Mystery girl of Ubin
• Superstitious Folly
'People come, sometimes with mediums who claim to speak German, and they ask for all sorts of things,' he says.'They pray for health. They ask for Toto and 4D numbers.' ... Local folklore goes that the girl was the daughter of a coffee plantation manager who lived near the present temple site in the early 20th century. At the end of World War I, British soldiers rushed in to intern her parents but she was said to have escaped through the back door. In her haste, she fell into a quarry behind the coffee complex, stumbling to her death. Her corpse was discovered by Boyanese plantation labourers, who threw sand over her body and offered prayers, flowers and incense as a gesture of goodwill each time they passed her. ... 'How she became a temple of worship - I have no idea,' says Chye who used to work in a shipyard and has three grown-up children living on the mainland.
An urn said to hold the remains of a German girl has been attracting devotees since the 1930s
Comments
Posted by: Samuel | June 28, 2004 3:40 AM