like a monster, he definitely sought his revenge on those who wronged him like most vengeful ghosts are looking for, and therefore given the title of a Hungry Ghost.

Before becoming a Ghost – Tu-Po the Emperor’s Minister

Before becoming an ancient ghost, Tu Po used to be an important man in ancient China. The nobleman Tu Po 杜伯 is sometimes translated as Du Bo and he was the Duke of Tangdu. This was a Dukedom situated west of State of Yi Lin around were the Shaanxi province in northwest of China is today.

According to legend, the Tangdu people were descendants of the people living in the State of Tang, a Dukedom destroyed by Zhou Gong Dan that now ruled the empire. They were allowed to form a new State of Du, and became known as Tangdu or Du shi (杜氏).

Tu-Po was not always remembered as a hungry ghost, but was a prominent minister to King Xuan of Zhou (also known as Emperor Hsuan) who reigned from 827-783 B.C. Emperor Hsuan was the eleventh king of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty in a time were the kings words were the law and his minister Tu Po had to pay the ultimate price.

The empire: Map over the Jin (Tang) state during the late Spring and Autumn period as it was called, around the time of Tu-Po’s death and after. This is were he, and his ancestors resided and ruled.//Photo: Hugo Lopez – Wikimedia Commons user: Yug

The king is mostly remembered for fighting the ‘Western Barbarians‘, most probably Xianyun, an ancient nomadic tribe that invaded the Zhou empire on the Huai River. He also meddled in debacles of successions in States of Lu, Wey an Qi and was, according to history, not a popular one. Sima Qian, considered father of Chinese historiography, said: “From this time on, the many lords mostly rebelled against royal commands.” And the way the king ended his reign, is rumoured to be the work of the hungry ghost of Tu Po.

So Tu Po was from a stately and very powerful family and not afraid to speak up for what he believed in, even to the most powerful man in the dynasty. And this would cost him his life and make him a hungry ghost, haunting the earth and seeking revenge.

The Fall From Grace and Becoming a Vengeful Ghost

There are not very many sources detailing what happened before the haunting of Tu Po’s hauntings started. But according to one account, this is what happened.

The King: King Xuan of Zhou (827-783 B.C). Formerly known as Emperor Hsuan or King Suan.

On the ninth year as King, King Xuan of Zhou called all the lords of his empire into a meeting that would seal the fate of Tu Po to discuss an oncoming attack.

A rumor was out that a woman was about to become a danger of the town of Jiangshan for some reason, and the King ordered a mass execution of women. Exactly how this one woman could be considered a danger to an entire town is not really explained.

No matter what the reason behind this mass execution of women, it was seen as a truly horrible act that Tu Po disagreed with. Tu-Po publicly opposed to the order he was given and he spoke against his king in a time when the kings word was the law and anything else considered treason.

This final act of opposition would cost him his life as King Xuan ordered his execution for this as he saw this act of opposition as treason.

Before Tu Po was executed however, King Xuan of Zhou was warned that Tu Po’s ghost would stay in this world even in his afterlife to haunt him as Tu-Po himself said:

“If my majesty kills me without reason, the dead may not know, well that’s it. However, on the other hand, I will avenge myself on him, within three years.”

But despise the warnings, King Xuan went through the execution. Even though he was considered innocent of treason by most, Tu-Po was executed around 786 B.C. But this would not be the last time he was seen.

The Revenge of the Hungry Ghost

Weather Tu Po’s final words were taken seriously, is not mentioned. Three years after the execution however, the King brought his dukes to hunt on his own hunting grounds. There were hundreds of chariots, thousands of escorts following them as well as a ghost that promised he would return for revenge.

Ghost festival: Lotus-shaped lanterns are lit and set afloat in rivers and out onto seas to symbolically guide the lost souls to the afterlife.

At noon, Tu-Po appeared as a ghost, riding a white horse and a cart, wearing a red coat with a red bow and arrow in hand. He took up the chase of King Xuan and shot the king in the heart and broke the king’s spine. At the time, it is reported that no one saw the killing and no one heard it. No matter what the real situation was like, The king fell and Tu Po got his revenge.

If King Xuan really died of an arrow is today a bit unclear. In some accounts it is said that King Xuan died of something else after dreaming that Tu Po shot him to death with an arrow.

