A scary night investigation to tree spirits at Track 14 cemetery


SPI and WalkerAsia were hunting tree spirits in darkness at Track 14 cemetery.
 

1. We walked up from the new section of tombstones (wait! something is there..) 2. Enlarged photo from the previous one; an orb on the tree
3. We took a side track uphill to the banana plantation; 4. This is the way to the banana plantation on the hill top - Are you ready to go in?

Close encounter of banana trees

By the moment when we reached the hill top, we knew that the banana plantation was just ahead of us.  The tombstones around looked more aged and seasoned; in fact, they were very worn out and broken.  We understood that we were at the entrance to the spooky banana jungle where got scary rumors of how people were killed inside by the spirits.  While we were having a short hesitation cum footrest here, Abductboy briefed Kang and David on the infamous tale of banana spirit that has been circulating among the NS men for a long time.

"The banana spirit is a ghost in the form of a beautiful young lady.  It comes from the banana tree, of course.  The banana spirit is a quite dangerous ghost to dwell with.  There's a belief that if someone (male) ties a red thread or string onto the heart of the banana tree, then drop some of his blood onto the banana tree, and ties the other end of the string to the leg of his bed, the banana spirit would come on that night to make love with him.  The purpose of the ghost is to suck up all the energy of it's victim.  The victim would get tired and more tired as days go by.  Finally, the victim's skin would dry up and he would die.  When the victim dies, it would go for another victim in the same house, as long as the string is still tied."

"And whoever else tried to untie the string, will be killed by the spirit too.  The only way too get rid of the banana spirit is too use a parang (or some huge sharp object) to chop the banana tree off in one shot.", added Abductboy.

After the story, we all looked at each other..  The ambience suddenly returned to dead silence.  Kenny suggested with his thumb pointing to the banana jungle, 'You want to go in?'  Silently and gravely we carried on our pace INTO the banana plantation with a deep breath, without saying anything.

As soon as we stepped in, we saw nothing but banana trees densely grew near each other.  The leaves were so thick and big that we needed to constantly move them away in order to reveal our direction.  Therefore you never know what would be just one meter in front of you until you pushed away the leaves from your face.  We were quite conscious about where we were, right inside the banana spirit dwelling, and outside was the most ancient and deserted section of the cemetery covered by old ruined graves.  After we walked deep into the jungle in ten meters or so, with our back bending down, we had a strange sight right in front of us, that further increased our fast heart-beat.  An empty tent with a bed within!  The story echoed profoundly in our head: 'spirit tempted men to make love in bed.. then sucked dry his energy...'

1. Check it out; 2. Young bananas on the tree; 3. Abductboy was sharing the banana spirit tale with us; 4. Kenny said 'Lets go.. '


1 & 2. We were deep inside the banana jungle; 3 & 4. Suddenly we discovered a scruffy tent.

We checked every corner of the tent and confirmed that no body had been using it recently, for we observed the amount of dust and dirt built up.  Looking out from the shabby shelter, we suddenly noticed something strange on the banana trees!  There were pieces of threads being tied to the banana trees.  The impact of fear was so intense that made us stood still for at least a minute, simply stunned.  We didn't see the threads when we were coming in, did we?  May be we were too busy in moving the leaves away, or..?

At the same time a breeze wiped cross the jungle that swayed the long banana leaves wave like moving arms.  Rattling and flapping sounds hovered above our heads.  That followed by some soiled smell of wet mud and mould.  We were feeling uneasy that couldn't be explained.  Something was telling us to leave.  Our nerves were twitching with fear.  As soon as we regained our focus, hurriedly we shuffled through the banana trees out of the jungle while we still can.  Every step within this plantation caused us discomfort and the need to leave was becoming increasingly urgent.  We quickened our pace all the way out of the plantation to an open ground.  Our mind was too occupied just now till we didn't rest down to take any atmospheric measurement using our meters.  Nevertheless we had the whole proceeding recorded down on film by David, who was always the man backing behind us.

1. Suddenly we found there was a thread tied to banana tree;  2. More of these threads were everywhere around here;
 3 & 4. We traced where the threads led to.

After we all safely got out of the banana jungle, we climbed up a tomb on a high point to locate our bearing.  By using an electronic compass, we roughly worked out our way which was believed to take us to the giant tree that is located somewhere in the middle of the cemetery.  Looking ahead, we saw only blur and dark shadows far at sight.  It wasn't a long walk, however, there was no road.  More specifically, there was no walking track or footpath leading there.  We had to bash our way by crossing over at least a few dozens of tombstones until we reached the giant tree!  Alternatively we could walk back through the banana plantation to our entry point, and use the other way from the other side.  However nobody seemed to be willing to go back to the banana jungle.


A tough journey to the scared tree

Almost apologizingly, Kenny explained our where-about and the tough road ahead to Kang and David who were carrying heavy camera equipment.  We had to struggle stepping up and down through many deserted tomb stones on a high ridge of the cemetery hill.  Gate luckily got his flood-light handy, shining the way on the ground for the filming crew to proceed.  Along the way, we saw a few banana trees scattering throughout the cemetery.  That made us wonder if the whole hill was once a big banana tree jungle before it was turned into a cemetery.

1. Abductboy was leading the way; 2. Searching for the giant scared tree on the cemetery hill top in darkness, sweaty and spooky;
3 & 4. These two photos were in sequence. See how the orbs flew pass the human-shaped tree?

It took us at least half an hour to reach the giant tree.  Yes, we all saw it.  It vaguely looked like a big monster silently sleeping in darkness.  We noticed that this giant tree was the biggest and tallest one in the whole vicinity.  Nearby there was a smaller tree that looked like a human-shaped dummy at about 6 feet tall.  Taking a closer look, we found that the tree itself was grown kind of naturally into such a shape.  Not that a cross-shaped structure was first setup and let the vines grew over, as we thought.  Perhaps it was a guardian tree to such a sacred tree?

It is affirmative to use the word 'sacred' for this particular giant tree not only because of its size or its age.  At the base of the tree, a wooden worship altar was setup.  A tablet in the altar has its name clearly written in Chinese: "Big Tree Deity" (in direct translation).  Obliviously some people had come to honor this giant tree as a sacred one and built an altar once upon a time, and offered spiritual rituals thereafter.  After praying to this tree spirit for several years, the residents established a little shrine under the tree some decades ago, with their offerings.  A joss-stick ash urn and some cups used for ritual were there in the altar.  And the altar was painted in red-color to reflect its holiness according to Chinese religions.  However, due to seasoning, most of the paints had peeled off.  Even the seven-color wind wheel as Feng Shui ornament placed opposite to the sacred tree faded its color.

1. Ok, we finally found it; 2. A close up of a tree altar that has an address of 'Big Tree Deity';
3. Suddenly we felt a chill under the tree.. and hastily we took this picture;
4. An orb was flying out of the altar (Note that it was moving up in motion with a tail. Thus it was not reflection of a dust particle)


1. Side view of the tree; 2. Banana trees grown on a grave (imagine how the roots seized the remain underneath, and the calcium they intake from it)
3. Here is another thread that tied on the scared tree; 4. SPI and WalkerAsia were leaving the cemetery hill.
 

Years had passed by, as this old giant tree stood and witnessed many of our ancestors were sent here for burial.  According to Chinese Feng Shui, electing a giant sacred tree here with regular worships by people would help keeping the spirits lying underneath the graves or those wandering ones rest in peace.  It had a role of caretaker or a policeman to play in the spiritual realm.

For those who believe in spirits, this place was certainly filled with all kinds spirits every where, in trees, in stones, in graves and one powerful peace-keeper deity in the scared tree.  Otherwise they were merely substances of earth and wood from a skeptics eye.  We had detected a temperature drop of about 8 degrees under the sacred tree.  Well it was surely cool and spooky under this giant tree in this eerie setting.  Goosebumps were popping up from my skins too.  Whether you believe in spirits or not, you would feel respectful to such heritage ancient tree that is so scarce in our modern society.

1. Red glow; 2. A greenish gleaming entity (see the brightened version); 3. Orb that has a distinct face;
4. Many spiritual orbs seemed to be detaching off from the giant scared tree.

A final surprise

We regarded this as a successful investigation field trip as we have collected plenty of photographic evidence.  These photos suggest that tree worship on banana spirits as well as giant sacred trees are more than just rumors in Singapore.  We joyfully made our way back.  From the sacred tree we carefully trekked down the hill and returned to the main road.  Curiously the WalkerAsia camera man, David, asked SPI why this cemetery was called Track 14.  In fact this CCK cemetery district as shown on the map reached across several miles.  There are streets named after numbers, such as Track 13, 14 and 15, etc.  However, for this particular cemetery hill that was the most concentrated region for Chinese burial, Track 14 was somehow used.  Most of the neighborhood areas around Track 14 are wild jungles classified as state land - restricted areas for the military away from the public.

Coincidentally Track 14 has a similar pronunciation of "The road of Must Die" or "Sure Die" in Chinese.

While we shared this information with David we were walking along the road of Track 14 to our car.  He was filming the whole sequence while listening.

Now, the surprise has come when we come to review the video tape that was sent by WalkerAsia several weeks later, on the above event.

"There was an unexplained entity standing at the roadside during the filming of walkerasia at Track 14 CCK cemetery."  The apparition was captured on film while Kenny and David were discussing about the name of Track 14 at the end of the investigation.

Abductboy went back there at both day time and night time to check if it was a tree stump.  And he couldn't find anything or stump on that side of the road which is the side opposite the tombstones.  There was just a row of lampposts with NOTHING IN BETWEEN.

1 & 3. A ghost apparition was found in WalkerAsia video; 2 & 4. The respective close-ups of 1 & 3.


1 & 2. Apparition under test in Photoshop. 3 & 4. Day time photos of the same spot showing no bush or object.

Kenny, on the other hand, has analyzed the pictures with Photoshop.  Here are the findings:

(1) The first image-processed picture shows clearly that there is "something" with an outline of a human shape under the Edge-tracing function.

(2) & (3) They show that "something" looks as if accompanying by a smaller figure (a child).  And they were standing right on the top of a shrub of weed.

But checking the day time photo taken by Abductboy, nothing was found around the shrub of weed.  Well, there was a fence and some support posts just a few feet behind the shrub that could probably project a light refection, a skeptic may argue.  However, the silhouette thing was ON TOP of the weed, not behind.  And it doesn't seem that the fence did reflect any light at anywhere else.

so what is "IT"?!

Kenny suggested we go there again, at the exact spot and same angle, re-film the scene using night-vision.  Just to prove that it is not due to reflection or any sort.

Kenny can still vividly remember.. Some years ago, when SPI first ventured into Track 14 cemetery, we captured a big mass of ectoplasm near the same area... do you believe in coincidence?  Spirits won't anyhow appear on film.  Is this an omen?  A message that something want to convey to us?  All these questions remain as a mystery.

The truth is out there...