Plans for giant kuntilanak monster statue in Pontianak in spotlight again after Daily Mail report
Ask any Pontianak resident the meaning of the name of their city, and almost all will tell you about its dark folkloric origin involving the kuntilanak , a terrifying vampiric spirit of a woman who died while pregnant. Legend has it that the city’s founder, Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie, upon settling in the area, was attacked by a group of kuntilanaks (also known as pontianak in Malay). Syarif and his army shot cannon balls at the spirits and banished them from the city (though many who live or have been to Pontianak swear that kuntilanak sightings are common in the city). He then named the city after the ghosts he banished, presumably out of some cruel sense of irony. To this day, citizens of Pontianak shoot cannons every Ramadan as a tradition to honor the spooky legend. Back in January of this year, newly elected West Kalimantan Tourism Board head Kartius came up with the bright idea of milking the myth for some tourism money declaring his plans to build a large kuntilanak statue in the West Kalimantan capital. Just how large? Try 100 meters of pure terrorstaring at people through its face-shrouding jet black hair. But at least people can go to the top of the statue for a picturesque view of Pontianak. Kartius’ plan sparked a lot of discussion among the public and politicans about the feasibility and appropriateness of a monstrous kuntilanak statue, but concrete plans for its construction have not materialized yet. However, Kartius and the city might feel more confident about the statue being a boost to tourism after UK-based tabloid the Daily Mailrecently ran a story on it. © Provided by Coconuts Media Limited Tugu-Kuntilanak The Daily Mail ’s article, dated May 12, managed to spark renewed discussion about the statue in the Indonesian media and created a “story-ception” situation of sorts in which local publications (including us) are reporting on the story based on a famous foreign publication reporting on the story and so on… While the Daily Mail ’s specifics about the kuntilanak statue are largely in line with what local officials have been saying, they did make quite an error by equating the kuntilanak with the ghost from the Japanese horror film ‘The Ring’. While both are terrifying and admittedly look quite similar, one must make the nerdy distinction that the ghost in ‘The Ring’ is that of a child while a kuntilanak is that of a woman who died while pregnant.
| 
Post time 16-5-2017 04:16 PM
变色卡
Author
aku da la suka driving je g kelate