In both cases, the innocent and wronged minister got his revenge and King Xuan’s son, was the last of the western Zhou to lead.

The story has gone down in traditional legends, ever since. The Chinese philosopher, Mo Zi (470-391 B.C), said this about ghosts and about Tu-Po’s revenge:

“If from antiquity to the present, and since the beginning of man, there are men who have seen the bodies of ghosts and spirits and heard their voices, how can we say that they do not exist?

If none have heard them and none have seen them, then how can we say they do? But those who deny the existence of the spirits say: “Many in the world have heard and seen something of ghosts and spirits. Since they vary in testimony, who are to be accepted as really having heard and seen them?”

As we are to rely on what many have jointly seen and what many have jointly heard, the case of Tu Po is to be accepted.”

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Ghost of Tu-Po — The Hungry Ghost

ancient, article, egypt, Ghost

Khonsuemheb and the Ghost of Theban Necropolis

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Khonsuemheb and the Ghost is one of the oldest ghost stories we have in written form about a high priests quest to honor the dead whose tomb were disturbed in the Theban Necropolis in ancient Egypt. The question remains: did he actually complete his mission?

When did people start to tell ghost stories? It is difficult to say exactly when as the earliest ghost stories were probably older than our written language and so old that it is lost like any of the first original stories. What we do have though, are fragments of those who were carved in stone and scribbled on the walls. Perhaps human have always told ghost stories and the real question is if we will ever stop.

One of the more ancient ghost stories we have in writing is the story of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost. This ghost legend comes from Egypt, around 1200 B.C during the Ramesside period. The story was found in four pieces of pottery by  Ernesto Schiaparelli, and translated in 1915 by Egyptologist, Gaston Maspero (1846-1916).

The Normalising of Ghosts in Ancient Egypt

The ancient Egyptians believed in life after death, and in the book “Book of the Dead”, they wrote down a series of spells they thought would help them reach the afterlife. The people living at the time thought of the afterlife as a sort of continuation of life were it would be paradise to end up in. So why on earth do we still have ghost stories of people that never reach this perfect afterlife?

In ancient Egypt ghosts (called akh) were somewhat similar to their former self, more a piece of the soul of the living person, the immortal and transformed part of the soul. Interactions between ghosts and living people were seen in a lesser supernatural way than in modern depictions, just as the ghost in Khonsuemheb and the Ghost was more of a task to be handled than something unnatural happening.

Anubis God of Lost Souls: is the god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head. If the family didn’t do the funeral rites correctly or were cheap with the money, the Gods would sort of grant the part of the soul, the akh permission to go back and complain and haunt the family or its grave.

The akh was a consequence of the burial ritual not being right, the tomb being destroyed or so forth. This ritual was important as it was the way into the afterlife. An akh could harm the living, giving them nightmares, feelings of guilt, punish people or sickness. But it could also do good deeds to help their living family members, influencing for the better etc.

As well as coming on their own volition, they could be invoked by prayers or written letters left in the tomb’s offering chapel, just like what happened in Khonsuemheb and the Ghost.

Read Also: If graves or tombs are not well kept, bad things can happen. Read about The Haunted Barbie Doll in The Shrine and how they take care of that ghosts final resting place.

The Story of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost

The beginning of the story is lost forever, as it being a fragment of some pottery. So the full length of it, is nowhere to be found. But it is implied the story is set in Theban Necropolis, a burial place near the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.

The burial city was built at the west bank of the Nile, near the ancient city of Thebes, which at the time was the capital and the perhaps even the biggest city in the world at that time. The ruins of the city lies within the modern day city, Luxor, in Upper Egypt. At this time in the New Kingdom, Thebes reached new height of prosperity. It was the time right before the decline of the great city, and it would soon fall into unrest, strikes, looting of the Necropolises.

Ruins of Medinet Habu (Arabic: مدينة هابو)  is an archaeological locality situated near the foot of the Theban Hills of the River Nile opposite the modern city of Luxor, Egypt. it is the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III. This is where the ruins of Thebes can be found.

The Servant in the Place of Truth

But before all this, a man had to spend the night next to a tomb in the Theban Necropolis, literally meaning the city of the dead. He is unnamed in the fragment of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost. Perhaps he was just walking by, perhaps he was a looter. Perhaps he was a Servant in the Place of Truth. That was an ancient Egyptian title of the people working in the Necropolis.

The servants in the Place of Truth constructed the eternal dwelling of the kings, and isolated themselves to safeguard their secrets. They lived in the village Set-Maat (Place of truth) in the Holy Land of the Dead, today known as Deir el-Medina. The village that happens to be were the last bit of fragment of the story was found.

A Night at Thebes Necropolis: The man in the story spent the night in the desolated place of Theban Necropolis, a place outside of today’s Luxor in Egypt. //Source: wikimedia

The man was woken by the ghost residing in the tomb. Was he afraid? Perhaps not if he worked there. Perhaps he was terrified, especially if he was a looter, trying to steal the possessions in the tomb. In any case, he went to the High Priest of Amun, Khonsuemheb, and told what happened in the tomb.

The High Priest Invoking the Ghost

The High Priest of Amun, takes matters into his own hands. He stands on his rooftop, calling to the gods to summon the ghost. Invoking the gods of the sky and the gods of the earth, southern, northern, western and eastern, and (the) gods of the underworld, saying to them: “Send me that august spirit.” And it does. “I grew, and I did not see the rays of the sun. I did not breathe the air, but darkness was before me every day, and no one came to find me,” the ghost says (translation by Maspero).

Khonsuemheb asks his name. Nebusemekh, son of Ankhmen and of the lady Tamshas, the ghost answers. So how does one please an ancient egyptian ghost? Khonsuemheb at least offered to rebuild his tomb, making it better with a gildet ziziphus-wood coffin to make peace with the ghost. But the ghost doesn’t trust Khonsuemheb and his intentions. So what do they do?

The Ghost story on the pottery: Ancient Egyptian ostrakon with the beginning of the Ghost story of of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost. Terracotta from Deir el-Medina, 19-20th Dynasty, New Kingdom. Found by Schiaparelli in 1905. Turin, Museo Egizio.

Khonsuemheb sits down with the ghost, starts to cry and shares his unhappy fate. “I will remain here] without eating or drinking, without growing old or becoming young. I will not see sunlight nor will I inhale northerly breezes, but darkness shall be in my sight every day. I will not get up early to depart.”

Then the ghost proceeds to tell about his life on earth, how he was an overseer of the treasuries and a military official under pharaoh Rahotep. When the ghost, Nebusemekh died in the 14th regnal year of pharaoh Mentuhotep, the ruler gave him a canopic set, an alabaster sarcophagus and a ten-cubits shaft tomb.

But time took over the tomb, and over the centuries, the tomb partially collapsed, allowing wind to reach the burial chamber. Nebusemekh also told Khonsuemheb that others before him offered to rebuild his grave, but never did. Khonsuemheb says to the ghost that he will do it and also offers to send ten servants to make daily offerings at his grave. But the ghost says that wouldn’t be necessary or of any use.

Only Fragments of the Ending Left

Here, the text of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost on the pottery breaks, and in the next fragment three men are sent out by Khonsuemheb to search for a proper place for Nebusemekh new tomb. They find it at Deir el-Bahari, near to the causeway of the mortuary temple belonging to pharaoh Mentuhotep the second.

This is the end, the text suddenly ends here. But perhaps Khonsuemheb honored the last wish of Nebusemekh, giving peace in his afterlife the Egyptians were all so desperate at having.

The Afterlife in Ancient Egypt: Egyptian religious doctrines included three afterlife ideologies: belief in an underworld, eternal life, and rebirth of the soul. The path to the afterlife for the deceased was a difficult one with gates, doors and pylons located in Duat, the land of the underworld. Ultimately, the immortality desired by ancient Egyptians was reflected in endless lives. By doing worthy deeds in their current life, they would be granted a second life for all of eternity.

The tale of Khonsuemheb and the Ghost is a piece of fragment, written in another era of time entirely and there are of course dispute how much of it is an historical account of something that happened and a cautionary tale of what could happen if the living didn’t honor the dead. And the details of the tale are still open to interpretations. Particularly the identity of the to pharaohs in Nebusemekh’s time, and in the ghost actually got to rest in peace and finally enjoy paradise in the afterlife.

