Things that go ‘bump’ in the night, to which the Western tradition of Halloween is today largely dedicated, have long been part of Southeast Asian folklore. Notable among the region’s most frightful spectres is the Arp, a disembodied female head who floats around at night scaring the bejesus out of nocturnal types with her glistening fangs and glowing, bloody entrails.
Legend has it she’s the ghost of a Khmer princess defeated in battle and later burnt at the stake after the Siamese aristocrat to whom she’d been promised caught her in the arms of her lover (a lower-ranking lover, at that). In desperation, a Khmer sorceress cast a powerful spell to protect the princess, but by the time the magic took effect only her head and intestines had escaped the flames. Today, this grisly apparition – all that remains of her royal highness – is believed to roam the Southeast Asian countryside under cover of darkness, sating its infernal appetite for flesh by preying on everything from pigs to pregnant women.
Twentieth-century ethnographer Phraya Anuman Rajadhon was the first scholar in Thailand to study regional beliefs in the paranormal. He notes that the Arp’s taste for the blood of the unborn is believed by many folk in rural areas to be the cause of diseases affecting women during pregnancy. To protect mothers-to-be, relatives place thorny branches around the home until after the child is delivered to snag the Arp’s dangling viscera. Once the newborn has been safely ushered into this world, they then bury the placenta as far away as possible in as deep a hole as possible in order to thwart attacks by the bloodthirsty spirit.
Such grisliness was made famous in the first Cambodian film produced following the fall of the Khmer Rouge: Konm Eak Madia Arp (‘My Mother is Arp’) became a cult hit almost overnight when it was released in 1980 following years of cultural suppression by the doomed Marxist regime. But the arb is not alone in Cambodia’s annals of horror. In the Buddhist Institute of Cambodia’s Collection of Old Khmer Tales, which hark back to the dark days of animism, stories serve to instruct not on the virtues of being good, but as a warning against the perils of evil.
“Like the Germanic tales originally collected by the Grimm brothers, these Khmer folktales are not sweet, gentle stories designed to whisk children away into a land of dreams and wonder, but rather stark warnings as to the very real perils and pitfalls of the world in which they live,” notes khmerbuddhistrelief.org, on which several such tales have been translated into English. “Concocted at a time when wild animals still posed a mortal threat in daily life, the stories can be violent, cruel and unmerciful. Intellect almost always triumphs over brute strength, but not always in the interest of justice. Clever schemes may be devised for the sake of self-preservation or revenge, or simply used to manipulate and exploit the ignorant and naive for no other end than amusement. Such are the harsh realities of the world for which these tales give the listener fair warning.”
As you don ghoulish garb to celebrate the pagan rituals of October 31, consider yourself duly warned. But as Spike Milligan famously said: “Things that go ‘bump’ in the night should not really give one a fright. It’s the hole in each ear that lets in the fear; that, and the absence of light!”
HALLOWEEN HIGHLIGHTS:
SAT 27
Drawn of the dead
Spooky face painting, remote control car races and live art demos by Global Art. 3pm at the Garden Terrace, Himawari Hotel, #313 Sisowath Quay.
Occult viewing
Italian director/musician Antonio Nardone’s film Blood Red Karma tells the story of Marc, a young man who disappeared in Cambodia while researching mysterious ghost stories. The madness which slowly possesses Marc leads the audience into the dark side of Cambodian beliefs amid the horrors of the country’s recent past. 4pm at Meta House, #37 Sothearos Blvd.
Spooked
DJ Westly spins while you battle it out for costume prizes. 7pm at Okun Ja, St. 336.
Trick or treat?
Cuba’s most famous musical sons Warapo provide the soundtrack to a special Halloween dinner ‘with surprises’. 8pm at Latin Quarter, cnr St. 178 and 19.
Kinky witch
Don your scariest costume and rub shoulders with Kinky Witches with tunes by DJs Audi, N.me and Lefty. 9pm at Nova, #19 St. 214.
SUN 28
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Fancy dress, drinking games, live music and Halloween mayhem. 3pm at Sundance Saloon, #61 St. 178.
WED 31: High spirits
DJ Gang, a resident at Pontoon, takes the turntables for the FCC’s hip-hop-electro/dirty dutch Halloween night. 8:30pm at The FCC, Sisowath Quay.
NOV 2: Get your freak on
Free shots for the most imaginative Halloween costumes at What’s Up Phnom Penh’s Halloween shindig, with tunes by Bassbender and BBoy Peanut. 8pm at The Eighty8, #96 St. 88.