Tag Archives: Ghost Stories

Bhoot (Bibaswan Khadka)

General Information about Item:

Superstition
Language: English
Culture of Origin: Nepali
Informant: BK
Date Collected: 10-30-2021

Informant Data:

BK was born in Kathmandu, Nepal on April 3rd, 2000. He grew up in Nepal before immigrating to the USA with his family when he was 13. In America, BK calls Davenport, Iowa his hometown. BK is currently a senior at Dartmouth College majoring in Computer Science. He has one older sister, AK, who is 4 years older than him. BK’s hobbies include soccer, running, and playing various video games. 

Contextual Data:

Social Context:

BK grew up in Nepal. In Nepal Bhoot are said to stalk the streets at night. Bhoot are supernatural creatures similar to ghosts that bring misfortune if they enter or house. To protect against Bhoot many households draw a swastika on their front door. These swastikas can range from simple posters to elaborate wood carvings. BK grew up in Nepal and saw these designs almost everyday due to how common they are in the country. 

Cultural Context:

The swastika has been used as a symbol for hundreds of years. In the country the symbol is known as a symbol of divinity, spirituality and protection. While in the West the symbol is largely associated with Nazism, the symbol has kept its historic meaning in much of Nepal and Asia. 

Item:

In order to prevent Bhoot from entering your household place a swastika on your front door. When night falls and the Bhoot comes out they will not be able to come into your home due to the divine power of the symbol. 

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Ghost Stories – Parris Island

Title: Ghost Stories – Parris Island

Informant info: Graham “Ossie” Osborn. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Marine Corps Veteran. Informant was a member of the First Reconnaissance Battalion.

Type of lore: Customary/Verbal, Tradition, Ritual, Superstition, Myths

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about his ghost stories during training and overseas. He discussed his time on Parris Island training to be a Marine and some of the ghost stories related to that.  Parris Island is located in Port Royal, South Carolina.

Associated file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/z1us1frzhrn0u2t/IMG_7545.MOV?dl=0

Transcript: Item: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]: Funny enough, there was a ghost story at Parris Island. I was a first recruit training battalion and right out the battalion, you’d look over and it was just a marsh that looked like a coastal undeveloped area, a swampy marsh. There was a story back in the day where when recruits were allowed to smoke during training, someone claimed to be on a smoke break and actually tried to run away through the marshes, but didn’t make it back, but the people that were on fire watch had to wakeup the whole platoon so everyone that was on fire watch and one of the drill instructors marched them out to the marsh just trying to haze them a bit. But apparently six or seven of them drowned and this is right outside where our barracks were for those 3 months and there was always stories over looking over the marsh at night, especially when on fire watch, that you would see moonbeams, what we called flashlights, the same way we call pens, ink sticks, turning on in the middle of the march. I never saw it, but people did claim they did when they were on fire watch. It was kind of an intimidating thing, so I am sure it was just them seeing things.

 

Informant’s comments: Parris Island has a lot of history and folklore associated with it over the decades of people that have trained to be Marines there.

Collector’s comments:  Ossie didn’t seem to appear that the ghost stories phased him in the slightest.

Ghost Stories

Title: Ghost Stories

Informant info: Matt Menezes. Informant attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH as a United States Army Veteran (2004-2013) . Informant was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and deployed twice to Afghanistan (2007-08, 2008-09) as well as spent two years as a drill sergeant for basic combat training (2011-13).

Type of lore: Customary/Verbal, Tradition, Ritual, Initiation

Language: English

Country of Origin: USA

Social / Cultural Context: Informant was interviewed at Dartmouth College. Informant was asked about ghost stories while serving and in training. He could not come up with any ghost stories, but discussed some of the initiation rituals that he had to go through.

Associated file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/11vv5a27kzlycgq/Dartmouth_Folklore_Collections_Matt_Menezes.mp4?dl=0

Item: [I have recorded the item exactly how it was told to me in the interview]:I think the one that what everybody gets usually when they are in basic combat training is that all of the privates conspire together and talk about their drill sergeant and kind of think that he is some kind of sadistic person that just always gets pleasure out of making us do push ups and things of that nature so that is one of the stories from training.

Informant’s comments: No specific stories came to mind

Collector’s comments:  Each person has a different version of what the definition of a “ghost story” became apparent.