Red shirts in the north used for supernatural, not political reasons

The northeast region of Thailand is often associated with the Redshirt movement but three villages in the area are looking to red shirts, not for political reasons but supernatural ones.

Residents in the three villages of Buriram province – Ban Khok Sa-ad, Ban Khok Yai, and Ban Tago – have taken to hanging red shirts in front of their houses with cardboard or text imprinted on the shirts which read “Nobody′s Home”. Another variation says “Only Angels Live Here. No Humans”. They explanation they have given for this rather strange practice is that they are trying to fool an evil headless spirit who they believe has been haunting their villages for several weeks and has the capacity to possess individuals as well as taking away their lives.

The villagers told reporters that the haunting started in areas where people had died from unknown causes, which they attributed to the ghost. However, the villagers said, there were also survivors who were woken up in time by their relatives as they were possessed by the ghost in their sleep.

A psychic has been brought to the villages to act as the medium to the alleged spirit, and informed the villagers that the spirit belonged to a headless ghost. The diagnosis greatly frightened the villagers, but the psychic advised the residents to hang red shirts in front of their house as a precaution.

Mr. Sompong Prom-Ngam, Deputy Headsman of the Khok Sa-ad Village, stated that most villagers are scared and have been restless after the occurrence of an incident. He claimed that one of the ghosts′ victims was a man in his 40s who died without pre-existing medical condition. “Many people couldn′t sleep at night, even though they already hang the red shirts in front of their houses,” Mr. Sompong said.

According to Mr. Sompong, there are also residents refuse to believe in the story about the ghosts, but they did not openly air their thoughts, since death still stalks the communities.

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