Woody Lodge
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1. The freaky wall with graffiti at the front of Woody Lodge; 2. The back view of Woody Lodge that looks like a prison
3. A giant old tree under which stand three divine altars housing over dozens of Chinese deities; 4. Kampong Lorong Buang Kok

Mourning from the Living Ghosts

There used to be some theories about ghost haunting and mental patients. Why insane people become insane? This doesn't sound like a very rational question, but, think further. The word insane from a dictionary would mean mental disorder, and from a thesaurus you will find alike meanings of crazy, fanatical, obsessive, zealous, fervent. It is all about how one's mind being diverted from reality to another realm.

A mentally ill person may be physically perfect fit. But his mind is being distorted. Some may be memory-lost forgetting who he is; some may imagine himself as being another person; some may carry himself in strange behaviour not like his normal self; some would live in his own imaginative world - his own fantasy. Usually mental patients have one or more of these symptoms.

Scientifically abnormal psychology studies about how and why people become mentally distorted. Distortion usually would come after some impacts that are logically explainable, such as experiencing an ordeal, a great shock or a physical brain damage, etc. There are however other kinds of 'impacts' that are of spiritual. One who practices black-magic will become obsessed in witch-craft, the power, the wonders from which really fantasize him. His parents and teachers may say, you will become crazy one day. Yes, that is the kind of 'impact' which drives him insane one day when he goes on.

The above example is a voluntary way of becoming insane. A person chooses to let his mind be influenced. Another kind of obsession may come by forcibly. Possession, it is. Something from external enters his body and grabs his soul. This may be through unknowingly one of his senses - seeing, hearing, feeling and thinking. As we all know that human takes mind over body. We do what our brain tells us to do. What if some external force takes over the control? You are possessed, and will do or say things other people perceive as crazy.

Sadly speaking, among many mentally sick patients especially those incurable ones could be due to paranormal. The external forces are too stubborn not to go away; the possession or the obsession is too strong from which the patient cannot wake up. They would then act and behave no different from a living ghost.

For many years in Singapore, those mentally ill patients are rejected and isolated from our society for obvious reasons. The Woodbridge Institute of Mental Health (better known as IMH) is set up near Hougang to cater for those patients. Along Buangkok Link, just next to IMH there is a Sun Love Home, Pelangi Home and Woody Lodge that used to be home for the old folks. Until recently, Woody Lodge was a home for the mentally infirm. Many apparently lived there until they died, and, because it is believed that the souls of the mad remain earth-bound after death, the area is rumoured to be haunted.

Nowadays, Woody Lodge is somewhat vacant. But if you walk near it at night, you will always hear one or two ear piercing screams from inside, possibly from the incurable mental patients. Are they screams from the living ghosts or living patients who can see ghosts? It is a very scary experience.

Killer Lilly Pond
(Source: Hearsay from a local kampong resident)

At about 300 meters away from Woody Lodge situated Kampong Lorong Buang Kok. The year was 1979, two children mysteriously went missing near the lily pond after school. They were last seen walking towards the pond by their classmates. Madam Teng who was a widow and a mother of the two missing kids was very sad upon hearing the news. On the same day she went to the pond in the evening and the nearby forest for a desperate search, hopefully would find back her two kids. Just like the two missing kids, Madam Teng never return home. The neighbors on the next morning discovered her white dress in the pond. But, similar to the previous missing case of the two children, no body was found.

The whole village was very frightened over this strange incident as the news spread. Nobody dared to walk near the pond anymore. One day, however, three polytechnic students went to the pond for sightseeing. They gathered at the edge of the pond happily chattering till very late. One of the them with her feet dipping in the water. Suddenly she felt something was pulling her legs into the water. Her other two friends tried grapping her out. They struggled for quite some time before she was saved out of the water. On her leg, they saw a horrible wound with five long bleeding scratches. What more horrible is, as described by the girl who fell into the pond, there was a mid-age lady in white joining the rescue and together the lady helped pulling her up side by side with her two friends. The two friends just looked at each other speechless in tremendous fear.

This weird incident was then made known to the villagers. They all suspected it was due to some dirty thing and Madam Teng's spirit in the pond. On a chosen auspicious day, the villagers sealed up the pond.

But weird happenings didn't stop after the pond was sealed. Many villagers claimed that they saw Madam Teng's spirit wandering in the forest after sunset. She seemed to be lost, moving swiftly and aimlessly from tree to tree. And she always wore a long white dress and her hairs were always wet, according to those witnesses who had glimpses of Madam Teng's spirit.

The entrance to the kampong was a path leading through the forest. Nobody dared to go out at night as this had scared the whole village. The haunting of Madam Teng became more and more fierce. Children at night would suddenly cry out of nothing; the parents were all very afraid. Some children were old enough to speak said that they saw a white dress lady with wet hair suddenly appeared beside them and asked them where was her home. Some children who had not seen the spirit but encountered it in a way of feeling a light breath on their neck, and hearing whispers of Madam Teng asking 'Where am I? Where is my home?'

The haunting had become quite serious. One night after a village meeting, the villagers decided to hold a ritual by a inviting a powerful dengkee from Ipoh. The dengkee after inspecting the whole area, speculated that one of the three 'parts' of Madam Teng's soul was missing, possibly she lost it when she was going through some extreme frightening. (In Chinese belief, our human soul is comprised of three parts so to be complete - that was very hard to explain). But nobody knows what Madam Teng had encountered and why she lost one part of her soul, not even the dengkee himself. The dengkee said those without a complete soul would not be able to go to another realm after life, because the soul was incomplete. And the soul may not be able to come home for it was not conscious about the direction to go home. In other words, the incomplete soul will become earth-bound, usually at around the place where she died. The villagers felt that it was a mistake to seal off the pond too early. But it was too late.

The villagers became more afraid than ever because Madam Teng's soul now had no senses, it and would blindly move around and frightened the kids. They pleaded the dengkee to do something about it. After thinking for many hours, the dengkee had an idea. He performed a ritual in front of Madam Teng's house for seven consecutive nights and suggested getting a virgin who was born in the year of Snake or Horse draw a portrait of Madam Teng on the front door. Hence when the spirit happened to see the painting of her own, she would be reminded that was her home. A villager even suggested to paint a Madam Teng's dream home on the wall as well. Madam Teng was in fact planning to purchase a condominium with her husband and move out from the kampong, when her husband who was a rich merchant to come back from Taiwan for good. Unfortunately her husband died just last year in a car accident and Madam Teng's dream had not been realized.

After the ritual was finished and the paintings were drawn, no more sighting of the Madam Teng's spirit was reported. Nowadays, a sofa donated by the neighbour was still placed outside Madam Teng's house. It was meant to let Madam Teng rest on should she find her home. This kind-hearted neighour would even offer a bowl of rice with three joss-sticks inserted on top every night until she passed away only recently.

Today this urban legend had almost forgotten; only remembered by some elderly. And of course the house of Madam Teng, the sofa and the paintings on the door, are all deserted in a secluded kampong. The pond had been sealed long time ago. Very few people would know that there once existed a pond, and the paranormal things happened there before.

Where is Madam Teng's incomplete spirit today? Did she go home already or to the other world? What happened to her two kids? What is weird about the lily pond? Perhaps only God knows the answers...
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Pictorial Tour

1. Along the road leading up to Woody Lodge you will see three make-shift altars. They house a wide range of Chinese deities.
2. This is the first altar situated at the bend of Lorong Buangkok. At the altar, there is a bottle of numbered dice.
Many superstitious taxi drivers come to this altar to pray for 4D. This area is infamous for its spiritual 'chi' according to the drivers
3. At a junction of Buangkok Link, it shows a sign post "Sun Love House". You will know Woody Lodge is nearby
4. It is fenced in by concrete walls topped off with rolls of barbed wire, probably to deter the denizens it once housed from escaping


1. This is the Sun Love Home that has metal framed windows and enclosed design. Those who entered may not ever come out anymore
2. On top of the front door has a big sign 'Sun Love' and a portrait of Sai Baba whose love and compassion encompasses
3. Inside the compound, there are numerous quarantine rooms for the dangerous infirmed, that makes the whole place like a prison
4. A mental patient starring at us coldly behind the iron bars. We wonder if he would be able to return to the outside world again


1 & 2. The security here is quite tight as you can see that metal fences and gates with barbed wires prevents anyone here from escaping
3. At a secluded corner beside Sun Love house we found a small altar. We were told that there are many altars here because of haunting
4. The god of warrior idol is already quite blemished. Look, on the wall behind there seemed to have a twisted skull image.
This perhaps is more obvious when it was taken in night vision mode - see here.


