Enormous Kuntilanak Will Attract Tourists to Pontianak

West Kalimantan administration is planning to build in Pontianak a statue of kuntilanak, a maleficent female demon, to attract more tourists to the province's capital.

According to the provincial government's head of tourism, Kartius, Pontianak needs to boost its tourism sector and wants to do it in a different, otherworldly way.

The 100-meter statue will also have a visitor platform to show the city's panorama.

Though the idea has been criticized by some, Pontianak's residents generally give it a warm welcome.

"We know that tourism can improve our economy and per capita income," Kartius said on Tuesday (17/01).

The statue will help to open more employment opportunities for street vendors, souvenir shops, or even for parking assistants, Kartius added.

Pontianak's main tourist attractions so far have been the Equator Monument and Peranakan cuisine of the descendants of early Chinese migrants who settled in Kalimantan centuries ago.

Kuntilanak is typically depicted as a pale-skinned woman with bloodshot eyes, dressed in a long, white cloth. It is believed that women murdered in pregnancy may become kuntilanaks. According to legendary accounts, Pontianak's first sultan was haunted by one of them. (Jakarta Globe)

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