The Jakarta city administration has moved with exceptional speed to cut down an old mahogany tree said to harbor two distinct forms of Indonesian ghosts.
The extraordinary turn of events has led the religious affairs minister to call on people not to be influenced by “mystical” stories and the National Police chief to appeal for calm.
The saga began when a pocong (shrouded corpse ghost) and kuntilanak (vampiric female ghost) revealed themselves to a child who reportedly made the mistake of relieving himself against the old tree in Roxy, Central Jakarta, on Nov. 26.
In the hysteria that has followed since, hundreds of people have begun visiting the tree with at least ten becoming possessed by spirits.
Photographs and video purporting to be of both the pocong and kuntilanak are now circulating on the Internet.