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The Ghosts From Security Prison 21 in Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

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Cambodia is a land with a lot of hauntings. One of them being in the old prison known as Tuol Sleng or Security Prison 21 where almost 20 000 people were tortured and killed during the Cambodian Genocide. And even today, the building is known for its ghosts. 

In Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum that used to be a prison, some of the prisoners were never really freed. Even in their deaths, their souls lingers in what used to be their own prison cells. However, they have now people taking care of them. 

The people working in the former prison now turned into a museum are well aware of the past and try their best to honor the building’s gruesome history. There are many occurrences that are being reported on that the museum’s staff cannot explain. Objects are being thrown hard to the floor and high pitched screaming has been heard.

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The staff working there also leave out food for the ghosts when they go on lunch break as they can’t enjoy their own lunch because of the loud noises the ghosts will make when they don’t leave an offering. 

The Cambodian Genocide

To understand the hauntings of this museum, we must first understand a little bit of Cambodia’s dark past and how so many could die in a place like Tuol Sleng. 

After years of devastating civil war, Cambodia had already seen its fair share of bloodshed. But the worst was still ahead of them and from 1975 to 1979, Cambodia went through a systematic killing, later known as the Cambodian Genocide which killed nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population at the time. The exact death toll is uncertain, but it ranges from everything from 1.5 to 2 million people. 

The genocide was done by the Khmer Rouge, a popular name given to the communist party called Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), led by Pol Pot who wanted to ‘cleanse’ the population in order to establish a pure, self-sufficient communist state. 

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum: Known as Security Prison 21 or S-21 during its time of torture and killings where thousands of Cambodians died. Here is one of the buildings of Tuol Sleng in 2013 // Photo: Dudva/Wikimedia

The Story of the Prison Turned Museum

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (សារមន្ទីរឧក្រិដ្ឋកម្មប្រល័យពូជសាសន៍ទួលស្លែង) literally means, ‘Hill of the Poisonous Trees’. It used to be a secondary school in the capital Phnom Penh until the Khmer Rouge regime took over and used it as a prison during the genocide. 

Prison Cells: The former school turned the classrooms into prison cells the museum has kept intact to this day.// Photo: Gerd Eichmann/Wikimedia

Known as Security Prison 21(មន្ទីរស-២១) or S-21, it converted the classrooms to prison cells and torture chambers in 1976. It is estimated that over 18 000 were killed in the S-21, including children. Of course, this is an estimate since the real numbers are uncertain and could also be much higher. Only 12 former inmates survived from the prison. 

When the prisoners arrived at S-21 they were photographed, forced to undress and had their personal belongings confiscated. Many of the prisoners didn’t even know why they were taken. There would often be nonsensical reasons like wearing glasses or speaking multiple languages, a sign of being an intellectual that could potentially speak against the communist regime.

Also religious, ethnic and political reasons were why you were being singled out as a potential threat to the regime. Often whole families would be taken at the same time so that no one would be able to seek revenge for them. Pol Pot said himself: “if you want to kill the grass, you also have to kill the roots”

After a grueling questioning to make them give up information, they were taken to their cells. Some were shackled to the floor in small prison cells, others were shackled together with others in large rooms. One of the common hauntings people report on is the sound of shackles rattling from the cells. The prisoners were forbidden to talk to each other and had to follow the rest of the rules. Any action, just sitting up or turning over had to be approved by the Khmer Rouge guards, and they would be severely punished if they broke the rules. 

The goal was to get the prisoners to confess before executing them. Either that they themselves were betraying the party and the revolution, or give up names of those that did. They got the prisoners to confess to anything by the use of torture and submersion in water, electric shock or being hanged from the gallows by their hand until unconscious were some of the methods. Once they got a signed confession, they had to face their execution. 

The Killing Fields

The prisoners were killed on site at first, but then they also started to execute at what would be known as the killing field outside of the city known as Choeung Ek. The prisoners often had to dig their own graves before being killed. 

These fields have numerous stories of being haunted themselves. In the field in Choeung Ek, a site with mass graves where many graves are visible above the ground. During rainfalls, bones and clothes surface from the shallow graves.

This relentless killing and torture lasted for many years. The prison closed down in 1979 when the Vietnamese army invaded and ended the rule for the Khmer Rouge. And ever since then, Cambodia has tried to rebuild the country, piece by piece.

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Security Prison 21 never returned to being a school for children. It was instead turned into a memorial and a museum that would remember and showcase the atrocities that the people suffered during those years.   

From 1979 until 2002, they displayed a huge map of Cambodia made up of 300 skulls of victims to the regime. It was displayed to show the brutality of the regime until it was dismantled to give the skulls a proper burial at last. 

But did it also bury the rumors of the prison being haunted?