1. Further up the Lorong Buangkok, you will be welcomed by a giant tree. It is one of the first old huge trees flanked along the road
 2. Behind the huge tree, here is another altar; here is another view. 3 & 4. it is well organized with rows of idol deities inside.
Sunkist oranges and strong teh are offered along with joss-sticks in front of the altar. See picture.


1-3. Round the corner, this is the other side of the Sun Love House, formerly Woody Lodge.
You can see the graffiti on the stained walls plus the old trees and tall lallang give a very spooky view; here is another view.
4. This notice is found at the old entrance of Woody Lodge. The elderly home is now moved to Palengi Village just next to IMH
What left here is changed to Sun Love Home that is for the incurable mental patients that may have to be detained here till they die


1. Not all the graffiti at Woody Lodge are eerie though; this is a lovely piece of drawing donated by the kind efforts of NTU students
Click here for a close-up.
2 & 3. Kind-hearted people would still come and offer gifts to the patients in the Sun Love Home
4. In Sun Love Home there is a chapel called St Luke's Church. Hopefully the patients after they die will be received on God's hands
'May God bless the unfortunate souls who do not have the intellectual ability to know Christ but would still have the salvation. Amen'


At the end of the road, when you make a U-turn from Sun Love House, you will encounter three altars of different sizes placed at a tree
This whole place is pitch-dark at night. You will see spooky candle lights flicking, very eerie atmosphere
If you are down at luck, wardens from Sun Love House may catch your shoulder from behind at night, suspecting you were an escapee
They won't listen to you even you said you are PM Goh or from Lee's family, because many patients inside said the same thing
Of course they won't buy your true confession even you said you just happen to pass by, or come here to take a look..
The fact is, nobody sane will come here at night



Come view them alive (1) (2) (3) (4)


Come view them alive (1) (2) (3) (4)


Come view them alive (1) (2) (3) (4)

Inside the three altars you will find an almost complete range of Chinese idol deities.
In one of our Ghoulish Trails, a participant said that after touching an idol it followed him home! And he fell sick for a whole week.
So you are warned: Click enlarge the above photos absolutely at your own risk!



Adjunct to Lorong Buangkok is a ruin site of an old kampong. The perimeter however had been blocked up.
According to an informant, some tens years ago, he used to makan and it was quite developed with coffee shop and so on.
That was when Woody Lodge was still operating as an elderly home. However, the whole lot of residence evacuated due to two rumors
One is malaria broke out from that area and the government just sealed it up; The other one is more scary..
Residents there got possessed at night one by one. Many had become mentally retarded just like those in Sun Love House
The scary part is, coincidentally the possession case came after some patient at Sun Love House passed away!
The whole kampong just got freaked out and moved away. So if you want to explore there, watch out for deadly virus and spirits


However Kampong Lorong Buang Kok stands still today. This kampong used to be filmed by TCS8 for their TV show "Spring has come"
Everything is well preserved as it was in the 1950s. You can still see kampong chickens freely running around here


SPI interviewed a local resident who lives in this kampong for her whole life
It was hoped that she can lead us to find the original site of the haunted lily pond
Disappointingly the pond is gone long ago, now there left only a paddle of water


1. We lately found the house that is believed to be Madam Teng's
2. According to the Killer Lilly Pond legend, Madam Teng's front door has a painting of her own face and her dream home
3. This is a close up of Madam Teng's portrait. Here is another closer-up. And an ultimate close-up.
Dare you click here for a very ghostly view of Madam Teng; you will see a drawing grid behind her head (Warning: It is very horrible)
If you print it out & paste it on a wall in your bedroom, her spirit may find its way to your house then! (Just joking, please don't do it)
When you stare at the picture long enough, you will see her face slowly turn to you.. then you know her spirit has come
4. The sofa is believed to be donated by a kind neighbour; a bowl of rice with joss-sticks would be placed on it, for Madam Teng's soul

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