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References:

Ghosts in Ancient Egypt – World History Encyclopedia 

Theban Necropolis – Wikipedia 

Khonsuemheb and the Ghost – Wikipedia

A Ghost Story of Ancient Egypt – World History Encyclopedia 

article, folklore, Ghost ship, Mythology, Sea, Superstitions

Sailors Superstitions

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Perhaps none are more superstitious than the sailors. Or at least, what the old sailors used to be. Rolling clouds or roaring waves means little to us on land, but in the 18th century New England, it meant bad luck. Some of them are plain ridiculous, like having an umbrella on the ship means bad luck, or even saying the word horse because it can mean death.

However, maybe they are the ones who needed it the most. They were, after all, left alone to the mercy of the unruly seas and the hidden depths most never sees. Perhaps the old ways of the seafarers knew something we don’t?

Red Sunrise

There is a lot affecting the weather according to old superstitions. Clapping could cause thunder, whistling could summon a wind and throwing a stone in the water could bring swells. 

However one of the more likely and poetic sailors weather forecast was this:

“Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. “

This poetic warning told about the day ahead and that it would take a dangerous turn. In fact, it does have some sort of scientific background, although not a hundred percent accurate. A red sky can actually warn about bad weather ahead. 

Bananas on board

This is seemingly one of the weirder ones. But it actually makes sense, even just a bit. It is a superstition from the 1700 and the banana trade. A big amount of the ships went missing carrying a load of bananas, trying to cross the sea. The bananas turned bad pretty quickly, and the ships had to hurry to deliver the goods before it rotted away and no one would profit or get their bananas. So how does it make sense? People make bad decisions, taking a wrong course, pushing the ship too much. It also is said rotten bananas let off lethal gasses and deadly spiders living in the bananas took some out on board. So, do you crave a banana now?

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The Dies Infaustus

Not only the weather was something they were afraid of. There were even some days more frightening than others. Like the day Friday, which considered to be an unlucky day in some cultures or the Dies Infaustus as it’s called in fancy Latin. This is perhaps one of the most enduring superstitions, at least in the days since we started calling the day Friday. It was unlucky to begin a voyage or set sail on this day. It is also the root of the well-known urban legend of HMS Friday.  In more Viking and Norse oriented ships, Thursday was the day to avoid since it’s Thor, God of thunders day. 

The Albatross

At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God’s name.
‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!
— Why look’st thou so?’—
With my cross-bow I shot the ALBATROSS.

From: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner By: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Birds have a massive influence on superstition. Seeing a swallow means you are close to land, spotting an albatross can bring good fortune. But as the Mariner and the crew in the famous poem experience, killing it will bring bad luck. The crew thought to kill the albatross only brought them more misfortune:

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

In the end, they blamed in all on the Mariner and made him wear the dead albatross around his neck. Birds are also believed to be or carry the souls of dead sailors, making their significance even greater. They are one of the crew.

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The Jonah

Jonah will for many be remembered from as the biblical figure from the Book of Jonah. A guy who was trying to flee from the presence of God by sailing away. A huge storm came over the ship and it was no ordinary storm. The crew discovers that Jonah is the one to blame and they throw him overboard. The storm calms by the sacrifice and Jonah is saved by being swallowed by a large fish where he spends three days and three nights, repenting for his sins.

Jonah is now a well-established expression of a sailor or a passenger bringing bad luck to the ship. Often clergymen and women would be considered a Jonah. Also, redheads would be sometimes accused of being a Jonah.  

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The Lodgers

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The Lodgers from 2017 is an Irish Gothic horror film by David Turpin and Brian O’Malley. It stars Charlotte Vega, Bill Milner and Eugene Simon.

If you like eerily dark and hauntingly beautiful movies like The Others or newer one like Crimson Peak, The Lodgers will be an obvious next escape to a haunted house through the television.

With it’s aesthetic like a classical Victoria Frances illustration the movie perfectly capture the dreamy and seductive pull gothic romance that made Jane Eyre and The Phantom of the Opera such iconic in all their formats. However it doesn’t quite capture the horror aspect of it as it seems to try like The Woman in Black and The Orphanage did.

