Ubin German Girl Temple, Pulau Ubin, Singapore (Haunted Place)

Singapore

Ubin German Girl Temple

Northern coast Pulau Ubin Singapore

Tel: 65 9686-4869

Website : www. fnd-german-girl. org

This is a tragic story, not even known to many Singaporeans today, of how a young German girl died in Pulau Ubin (which means “Rock Island”on Malay) at the outbreak of WWI, and thereafter she became immortalized in a Chinese temple. The power of the spirit of the German girl was so real and efficacious that it not only attracted local worshippers but someone wicked who stole her remains.

In the tranquil coastal village of Pulau Ubin, northeast of Singapore, there was a coffee plantation owned by a German merchant who lived on the island with his family.

tmpE480_thumb

According to the islanders, in August 1914 when the British came to confiscate the plantation, a young girl, the daughter of the plantation owner, became frightened and ran away. On the fateful evening, the girl lost her way, fell down a steep cliff, and was killed.

Meanwhile the rest of the family was captured by the British authorities and interned. A few days later, her body was found by local Boyanese workers from the plantation. The body was covered by termites so they threw soil over the corpse. Often after that, when the local workers and residents passed the spot, they would say a prayer.

Eventually, her remains were exhumed and placed in a Chinese temple on a hill on the island. Gamblers began to pray at the temple for good luck, and several of these gamblers were successful and attributed their success in winning to the spirit of the German girl.

When the war was over, the German plantation owner and the rest of the family were freed. They returned to Pulau Ubin to find out what had happened to their daughter but because of language difficulties were unable to determine where her remains were. They left Pulau Ubin and Singapore, never to return.

The remains of the German girl were kept at the temple on the hill until 1974, when the property became the site of a granite quarry. Several local people exhumed the remains consisting of hair, an iron cross, and some coins and put them in a porcelain urn.

A new temple on the quarry property was then built for the remains. The coins were somehow lost (or probably ransacked) at the time the remains were moved in 1974. Even the porcelain urn placed at the center of the altar in the new temple was said to be empty; it is only a symbolic replica of the original, because the original urn with the remains inside was stolen.

Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI) has been pondering some theories regarding the stolen remains. One theory is that the porcelain urn itself was a valuable antique and it was stolen by relic hunters. The other speculation is that the remains of the white girl have a strong spiritual force, and therefore the urn was robbed by people who practice black magic or sorcery.

Despite that the physical existence of the German girl corpse was no more in the 1970s, her spirit was made immortalized at this Chinese temple. Worshippers came to give offerings that include perfumes, cosmetics, mirrors, flowers, and fruits to the deceased German girl.

It has been reported to SPI that people have encountered moving shadows outside the temple at night. Recently, some members of a filming crew who reenacted the legend for movie production got possessed on the spot—one vomited repeatedly after touching the urn, and the other, who was dressed in a German girl costume, suddenly started to speak in German. They believe that somehow her spirit is lingering in the temple as perhaps an angel goddess. On a lighter note, the German girl spirit was said to kindly give blessing to the worshippers, sometimes helping them win lotteries.

What is the true identity of the German girl? How did a mortal white girl transform into a Chinese deity? What could have happened to the remains? Did they ever really exist? Is it just a legend?

In the past few years, SPI has been investigating the place via a fusion approach of interviewing the villagers, digging into the historical records, and even consulting some spiritual mediums.

Hopefully one day, SPI will be able to shed some light on the mystery, especially in the hope that the descendants of her kin would be able to reunite with the German girl.

Next post:

Previous post: