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‘Blood splattered face’: Tales of terror in Indonesia’s haunted diplomatic outposts
From eerie encounters to dreaded deaths, diplomats from around the world are sure to know a few good Halloween horror stories about Indonesia's outposts.
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The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia occupies the former Walsh mansion, located at 2020 Massachusetts Avenue along Washington, D.C.’s “Embassy Row.” Built as a private residence at the turn of the 20th century, the building is now known as a historic landmark in the nation’s capital. (Wikimedia Commons/Josh Carolina)
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sk any Indonesian if they believe in ghosts and you’ll likely hear one of two answers; either they have a friend or an ill-fated cousin who has had a brush-in with the supernatural, or they can share a few stories of their own that might keep you up at night.
But for some members of the country’s diplomatic corps – even among those who are posted abroad and are allegedly out of the reach of folksy Indonesian apparitions – their duties may sometimes bring them into the path of disembodied spirits.
The Jakarta Post’s Apriza Pinandita gathered a few of these troubling tales just in time for Halloween.
A room for one in New York
In New York City – “The City That Never Sleeps” – there is a spine-chilling story that is still being passed around among the local community. At the Indonesian Consulate General on the Upper East Side, people still talk about a haunted room that was the site of an alleged suicide.
According to a 2006 report in The New York Times, an Indonesian man was found in a blood-splattered basement room of the consulate, “a knife protruding from his chest and one hand nearly severed at the wrist”.
