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The Wangkang festival is a unique event aimed to pick up evil spirits and wandering souls believed to be responsible for sickness and epidemics, ultimately to cast them away and bring peace to the world.

Back in the 1930s, Kuching and Malacca were the only two towns outside of China in which this festival was held.

How did the festival come to Sarawak in the first place? On Feb 2, 1937, a man named Jee Eng Fui from Simanggang wrote an open letter to Ong Kee Hui in The Sarawak Gazette.

Jee asked the latter two questions; how did the Wangkang festival come to be a customary procession among the Chinese at Kuching once every two years? And was there anything concerning it in Sarawak history?

Jee added that he had heard one version of Wangkang festival origin in Sarawak. An old man told him that one morning the old Rajah (it is unsure which Rajah) used his telescope to look towards the mouth of the Kuching river.

The rajah then saw a very curious junk and he became very anxious to see it when it reached Kuching.

However, the junk never came. He searched for it with his telescope again but saw nothing.

The next morning, the rajah looked into his telescope in the same direction and saw the junk again.

This time, he sent a search party to the river but they returned without finding anything.

The rajah told his Chinese friend about the story who had then informed him that he must have seen a Wangkang.

That was how the rajah came to know about Wangkang rite and procession. He then allowed the Chinese community in Kuching to hold the Wangkang festival.

Ong, who later became a prominent politician and founder of Sarawak United People’s Party replied Jee in an open letter published in The Sarawak Gazette (Apr 1, 1937).

Here is the content of the letter on the origin of Wangkang Festival in Sarawak:

“Dear Mr Eng Fui,

It has given me much pleasure to receive your letter dated the 15th instant. Your enquiries are of considerable interest to me and I only hope you will excuse the delay in relying.

As a result of enquiries which I have made from my grandfather, Mr Ong Tiang Swee, supplemented by information gathered from my uncle Teck Khoon, I am able to answer your queries. I think you now know how the Wangkang procession started in China, but in case you do not, I will give a brief account of its origin.

A certain Emperor (Ban Lek?) in the Ming Dynasty was a most sceptical man in matters spiritual, and even went so far as to question the powers of his spiritual adviser (Teo Thian Soo).

He demanded some sort of proof of this man’s supernatural powers, and put forward a scheme to set the adviser’s powers to the test. He had a big tunnel dug, fully ventilated and well provisioned, and in the tunnel he put forty of his officers of the rank of Chin Soo.

Over the tunnel the spiritual adviser was told to use all his powers and try to kill the officers inside.

The challenge was accepted, and as a result all the forty officers were killed.

The revenge of the dead

The Emperor was satisfied but not so the spirits of the victims of the experiment.

They haunted the palace and pestered the Emperor, who had no peace of mind.

The cruelty of the whole thing invoked the vengeance of the power above, and China was visited by an epidemic of cholera, which killed a large number of people.

At last the Emperor had to appease the spirits of the forty Chin Soo and make some sort of treaty with them.

The Emperor promoted them all to the rank of Wang and empowered them to visit every district in his kingdom as his representative.

He also gave out that all honour and respect had to be accorded them wherever they went, if not, they could wreak their vengeance on the people of the locality.

The spirits were satisfied, and on an appointed day with much ceremony they were given a public send off on their long, long voyage that was to have no end in a junk especially made for them.

And thus was started the first Wangkang procession in China.

The letter then continued on how it came to Sarawak:

The story of the old Rajah and the Chinese junk he saw has no connection with the origin of the Wangkang procession in Kuching.

What actually happened was that a serious epidemic of cholera broke out in Kuching; hundreds of people died, and as there were so many people dying each day no proper burial could be given them.

As a result, the whole town reeked with the terrible smell of the dead.

The Rajah (Charles Brooke) was at loss to know what to do. The older Chinese, recalling what had happened during the Ming Dynasty in China, came to the conclusion that the forty Chin Soo must have reached Sarawak at last, and the epidemic of cholera was an indication that they were here.

So steps were taken after a public meeting to entertain the visiting spirits, and to send them away with all honour and respect.

Thus was started the first Wangkang procession in Sarawak.

The epidemic was then so bad that the Rajah really did not care a pin what people did so long as normal conditions were restored, so no objection was raised and it transpired (whether it was coincidence or not, we cannot say), that the epidemic stopped some time after the procession.

An arrangement was then made with the spirits concerning their next visit, and that was how the ten years’ interval came into being.

I need hardly add that there has been no epidemic of cholera in Sarawak since. Firm believers attribute this to the effect of the Wangkang procession.

Personally, I think that the real cause of the epidemic has been removed, namely a bad water supply.

Kuching was in the old days dependent on the river for water, and you can imagine how dirty river water can be especially during dry season.

No wonder there was cholera!

Now with the supply of good and pure water we have from Matang such a state of affairs no longer exists, and chances of serious epidemics are remote.

Yours sincerely,

Ong Kee Hui

Fast forward to today, the festival became recognised as Malaysia’s National Intangible Heritage in 2013, has been submitted to Unesco to be recognised as intangible cultural heritage.

Read more:

How to cure Cholera According to Old Sarawakian Traditions

Known as “pelanduk” in Malay and Iban, a mouse-deer belongs to the genus Tragulus of even-toed ungulates.

It belongs to the same family of lesser mouse-deer or kancil.

While the lesser mouse-deer is known for its cunning behavior in Indonesian and Malaysian folktales, the Melanau community of Sarawak also have a similar tale about the mouse-deer or pelanduk.