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Plot

1920, rural Ireland. Anglo-Irish twins Rachel (Charlotte Vega) and Edward (Bill Milner) share an isolated existence in their crumbling family estate. Each nighttime, the property becomes the domain of sinister watery presences (“the lodgers”) which enforce three rules upon the twins: they must be in bed by midnight; they may not permit an outsider past the threshold; if one attempts to escape, the life of the other is placed in jeopardy. They are reminded of these rules by way of a nursery rhyme: “Girl child, boy child, listen well. Be in bed by midnight’s bell. Never let a stranger through your door. Never leave each other all alone. Good sister, good brother be, follow well these cautions three. Long as your blood be ours alone, we’ll see you ever from below.”[6] A curse lies upon their family. A “stain” that is passed on from one generation to the next. Each generation bears incestuous twins, breeding the next generation before taking their lives by drowning. When Rachel and Edward’s eighteenth birthday comes, Rachel wishes to leave with Edward, and in doing so hopefully leave the family curse behind. Edward, due to the trauma of his parents’ suicide and the legacy they left him and his sister, has become a recluse and refuses to leave. Tensions rise when troubled war veteran Sean (Eugene Simon) returns to the nearby village. He is immediately drawn to the mysterious Rachel, who in turn sees in Sean a chance for freedom and so begins to break the rules set out by the lodgers. The consequences pull Rachel into a deadly confrontation with her brother — and with the curse that haunts them.

From Wikipedia

Opinion

Spoiler alert!

So this is one of those movies that will not be everybody’s cup of tea. And if you like your movies straightforward and well explained, look away! This is a movie you will want to ponder and google extensively after it’s final scene.

The basic storyline can remind a lot of the classic “the Fall of the House of Usher” from Edgar Allan Poe in it’s depicting of family, madness, incest and a big crumbling house. So much likeness in fact, that I have a feeling true Poe fans are able to guess a lot of the movie and it’s intention.

There is also the twins with a fate to be together as they are the only members of the family and an ominous looking lake outside the house that connect these two stories.

Twin incest has often been a metaphor of a sickly family. And as the movie follows the gothic rules so to speak, it would be wrong to look past it. As with a lot of twincest (Game of Thrones being only a modern example of a millennial old trope), it speaks greatly of a family and minds crumbling from within. It is a generation trait, of abuse, lack of love and affection, shame and secrets.

The family curse as Edward and Rachel puts it, is them being destined to do as their ancestors has done, bring forth a new pair of twins and drown themselves in the lake as the shame takes over them.

Why would you ask? Well, Edward gives a hint in the big confrontation when he tells Rachel that she will “learn to see it their way soon”. He speaks about immortality and how they have to do this to fullfill this part of the curse.

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It can be a metaphor of what people are capable of doing to stay above normal people. A grasp for power and something more than just an average life. Even if that will have a horrible effect on the generations to come, that both have the shame of their ancestors and pressure to withhold the family name as the ones that came before. A ripple effect as the imagery hints at throughout the movie. Do as they did before sort of thing.

So the next generation do as they are told, follows the rules and uphold the appearance, not letting anybody else see their weakness. Meanwhile the house is croumbling from withing. From mould, from hauntings, deacaying like the minds of the remains of the family.

I also have a feeling that the Irish War of Independence has a bigger meaning than the movie lets on with. Several times it is stated that the twins are in fact, not Irish, but English at heart. They just live there. They also speak in a British accent, differing them from the village people. It must also have this deeper meaning speaking of the Irish heart that Sean just came back from the war, and that Rachel basically just sacrifices him to get her free pass into the Irish countryside as a free woman. It is not unheard of gothic romance speaking to this matter in a small whisper. With some laying claims that the novella Carmilla also have some Irish versus British undertones.

I wouldn’t exactly call it a rip-off as the Lodgers takes these well established tropes and formula to it’s own. They try mid way to do a full on horror flick of the story, where it fell short for a lot of people. It’s strength is in the strong imagery as a homage to the genre it’s born out of.

The ending is far less tragic. Rachel breaks free from the family curse, escaping from her destiny on her own. Only a black crow follows her, like the last stain from the family she comes from. It’s there, but not defining. But also it will always be a shadow, lurking just behind her footsteps.

