Exercises

All dolled up

Photo courtesy of Bangkok Post

Large numbers of straw dolls have appeared throughout Issan in the past few months. They appeared after stories spread about suspicious deaths in the region.

Read the story from the Bangkok Post to find out what all the commotion is about.

Around Mukdahan, Yasothon and Roi Et, villagers tell an old story about a queen who dreamt about the death of three young men. After the dream, she said that a ghost would take lives in the area unless households with sons placed a straw doll, or tukkata, on the front fence.

People in Khon Kaen and Udon Thani tell another story. In their tale, a ghost takes three unmarried young men who were born on Wednesdays or Thursdays.

In this region, families still make the dolls and pin notes to them before mounting them outside their homes.

�We put a note on our tukkata saying that there are no boys in our house born on a Wednesday or Thursday,� Pitsamai Rachsang said.

She dressed her own doll up using her daughter�s old clothes and a cap from her husband.

STRANGE DEATHS

The tukkata started appearing in Issan in larger numbers after stories spread recently about strange deaths in Ban Don Hun village in Khon Kaen.

An 18-year-old died there after going to a party to celebrate the end of the school year. Returning from the party on a dirt road, he had a fatal motorcycle accident. The villagers believe that a ghost caused the accident.

A day later, another young man died when his pickup truck rolled over on a straight road. Once again, villagers believe that a ghost was to blame.

Within a week, a third man, aged 23, went to bed as usual and died in his sleep. He was reportedly fit and healthy.

DRESSING UP

Losing three young, unmarried men in one week left the villages shocked and searching for answers.

�What really scared us was that the 23-year-old man�s house is the closest one to the temple entrance,� Pitsamai said.

She believes that ghost had become very bold and was not afraid of anything getting in its way.

�Many mothers in our village painted the fingernails of their sons to confuse the ghost into thinking that they were girls,� a villager named Doy said.

There have been no more deaths, so the villagers think that the ghost has now moved on.

Exercise

Read the story. Then, answer the following reading comprehension questions.

1. How did the 23-year-old man die?

2. What did many mothers do to make the ghost think that their sons were women?

3. What is pinned to some of the dolls?

4. What did Pitsamai Rachsang use to dress up her doll?

	suspicious (adj): making you feel that something is wrong, illegal or dishonest commotion (n): sudden noisy confusion or excitement household (n): all the people living together in a house pin (v): to attach something onto another thing or fasten things together with a pin, etc. fatal (adj): causing or ending in death bold (adj): brave and confident; not afraid to take risks confuse (v): to make somebody unable to think clearly or understand something