The Haunting at the Museum Today

From the outside rumors about a haunting of ghosts started spreading. Neighbors claimed to hear the rattling of shackles and terrified screams from inside the former prison. Also from within the museum, countless reports of something paranormal going on started to spread. Many of the staff at the museum claim to have witnessed the hauntings, both cleaners, guides and the security guards, especially those working the night shifts. 

Map of Skulls: This is the infamous skull map that was on display in the former S-21 prison camp at Tuol Sleng in January 1997 // Photo

“There was one night that I woke up to go to the bathroom when I saw a black figure bending towards me, and that made my hair stand on end. I was very frightened; I climbed back into my bed and waited until the morning to tell my colleagues,” Nong Saveoun, a security guard who both worked and lived at the genocide museum said to the Phnom Penh Post back in 2016.

There is also a story about a security guard that heard the shower start running after he saw a dark figure opening the toilet door. When he went to investigate, there was no one there. 

Three times a year they hold blessing ceremonies at the Tuol Sleng museum where they invite both government officials and monks to give a prayer to the victims on the Khmer new year, the Pchum Ben festival and on Visak Bochea Day. Perhaps that is the way to appease the soul and finally free the ghostly prisoners from their cells and their shackles to this world. 

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References

Featured Image: Pete Stewart/Wikimedia

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum – Wikipedia

History of the Museum

The 10 Most Haunted Places on Earth – Days to Come

NST Region: Five most haunted places in Cambodia

Land prices undaunted by genocide museums’ history and hauntings | Phnom Penh Post

https://www.wired.com/2002/03/skull-map-dismantled/

article, Dark Tourism

Halloween Traditions Across the World

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In this wide world we have countless customs, holidays and traditions. But the tradition of honoring, and at times, fearing the dead around the dark autumn time, seems to be something we do in all corners of the earth.

Through the modern media we have all grown accustomed to this specific type of Halloween traditions. Carving pumpkins, go trick or treating and dressing up is now a global phenomenon. But the concept of celebrating the dead, souls and spirits during the harvest season has always been something people have done, and probably will continue to do for a while. But although the American style Halloween have monopolised a lot of the celebration, there are still both old and local variation of celebrating this kind of festivity. Here are some of them:

Samhain — Britain

Samhain: Bonfires, offerings to fairies and feasts for the dead was a tradition in the old Samhain celebrations.

The Samhain celebration is probably were the modern Halloween traditions has borrowed most customs and ideas from. It is a Gaelic festival marking the end of harvest season and the beginning of winter. it was usually celebrated from 31. October to 1. November. It was celebrated all throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, with many similar festivals held around the same time around the rest of the Celtic Islands.

According to tradition, bonfires were lit as they were seen to have protective and cleansing power. Offerings to the Aois Sí, the spirits and fairies was made to give them a good harvest and making them last through the winter. There was also held feasts where they made place for the dead at the table, as it was believed that the souls of the dead would visit.

The festival was held because the time was seen as a liminal time, were the boundary between the living and dead were minimal and the crossing between this world and the otherworld were more easily done. A part of the festival also included people dressing up in costume to recite verses for food, called mummers play, or mumming.

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All Saints Day — Catholic Church

All Saints Day: This Christian holiday is celebrated many places were there is a Roman catholic or Anglican church.

Within the Catholic Church the celebration of All Saints’ Day or All Souls’ Day is marked November the first and second. It is also called Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed and Day of the Dead. The All Saints Day is a day for celebrating all Saints and Martyrs in the Christian Church. The All Souls Day is mostly for the people still in purgatory to atone for their sins before entering heaven.

This together with Samhain turned into what we now call the modern Halloween with its traditions. Most often, the All Saints’ Day is celebrated within the western christianity, while in the eastern christianity they have celebrated somewhat the same in Saturday of Souls celebrations. It is mostly celebrated by Roman Catholics and Anglicans.

The feast itself is celebrated on November 1. and is mostly a day of prayer and remembering the souls of the dead. On the day there are many ways the practitioners remember the dead, and the traditions vary from church to church, but it generally include lighting candles and praying.

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Allantide — Wales

Allan Apples: Apples are important for Allantide as they are a token of good luck.

A Cornish version of Halloween traditions is the Allantide, or Kalan Gwaw, meaning the first day of winter. In the sixth century, Cornwall had a bishop named St Allan, and therefore it is also known as Allan Night and Allan Day. Traditionally it was celebrated on the night of October 31 and the day after.

A lot of common traits with Hollantide celebration in Wales and Isle of Man as well as Halloween itself. To celebrate they rung the church bell to comfort Christian souls on their journey to heaven. They made Jack’o lanterns from turnips. But the most important fruit this feast was red apples. Large, glossy Allan apples were polished and given to friends and family as gift for good luck.