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The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

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The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is probably one of the most iconic ghost pictures out there. But what is the story behind it? And who is that ghostly figure?

Is it real? Was it just a double exposure? The picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall has been viral since 1936. A photographer that year took the infamous picture, forever putting it in the mystery box for people to wonder about ever since.

It was just another day in the upper class England, with their old and haunted mansions and stories. Up in Norfolk lays the old Raynham Hall, that were about to become one of the most famous hauntings in Great Britain.

Brown Lady of Raynham Hall: This is the picture taken in the staircase that is now perhaps one of the most famous ghost photos.

Captain Hubert C. Provand, was a working in London as an photographer for the Country Life magazine. On September 19th, 1936, he and his assistant, Indre Shira were taking photographs of the Raynham Hall for an article.

Inside the 300 year old mansion, they were setting up the cameras to take another of the old Hall’s main staircase. Suddenly, Shira saw a ” vapoury form gradually assuming the appearance of a woman” The figure was “moving down the stairs towards them.” Shira directed Provand to take the cap of the lens while Shira pressed the trigger to take the picture.

After the negative was developed for the article, they saw more clear what they had gotten on camera that day. And the famous legendary photo of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was born. And after the photo, so was the legend.

Read More: This is not the only ghost picture that caused a stir: The Haunting in Pasir Ris Park 

Who was the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

So who was this lady? According to legend, the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is the lost ghost of Dorothy Walpole. She was born in 1686 and according to gossip, the prettiest sister of Robert Walpole, seen as the first prime minister of Great Britain.

Walpole was neighbour with Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townsend in Norfolk. And it just so happened that his sister Dorothy married Townshend in 1713. Although they were good neighbours, and even brother-in-laws, there was bad blood between the men. Especially in politics and when Walpole built his own mansion, Houghton Hall. Did this affect poor Dorothy at all?

What we know is that it wasn’t a particularly happy marriage. Dorothy was Charles second wife. He looked upon the Hall as his pride, as a Lord Hervey said: “Lord Townshend looked upon his own seat at Raynham as the metropolis of Norfolk, and considered every stone that augmented the splendor of Houghton, as a diminution of the grandeur of Raynham.”

Lady Dorothy Walpole: The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is believed to be the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole who died in 1726.

Charles was also well known for his violent temper. Dorothy Walpole was rumored to have been a mistress of a Lord Wharton, a well known womanizer, and that no woman could be twenty four hours under his roof and walk out with her reputation intact.

When Charles discovered his wife and her affair with Lord Wharton, the story says he punished her by locking her in her rooms in the family, Raynham Hall. To make matters worse, there are still rumours that she was in fact entrapped by the Countess of Warton, inviting Dorothy to stay a few days, knowing full well, her husband wouldn’t let her walk out with her reputation intact.

Read More: This is not the only ghost story involving a husband imprisoning his wife in her own home: The Prisoner of Château de Puymartin

After this, Dorothy Walpole remained at Raynham Hall until her death in 1726. She died of smallpox. But did she really leave the Halls? Is she still roaming the place, still locked up, still trying to get out and are forever trapped as The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall?

Sightings of the Brown Lady at Raynham Hall

Raynham Hall was thought to have been haunted long before the picture was taken. People that stayed in the mansion, experienced visitation and paranormal activity that most believed to be the ghost of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.

1835

Whatever the truth is, the legend was there to stay. And the first recorded sighting of the The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was in 1835. One Christmas the new Lord Charles Townshend invited some guest to the Hall for celebrations. Among the guest were Colonel Loftus and another guest named Hawkins. One night night as they approached their bedrooms, they saw the Brown Lady, noticing the dated and brown dress she wore.

The following night, Loftus claimed he saw The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall again. he said he was drawn to the spectre’s empty eye-sockets, dark in the glowing face, the once so pretty Dorothy Walpole. After Loftus reported what he saw it ended with some of the staff permanently left Raynham Hall. It was all recorded by another guest, Lucia C. Stone.

Read More: Ghost Stories of Christmas Hauntings

1863

Just a year after, the The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was seen again. This time it was Captain Frederick Marryat, a friend of Charles Dickens. He originally wanted to prove a theory of his that the hauntings was caused by local smugglers. According to him, the smugglers spread the story to keep people away from the area. That night hi requested that he spent the night in the haunted room at Raynham Hall.

