I mentioned already in my stories that I had a step-brother who is a "dukun," kind of Indonesian magician. He is not only a magician, he also acts as a "suhu," Indonesian term for a Taoist medium who also uses Chinese sorcery.
I came to visit him in my second vacation, around January 2010. He was in the process of making a kumanthong, so I waited a bit while his friends (or apprentices, to be exact) explained to me about kumanthong. I've heard about this thing from some Thailand friends, but was curious to see the real thing.
Kumanthong is a charm, shaped in a small statue form, and sometimes is enclosed into a little glass case. You can search it in Google, there are a lot of pictures of them. Mine is already lost so I could not give you the picture. There are several kinds of kumanthong, I only remember three. One is a spiritless charm that receives blessing from Buddhist priests in order to work; kind of like Japanese's omamori. The second one, like mine, has a spirit of a baby, usually aborted or miscarriage babies. The last one, named lok krok, is made from aborted baby's corpse, and usually used for evil.
My brother believed not every person could have a kumanthong. He told me that the spirit inside either chose his or her own master, or between the spirit and the owner must have some kind of connection, or karma, or predestined fate for the spirit to be owned by that particular person. Even though it is a charm, we must treat kumanthong as a real baby, give them food and toys, pray for them, and in return they can help protect us (though little) or bring us fortune. As long as we care for them like this, some day, once the karma is fulfilled, the kumanthong can reincarnate.
The kumanthong he made that day was a boy, five months old when he was aborted. Don't ask me how or why he got the spirit. I don't know. He gave the boy Chinese name and sealed it, as was the custom, the name was Guangsong 光松, meant "pinetorch." When he saw me, he said that he would give the kumanthong to me, as my coming to his place right when he gave the boy name proved that somehow he was destined to be mine. Who am I to refuse fate? So I accepted.
He was a boy in the shape of two-year-old, had dimples and loved to hang around me. Sometimes I could see him, sometimes I could not.
I prepared chocolates, snacks, milk, toys for Guangsong every two or three days. Magically, in one or two hour after I opened the milk container's lid, the milk would go bad like it was opened for two weeks already instead of an hour. My brother told me that spirit also eats, only they eat the "energy" from that food, therefore making them go bad because literally they lose their "chi."
Once, I gave him chocolate-coated wafer. After fifteen minutes, I remembered that I had not opened the plastic yet, so I tore it open only to find that the chocolate coating was almost gone, like somebody had nibbled on it, the wafer still untouched.
Sometimes, the statue would move by itself, rolling above my table where I put the statue (we believe that the statue is kind of like the spirit's home), and sometimes when I left him (he would listen to me, when I told him to stay at my room and not bothering my housemates, he would stay), I came home to find he messed my room, just like a spoiled brat messing up his mother's things.
When I just acquired him, if I didn't tell him to stay, he would mess my housemates' room and made them freak out.
One day, around a year after I acquired him, I woke up one night and saw him standing beside me. He smiled and waved his hand, and somehow without speaking, I understood that he told me goodbye.
In the morning, I found the statue had vanished. I called my brother and he told me the boy had reincarnated. I'd been praying for him since the first time I acquired him, and still praying for him until now. I wish I could meet him, in his reincarnated form.
I hope someday, fate will grants my request.
Loading comments....
