The Relau Haunted House (湖内鬼屋)

This is the notoriously haunted mansion in Relau, Penang. I was taking this photo this morning in my car with the engine running and suddenly my car's engine stalled for the first time in 8 years! Perhaps it was the spirits who had play pranks on me... Anyway, the shrine worships '9 brothers of stone' (石头公九兄弟) and the internal of the mansion is out of bound to general public.

This is a famous or infamous haunted mansion situated just beside the Relau Metropolitan Garden. It has been the subject of a few paranormal programs coverage both within and outside Malaysia.

According to local history, this is a western-oriental style mansion belonged to a Chinese captain, Zheng Jinggui (郑景贵). There is a pool in the center of the mansion and the place was used to conduct business negotiations. Incidentally, this pool is touted to be the ‘first swimming pool in Penang’.

This is how this mansion became haunted:

About 50 to 60 years ago, a young lady committed suicide by jumping into the said pool because her parents had objected her relationship with her lover. Because the lady had died with great hatred, her restless soul still haunts the mansion and areas around it.

Many years later, a 70 year old nun moved into the mansion to meditate. She claimed to have seen the spirit of this young lady emerged from the swimming pool. It was said that the old nun has made a personal request to a Theravada monk so that the restless soul is delivered.

When the time was right, 3 monks in charge of 3 temples together with 30 disciples performed a grand deliverance ritual to save this poor soul. I was told that the lightings were interrupted twice during the prayer.

Perhaps the deliverance ritual was not successful as the mansion and areas around it still haunted by the spirit. A local even claimed that a ‘ghost car’ emerged from the old mansion with a full of headless passengers.

The mansion later fell into the possession of a family with the surname Wen. Not long after Wen family taken over the place, one of the suns and a maid had fallen into the pool and drowned. Not long after the drowning incidents, the said drowned souls started to haunt the mansion; together with the soul of restless lady previously mentioned.

I was staying in an apartment opposite to the haunted mansion for a few years. A medium who always perform exorcising ritual to appease the restless souls told me that the restless soul of the three not only haunt the mansion and areas around it; they at times too would enter into the apartment block where I stayed and wander about. People experiencing bad luck and small kids can see these shadowy figures. My bro’s son and daughter did complaint of being disturbed by some shadowy figures and I had to perform rituals to cast them out a few times.

It seems that all those Taoist and Buddhist deliverance rituals had failed to send the restless spirits to the other side. Perhaps these spirits will roam the area for another 50 years or so but I just have to let them be as I don’t have another 50 years to go in this life!