Marryat’s daughter, Florence wrote about her father’s experience in 1891:

…he took possession of the room in which the portrait of the apparition hung, and in which she had been often seen, and slept each night with a loaded revolver under his pillow. For two days, however, he saw nothing, and the third was to be the limit of his stay. On the third night, however, two young men (nephews of the baronet), knocked at his door as he was undressing to go to bed, and asked him to step over to their room (which was at the other end of the corridor), and give them his opinion on a new gun just arrived from London. My father was in his shirt and trousers, but as the hour was late, and everybody had retired to rest except themselves, he prepared to accompany them as he was. As they were leaving the room, he caught up his revolver, “in case you meet the Brown Lady,” he said, laughing. When the inspection of the gun was over, the young men in the same spirit declared they would accompany my father back again, “in case you meet the Brown Lady,” they repeated, laughing also. The three gentlemen therefore returned in company.

The corridor was long and dark, for the lights had been extinguished, but as they reached the middle of it, they saw the glimmer of a lamp coming towards them from the other end. “One of the ladies going to visit the nurseries,” whispered the young Townshends to my father. Now the bedroom doors in that corridor faced each other, and each room had a double door with a space between, as is the case in many old-fashioned houses. My father, as I have said, was in shirt and trousers only, and his native modesty made him feel uncomfortable, so he slipped within one of the outer doors (his friends following his example), in order to conceal himself until the lady should have passed by.

I have heard him describe how he watched her approaching nearer and nearer, through the chink of the door, until, as she was close enough for him to distinguish the colors and style of her costume, he recognised the figure as the facsimile of the portrait of “The Brown Lady”. He had his finger on the trigger of his revolver, and was about to demand it to stop and give the reason for its presence there, when the figure halted of its own accord before the door behind which he stood, and holding the lighted lamp she carried to her features, grinned in a malicious and diabolical manner at him. This act so infuriated my father, who was anything but lamb-like in disposition, that he sprang into the corridor with a bound, and discharged the revolver right in her face. The figure instantly disappeared – the figure at which for several minutes three men had been looking together – and the bullet passed through the outer door of the room on the opposite side of the corridor, and lodged in the panel of the inner one. My father never attempted again to interfere with “The Brown Lady of Raynham”.

1926

When the son of Lady Townshend and his friend saw the ghost next, they knew who The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall was. They saw her on the staircase, and identified the ghost with the portrait, hanging on the wall in the haunted room. Of course, the portrait of Lady Dorothy Walpole.

Raynham Hall: The haunted hall is a country house in Norfolk and was for 400 years the seat of the Townshend family. The hall is reported to be haunted, providing the scene for possibly the most famous ghost photo of all time, The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall descending the staircase.//Source: Wikimedia

What is the truth?

After Provand and Shira took the picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, they published their experience in Country life magazine, December 26th, 1936. They were published again in Life magazine on January 4th, 1937. So all in all, they did profit on this. But could it be that they just took a picture?

After the picture was taken, a paranormal investigator, Harry Price interviewed both Provand and Shira. He said: “I will say at once I was impressed. I was told a perfectly simple story: Mr. Indre Shira saw the apparition descending the stairs at the precise moment when Captain Provand’s head was under the black cloth. A shout – and the cap was off and the flashbulb fired, with the results which we now see. I could not shake their story, and I had no right to disbelieve them. Only collusion between the two men would account for the ghost if it is a fake. The negative is entirely innocent of any faking.”

But there have been numerous attempts of debunking the picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall and its status of “proof”. Some claim Shira faked the image by putting grease or something in the lense in shape of a lady, maybe moved down the stairs himself during an exposure? Or maybe it is as simple as an accidental double exposure or light somehow got in the camera. Some even claim that the figure looks eerily like the Virgin Mary statue, and that the image is of her in the staircase, the statue that is, not the Virgin Mary.

Among the examiners trying to debunk the validity of the picture of The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is Joe Nickell’s detailed writings that the photograph is nothing more than double exposure. And the magician John Booth wrote that the photograph could be easily made. Booth had the magician Ron Wilson cover himself in a bed sheet and walk down the staircase at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. It apparently turned out very similar to the photograph.

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