A poltergeist in Bhutan
PAUL CROPPER reports on a stone-throwing poltergeist in Bhutan
Bhutan is a unique country, a scenic Himalayan kingdom shrouded in myth, mystery and magic. Called by its people Druk yul – “the Land of the Thunder Dragon” – it is a place where traditional cultural beliefs and folklore are woven into everyday life. In December 2019, Bhutan was also home to a rather aggressive stone-throwing poltergeist.
The original report came from Kuensel Online journalist, Rajesh Rai. Kuensel is the national newspaper of the Kingdom of Bhutan and features regional news reports in English. Rajesh’s article described how a stone-throwing ghost had returned to terrorise the Ghalley family from Sombek village in Sangachholing, Samtse. The Samtse district is in remote south-western Bhutan, very close to the Indian border and, as a result, politically it’s quite a sensitive area.
The paranormal pelting had commenced on the night of 19 November when Sunil Ghalley, 15, and his grandfather Bhagilal Ghalley, 76, were sleeping in a remote cattle hut. Around 7pm, stones started to hit their roof. Startled, they made their way to a nearby relative’s hut, but the pelting continued. Now genuinely scared, they went to a nearby village for the night.
The next day Sunil’s father, Sabir Ghalley, arrived at their grazing land and was shocked when the stones began to fall again around 3.30pm. Sabir and Sunil then moved again to a relative’s hut, only to be hit with even larger stones.
“Something was chasing us. It followed us all the way,” Sabir said.
The next day, 21 November, the stone pelting began at 7am. Even weirder, household pots and pans were thrown out into the open.
Local villagers observed that incidents seemed to happen only when young Sunil was around. Sunil had recently dropped out of school after his family had claimed he had “special powers” and that he had occasionally fallen into a trance-like state.
In one startling incident, Sunil and his uncle were returning home from a market in a vehicle with several other people and all the windows closed when stones began to hit young Sunil inside the car. It seems clear that whatever was happening, the 15-year-old boy was at the centre of it.
Bhutan is a deeply religious country, with religion embedded in almost all aspects of life, and while Buddhism is the dominant religion, shamanism is still a strong force in many rural and regional areas. While practices vary, the shaman’s role is typically to act as medium between the people and what they believe to be aggrieved spirits, and to work out how these angry ghosts can be appeased. Well, that’s the plan, anyway.
When the first shaman appeared in Sombek he was immediately struck by a flying stone. Feeling the situation demanded more spiritual firepower, he departed to consult with his master and gather reinforcements. Soon after, 10 monks and a lam (a senior monk) arrived at the village to conduct rituals. At one time, there were more than 40 people in the Ghalley home, but to everyone’s astonishment, stones kept raining on the roof. Village coordinator Khadka Singh Ghalley confirmed that stones had fallen during the monks’ ceremony. “I am yet to understand what it is,” he confessed.
Sher Bahadur Ghalley, a shaman based in nearby Sipsu, spoke to the family and was sent one of the stones. “This stone sparked and became like a magnet when I put it on a bronze plate for a ritual,” he told Rajesh. “Then I knew there was something wrong, and decided to go to Sombek.”
The startled shaman felt sure he had an explanation for the puzzling pelting: it was all because of Sabir’s great grandfather. “He was a great shaman but had renounced shamanism to become a sadhu,” he said. A sadhu is a religious ascetic who has renounced a worldly life and dedicated him or herself to seeking enlightenment. According to Sher Bahadur Ghalley, Sabir’s grandfather had not been able to become an accomplished sadhu. When he died, his family had not conducted the correct death rites and that was why he was haunting them.
The stones had continued to fall from 19 to 29 November. On 3 December, another shaman visited the family’s house to conduct rituals and the incidents ceased. Journalist Rajesh Rai also arrived in Sombek on the same day. While he didn’t observe any stones falling, everyone he spoke to in the village was convinced the case was genuine. He met young Sunil, whom he found to be a quiet young lad, small for his age with something of a “different aura” about him.
“I met everyone in the family and they had the same story” he told me. “I met some religious [people], local leaders, and their relatives, their neighbours, and they all had the same thing to say… they saw stones coming out of nowhere, you know, from the ground at times… and [they] struck on the roof.”
The lull proved temporary. On 4 December, Sabir’s grandmother Man Kumari Ghalley was hit on the side of the head by a stone.
In mid-December, fired up after speaking with the enthusiastic and helpful Rajesh, I started making plans to get to Bhutan. From Sydney, it’s around 12 hours flying time, through Bangkok then on to Paro in Bhutan. Getting to Sombek from the capital is the tricky bit – around nine hours’ driving on largely dirt roads with the last two or three hours requiring a four wheel drive.
Travel time aside, visiting Bhutan is not a simple exercise. Access is strictly controlled and all bookings must be made via a Bhutanese tour operator or their partner. Tourists must pay $250 per day, in advance, for their package and must be accompanied by a registered local guide.
In addition, some parts of the country are simply off limits – Sombek included, as I was eventually to find out.
The government authorities I contacted were polite but very firm: it simply was not possible to visit that district as a tourist. After about a week of emailing, I surrendered to the inevitable. I wasn’t going to get permission and the case was going to have to run its course without me.
It appears the stone-throwing at Sombek continued into 2020. When I emailed Rajesh in April last year, he said he had been told by the head of the village that the stoning had finally ceased after another shaman, Sher Bdr Ghalley, was brought in to complete a key ritual. There was no further activity after his visit.
A year later, and I still have mixed feelings about the case. I completely understand and respect the Bhutanese desire to protect their unique culture, but I do regret losing the opportunity to investigate an active stonethrowing poltergeist case. In a global sense, they are not that rare, so post-Covid there’s a good chance another active case will turn up in Africa, India or southeast Asia that I can get to.
Perhaps one day I’ll also get the chance to visit Bhutan and meet Sunil Ghalley. I imagine he would have an interesting story to tell.