Here is the legend of how a mouse-deer tricked a pig and a deer to save itself recorded by Brooke Low:

There was once a mouse-deer who, during a stroll, fell into a pit. Try as he might, he could not find a way to get out.

Coincidentally, a pig came and spotted the mouse-deer inside the pit. The pig then asked what the mouse-deer was doing down there.

“Oh, don’t you know,” the mouse-deer replied, feigning confidence, “the sky is going to fall in and everyone will be smashed unless he has a hole to hide in.”

After listening to the mouse-deer, the pig leaped in.

The mouse-deer then jumped onto the pig’s back, but he was still not high enough to leap out.

Next came a deer, who also asked the two animals what they were doing in the hole. The mouse-deer told him the same lie.

So, the deer jumped into the hole, afraid that the sky might fall and smash down upon him.

The mouse-deer somehow tricked the deer into standing on top of the pig’s back. The moment they were in the right position, the mouse-deer jumped out from the pit and made it to safety.

Dumbfounded, the pig and the deer finally realised that they were tricked.

Thankfully, the tale doesn’t end here for these two unfortunate animals. In order to escape from the pit, they both scratched the earth along the sides, creating a small mound in the centre. Then, they used the mound to jump out from the hole.

Deer and pig look for vengeance

Once the deer and the pig escaped from the hole, they both vowed to have their revenge. They followed the trail of the mouse-deer and found it standing on top of a tree where a bee’s nest was hanging.

“Come down from the tree because we want to kill you,” said the pig and the deer.

“I can’t, the king has got me to watch his gong,” the mouse-deer answered as it pointed to the bee’s nest.

Excited by the idea that it was the ‘king’s gong’, the deer said it had always wanted to ring it.

“So you may if you let me come down and get at a distance before you strike. The noise would deafen me,” the mouse-deer said.

The moment the deer and the pig allowed it, the mouse-deer came down and ran away to safety.

So the deer took a stick to strike the ‘king’s gong’ and was instantly stung to death by the bees.

The pig and the mouse-deer

Meanwhile, the pig went after the mouse-deer in a rage. And again, the mouse-deer was caught up by the pig.

And again, the mouse-deer climbed up a tree to escape the pig.

The mouse-deer then told the pig that it was now watching the king’s girdle, pointing at something black, long and leathery.

“Now, isn’t it pretty? I never saw a more handsome girdle in my life,” said the mouse-deer.

The pig agreed saying, “How I should like to wear it but for one day.”

“Well, so you may,” said the mouse-deer, “but be careful or you may spoil it.”

The pig gingerly got into the ‘kings’ girdle’, but was then crushed to death by what was, in fact, a cobra.

The mouse-deer then gleefully went on its way after outwitting its enemies.

If we were to name one female ghost you should never mess with, the Iban folktale figure koklir is somewhere on top of our list.

Other ghosts such as pontianak or balan-balan are tame compared to the koklir, because they are known to kill men by taking their testicles.

What an unexpected way to die right?

According to Iban ethnologist Benedict Sandin, during ancient times it was alleged that many places around Kapuas river delta and especially the Pontianak river took their names from the koklir.

So where did this ghost come from?

It is believed that every unfortunate woman who dies during childbirth is converted into a koklir.

However, there is a way to prevent it from happening, which is by pricking the soles of the deceased’s feet with thorns of a citrus tree.

While there are plenty of stories of how koklir roam around looking for victims, here are two tales of this ghost you probably haven’t heard:

1.The widower and his only son

Long, long ago, there was a widower who lived in a farm hut with his only son.

One evening right before sunset, they went out in their boat to fish up the river.

All of a sudden, it started to rain. The father and son gave up fishing, coming ashore to take shelter in one of the huts they spotted from the river.

When they arrived at the hut, they found it was occupied by two lovely women. The women invited them in and lit a fire to keep them warm.

The women then prepared food for their guests. After they finished their meal, the widower continued to warm himself while his son sat naked near him.

At the sight of the boy’s testicles, one of the women said, “Hai wai wai! It’s the sweet stuff!”

Slowly, her nails appeared to grow sharper and longer. That moment, the father realised that the women were in fact koklir ghosts.

Without wasting a second, the father dragged his son out and they began to run for their lives. The koklir ghosts instantly started to chase them.

When the father arrived at their boat, he overturned it so that they could hide underneath it.

As the ghosts could not go into water, they jumped on top of the boat, boring through it with their sharp nails.

When the boat was about to be ripped open by their sharp nails, the sun began to rise and the koklir ghosts disappeared.

Despite the cold and shock, the widower and his son were grateful that they managed to make their escape.

2.The koklir and the enturun

There was once a newly married man and his wife who went to pay a traditional matrimonial visit to the bride’s house in a tradition called nyundang pinang.

In the middle of the journey, they were surprised by the sound of a koklir ghost. Terrified for their safety, they ran as fast as they could.

Since the man was the target, he climbed a tree to save himself while his wife sat down at the foot of the tree.

As she sat there, a young woman came to her and they started to chat.

While talking, the wife asked the woman if she could pick the lice from her hair.

After the woman agreed, the wife immediately start to pick the lice from the her hair.

While the woman was thus distracted, the husband climbed back down the tree and cut off her head.

It was a clean cut and she died instantly. Then the couple realised she was the “enturun”, a mystical creature that was said to be half bear and half cat.

Legend has it that to this day, koklir still lurk in the shadows at night looking for men’s testicles.