EPISODE 14:

ENTERTAINING GHOSTS

PENANG, MALAYSIA

Hungry ghosts are the souls of individuals who no longer have any living family members to pray for them. To believers, it’s not just their loneliness, but their lack of essentials that makes the afterlives so difficult. The Chinese take care of their deceased relatives by burning miniature paper effigies of everyday  items like money, clothes, and food - because without anyone to pray for them, their souls would be left destitute. So, on the seventh month of the lunar calendar, Da Shi Ye, the King of Ghosts, opens the gates of hell to let these forgotten souls roam the Earth. They call this celebration, Ghost Month. 

In cities like Penang, Malaysia, the paper making industry has brought forth incredible artisans who build custom orders of effigies all year round. During Ghost Month the output of paper effigies is on an unfathomable scale.. Neighborhoods hold banquet style feasts for the hungry ghosts that are watched over by giant paper  effigies of Da Shi Ye. Each banquet ends with the king being sent back to hell in a blazing inferno. The size of each effigy can change depending on the wealth of the neighborhood, with some effigies reaching two stories in height. 

But Da Shi Ye also appears in the flesh on his birthday, which falls in the middle of Ghost Month. The Ying Yang Temple hosts a special banquet in a muddy field, where all the gods of the underworld are channeled by traditional Tangki mediums. The gang from hell enjoys the spoils of fresh food, Guinness beer, opium, the blood of live chickens, and of course, lots of gambling. Da Shi Ye is incarnated again and again through the expressions of Chinese folk art during Ghost Month, and it is through their crafts and performances that Penang is given the unmistakable feeling of a supernatural presence.