Leen, a 14-year-old Thai boxer at Singpatong Gym and veteran of over 50 fights, has been afraid of ghosts since he was a kid growing up in southern Thailand's Trang Province. He was one of the eight young Singpatong boxers I interviewed earlier this year. During the interviews, I asked each boy a series of open-ended questions to get them talking. One question I asked Leen was, "What are you most afraid of?"
Ghosts, he said. He remembered a car accident he witnessed as a young child, said he worried the ghosts of the departed would follow him back home. It took ages for his parents to convince him he was safe.
I asked where ghosts exist, and he said everywhere. There are spirits everywhere, wherever people live, wherever trees and animals live.
"Are there ghosts here at this gym?"
"Yes," he said.
"Can you tell me about them?"
He looked to our interpreter Prim for reassurance. Prim's father Num is the owner of the gym; Leen had known her since his arrival at the gym four years ago. Prim gently encouraged Leen to tell his story. "Lib, the deaf boy, was the one who saw her first," he started.
Leen: It was night time and the boys were getting ready to sleep. Lib was lying on the bed when he saw something move across the room. He looked up and saw a girl with long hair holding a doll in her arms, sitting high up in the rafters of our room. He was so scared that he started crying. Lib ran out to get our trainer P' Mart, who told Lib to go back to our room and call him if anyone saw her again. P' Mart believed Lib because other boys see the girl around the gym too. And they always tell P' Mart about it.
I was away in my hometown when Lib first saw the girl. When I got back to the gym, some of the boys started making jokes about ghosts in our room, saying they all saw a ghost when I was gone. I thought they were teasing me about it because they knew I was afraid of ghosts. But then later some other boys said, "That wasn't a joke. There is really a ghost here," and they told me what happened to Lib. They didn't laugh or smile when they told me. I knew they were serious.
I don't know who the girl is. We see her in other parts of the gym. When we go by P' Mart's room, sometimes we see her there outside, standing next to a tree, or sometimes in the doorway of P' Mart's room. I don't know if P' Mart has seen her, but I know he believes she's there.
Over a dozen boys share a large room at the gym, so they are rarely alone. The trainers live in rooms across the training area from the boys, and are never far away. Leen likes to be around people, doubly so because he fears ghosts. "I don't like being alone in our room, but so many of us live together that I don't have to be alone often," he said.
Leen: Sometimes we dream about ghosts. They come to us when we're sleeping. One of them came to Himron [another young boxer at the gym] when he was sleeping. Himron used to go outside at night and pee on the tree right near our room. Then one night, he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't move. He told us about it the next morning. When you wake up but you can't move, it means a ghost is sitting on you. We believe that sometimes trees have spirits, and Himron was scared of what happened to him so he doesn't pee on that tree anymore.
Some ghosts are good and some are bad. I'm Muslim and I used to pray before fights but now I pray a lot more because I'm afraid. I know there are ghosts in our room, like the girl up in the rafters, or the spirit that sat on Himron. There might be others too. A month ago, we were playing in the room and one of the boys felt this weird feeling like he was being poked in the side.
I later asked gym owner Num if he thought Singpatong was haunted. He laughed and shook his head, scrunched his eyebrows like he couldn't imagine anyone would actually believe there were ghosts at the gym. "The boys like to tell stories," he said.
So I asked my interpreter Prim, Num's daughter, what she thought.
"I do believe that some supernatural powers exist and that there can be life after death," she said, adding that her fear of ghosts keeps her from watching horror movies.
Despite the stories the boys tell each other, Prim doesn't believe Singpatong Gym is specifically haunted. "I think if there are ghosts, they are everywhere and could be in our gym or any other gym. Thais believe that if you see ghosts, there must be something you have done wrong, or you are involved in some incident. I don't think we have done anything wrong. We are innocent [so we have nothing to worry about]."
Prim's father Num dismisses ghost stories as "just for kids," but according to Prim, he does believe in the positive power and blessings that monk statues and figures of King Rama V can bring. "He believes proper respect he pays can return in good luck," she said.
