How many ‘ghost
kings’ are there in Penang if you ask? Although I am not very sure of the
actual numbers because as one so-called ghost king died, another one emerged
automatically. Most of these famous ‘ghost kings’ are dubbed by people outside
Penang. Hong Kong entertainment medias had a role to play too to bring up the
names of Penang ghost king.
While I
cannot comment on the ‘current’ Penang Ghost King, I do have a story about
former Penang Ghost King Tek.
Ah Tek was
a famous character who was said to have fostered hundreds of ghosts and people
would just call Ah Tek as ‘Uncle Tek’. Uncle Tek was said to be famous in 70’s
and 80’s. Old Penang folks would remember this special character. Many famous
Hong Kong stars had witnessed the power of Uncle Tek. It was said that in the
mid of 70s, the notorious haunting of former location of an emporium at Nathan
Road, Hong Kong was settled by Uncle Tek alone. Besides that, many movie stars
were also once faithful customers of Uncle Tek.
However
about 10 years ago, a Hong Kong TV station tried to search out Uncle Tek for a
special edition. When they finally managed to find Uncle Tek at his temple, the
originally stout 6ft physique of Uncle Tek became thin as a lath. According to
Uncle Tek that he was a victim of Thai black magic and he would die soon. It
was said that when this special edition was finally aired, Uncle Tek already
passed away.
A famous
story of Uncle Tek was that one night he was having dinner with some visiting
Hong Kong stars. It was around midnight and the group was having supper at a
hawker center at Gurney Drive.
One of the
lady actress asked Uncle Tek half jokingly that if Uncle Tek can really ‘show’
them some real ghosts in front of their naked eyes. And Uncle Tek agreed
without hesitation.
After the
supper, the group travelled to an old Chinese cemetery nearby and Uncle Tek
performed some incantations. It was reported that most of the members of the
group actually saw many white orbs raised from surrounding graves as Uncle Tek
was chanting.
In a state
of panic, many group members scrambled into their van and to be found in horror
that the van was already ‘filled’ with ‘people’!
I didn’t
have a chance to meet Uncle Tek, but I supposed he was only expert in ghost
magic otherwise he would not be harmed by Thai magic. Anyway, that was the
story told to me by a Hong Kong friend and not a local. Funny but true that the
locals don’t even recognized their own ‘ghost king’!