Divination game to read the future was also a part of the festivities. They ere for example throwing walnuts in the fire to predict the fidelity of their partners, or poring molten lead in cold water to find out the job of their future husband. Also some parts of Cornwal, they lit ‘Tindle’ fires to the Coel Coth of Wales.

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Day of the Dead — Mexico

Día de Muertos: This day is often recognized for the costumes and makeup.

The Day of the Dead or Día de Muertos in Spanish is a Mexican holiday, well known for their distinctive costumes and face paint. Before the Spanish colonization in the 16th century, the celebration was in the beginning of the summer in Mexico. But it became intertwined with the Christian church and European Halloween traditions and moved to the end of October and beginning of November.

It is a holiday, stretching over several days gathers families and friends to pray for their lost ones and help their way to heaven. According to the Mexican culture, the death is viewed as a naturally part of the human cycle and should therefor not be seen as a day of sadness, but a day of celebrations.

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Pchum Ben — Cambodia

Preparing to open the gates of hell: Monks praying and people gifting food and flowers to the ancestors.
Prayers during Pchum Ben. Credit: Maharaja45

The holiday is a fifteen day celebration on the 15th day of the tenth month in the Khmer calendar, at the end of the Buddhist Lent, Vassa. And would in the Gregorian calendar, mostly be in September and October. The translation of Pchum Ben is Ancestor Day, and its a time were many Cambodians pay their respect to the dead family and relatives up to seven generations.

Monks chant the sutta in Pali language without sleeping overnight to prepare the gates of hell opening. This occurs once a year and is a time were manes (spirits) of the ancestors come back. Therefore they put out food offerings that can help them end their time in purgatory.

People give foods like sweet sticky rice and beans wrapped in banana leaves, and visit temples to offer up baskets of flowers as a way to pay respect to their deceased ancestors. It’s also a time for people to celebrate the elderly.

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Pangangaluluwa — Philippines

After sundown: In Philippines they light candles and camp out in the cemeteries to honour the ancestors.
Photo by Alexandr Chukashev on Pexels.com

The name of the holiday is from the word kaluluwa, meaning soul or spirit. It is an event that lasts three days at the cemetery with food stands and pop-up stores around the cemetery as the people celebrating the festivities, camp out.

On the first of November people gather in cemetaries to light candles and put flowers on the grave to respect the ancestors. some places in the north they have this old tradition of lighting pinewood next to the graves. In the cemetery there is a priest walking through it to bless all the tombs.

Outside of the emetaries, there are carollers singing through the night, all draped in white blankets. The same tradition is for children as they go door to door and singing hymns to get money.

Today, the local tradition is slowly fading out, merging more and more with the modern Halloween traditions, but out in the provinces, mostly, the old practices is still upheld for now.

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Saint Andrew’s Day — Romania

Night of the Wolf: During this night wolves have special powers and can speak.
Photo by David Selbert on Pexels.com

This day is today connected to the Christian saint, but it also have some pagan origins with the Roman celebration of Saturn. In the Dacian Ney Year was an interval when time started up again. On the turn of the night, wolves were allowed to eat the animals they wanted and it was also believed that they spoke as well, although, if you heard it, it meant an early death.

Early on the day, the mothers went into the garden to get branches, especially from apple, pear, cherry trees and rose bush branches. They made a bunch of these branches for each family member, and if a branch bloomed by New Years day, it meant they would be lucky and healthy the following year.

There was also a tradition of girls hiding sweet basil under their pillow to have dreams about their wedding. It was also customary for girls to put 41 grains of wheat under their pillow, and if they dreamt someone stole them, it meant they were going to be wed the next year. This premonition was also done by bringing a candle to a fountain at midnight and ask Saint Andrew himself if he could give them a glimpse of their future husband.

This day was especially good for revealing the future husband by magic, a superstitious belief that was also in Ukraine, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Russia as well as in Romania. This was also the day were vampiric activity was at large, all until Saint George’s Eve on the 22. of April.

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Dziady — Poland

Dziady: Cemetery on dziady night by Stanisław Bagieński from 1904.

The Dziady is a slavic feast to remember the ancestor long passed. It is sometimes translated to Forefathers Eve. It used to be celebrated both in the spring and in the autumn, but today, it is usually held in the end of October like .

In the feast they eat ritual meals to celebrate the living and the souls. It was either held at the house or at cemeteries, were poring directly on the grave was and still is a thing. In some areas the ancestors also had to bathe, and saunas was prepared for them. They also lit up candles and lights to guide the souls so they wouldn’t get lost and wander off.

There was also a special kind of begger, a beggars-dziady, people thought to be connected to the other words. They were given food and sometimes cash to make them pray for their loved lost ones.

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