The Haunting Case of “Nenek Gayung” (a.k.a. The Dipper Granny)
Revisiting the stories and how it came to an abrupt end
Urban legends has been one of the most compelling and mind-investing cultural heritages that Indonesia has. The culture of orally-passed folklore defines how rich Indonesia is when it comes to delivering stories from mouth-to-mouth, ears-to-ears. In this case, somewhere in the past, the Indonesian public was in awe, when an eerie yet confounding urban legend got caught in the ears of the masses. From there, she was standing in the darkness, an unknown entity who was said to be dangerous and creepy lurking through the alleys of the cities, looking for her prey.
It was in the mid 2011s, when the common public was still attached to the various hot news of the year, an obscure story about an old woman, who was told roaming from neighborhood to neighborhood and caused death of anyone whom interacted with her, surfaced out of nowhere. The public named her Nenek Gayung or loosely translated as “The Dipper Granny”. She was named after a dipper because she was said to be strolling across alleys in the dense cities, even local suburban neighborhoods, bringing a water dipper and a mat, dressed in all-black or she was occasionally depicted as an old lady dressed in a traditional Indonesian dress.
The dipper became the key identity to her persona because it was associated with the funeral process in the Indonesian society. In Islamic ritual, or Asian culture in general, bathing a dead body after one’s passing is considered a mandatory. The process is called to “memandikan jenazah”, which literally means to bathe a body. Bathing a dead body is a common procedure that is meant as a way to cleanse a body, physically or spiritually, in order to make the dead properly treated before their last destination, the burial hole. It is done to ensure that they could rest in peace, also considering how Indonesian culture sees cleanliness as a crucial aspect of a religious and cultural rite.
There were several versions of Nenek Gayung stories and her eerie nature linked towards the alleged deaths of several people supernaturally. The first and most general trope is that Nenek Gayung would stroll alone in an undetermined time across random neighborhoods, bringing her dipper and mat, without a clear information on where she would go. It was said that she would approach anyone passing by and try to have a conversation about something, that is still unknown. Some would say she is asking a direction to a cemetery, to her house, or even straight-up telling you that you will die at some point.
If you decided to respond to her, it is believed that at night she will come to your house unanticipated, then she will spread her mat, and put you above the mat and bathe you while you sleep, like a dead body. After that, you are the most definitely to be dead the same day or next day later because it signifies you have been cursed to death. It was done in order for her to collect souls, typically believed to be used as a sacrifice for supernaturally ensuring the safety and success of building a construction or to gain wealth known as tumbal (loosely translated as ritualistic sacrifice), a common folklore in Indonesia about black magic that needs a soul as a toll for a specific intent. However, legend said that if you are to be ignoring her when she tries to start a conversation with you, she will spare you from death, or else you would suffer a residual negative energy after having a contact with her, commonly a heavy illness that will resolve in days.
The second version and so on are the niches where some people, with an unknown veracity to about their testimony, confessed to witness or heard a story about close relatives who was told to be dead after their interaction with Nenek Gayung.
It was said that two men were riding a motorcycle in an unknown location. They saw an old lady dressed in all-black attire, bringing her water dipper and a mat, walking alone along the street. Curious about her intention and touched by her innocent-looking appearance and her old age, they decided to ask her where she was going, if not asking her if she wants a ride home at best. Instead of replying them with good and gentle manner as a usual old women would do, she then said in a hoarse voice:
“I would like to die, I want to be bathed, dear son.”
Petrified and scared with the response, they didn’t reply back to her, and instead offered a ride, thinking maybe she was just confused, being her old age and a possible dementia illness. A brief, yet innocent thought they don’t know that would cause a tragic death later on. At some point later, it was said that the two men were involved in a deadly accident. Some versions said that the driver or any of the two men who had interacted with her was instantly killed from the accident. Curiously, the old lady that was offered the ride was gone from the site without any traces or witnesses, never to be seen again, like she was just vanished from the thin air.
The third version involves the story of Jakarta’s bus rapid transit system line, the Transjakarta, that was undergoing a construction project. It was believed that she was a victim of a construction sacrifice. The other third version said that she was a black magic practitioner who was looking for a victim in order to ensure the completion of the bus line construction. It was said that she lingers around the area in East Jakarta. She would ask one to have a conversation with and as aforementioned, if you responded to her, she would come to one’s house, bathe the victim, and they would much likely die the next day.
The Nenek Gayung urban legend later inspired many creative outputs, most significantly the film adaptation released in 2012 with the same name. The film received overall mixed, or else negative reviews with 5,1 score from IMDb rating. Despite having a relatively failed results, the film still thrives from the public’s heavy investment to the urban legend that the film producer decided to release a sequel called Kembalinya Nenek Gayung (2013)(The Return of Nenek Gayung) along with a spin-off called Kakek Cangkul (2012) (The Hoe Grandfather) who was claimed to be the husband of Nenek Gayung that also roamed across neighborhoods with his burial hoe, looking for someone to properly bury his body, but that’s another story.
The urban legend has a respectable comparability to several Asian urban legends involving death and interaction to the entity. Kuchisake-onna (Slit-Mouthed Lady) from Japan, for example, would interact with the victim using tricky questions that would always end up with the victim being dead on site. Aka Manto (Red Robe ghost) from Japan, that asks a toilet occupant what toilet paper color they would choose, also has a similar nature to both Kuchisake-Onna and Nenek Gayung that ensures the death of a victim no matter what responses they give.
But, I think the eeriest and possibly the biggest differentiator of between Nenek Gayung and the formers is that she doesn’t give anyone an option. It is the uncanny valley factor that makes Nenek Gayung’s dread more scary than other death-related vengeful entities. She appeared as a normal looking old woman that speaks more innocence than demise. The claims of her deadly nature positioned differently from other Asian ghost folklores because she is seen as a bad omen that you can’t escape from, like you are locked to death. Her frail appearance overshadowed her intention to cause death, not to mention her association to the Indonesian funeral and death culture, that’s why people was invested in the urban legend because it induces the fear of the unknown danger. You wouldn’t guess that she would appear randomly and unsolicitedly to your house and proceed to kill you using a normal, humble funeral procession.
Although her dreadful stories panicked the whole Indonesian public at the time, her urban legend became forgotten, if not lost from the minds of the people. Her story left no further legacy like many other Asian ghost folklores, a sad look considering the story of Nenek Gayung would inspire many creative outputs and to introduce Indonesian folklore to the foreign masses. I think because her story was poorly documented in literature so that people just lost the touch of her backgrounds and historical accounts. The Jakarta-centered location of Nenek Gayung stories also contributed to how the urban legend became easily forgotten nationally as it isn’t as widely known as other Indonesian ghostly folklores that claimed to inhibits many places, unlike Nenek Gayung that started and ended as a merely Jakarta’s metropolitan urban legend.
At this time, the story of Nenek Gayung came into an abrupt end, in an unclear explanation of what happened to her fate, whether if she is a real-world entity, a serial killer that was overshadowed by her supernatural gossips, or not. Then, what happened to the alleged victims of her black magic practice, is still yet to be unknown.
References
Sihombing, D. (2012, 27 January). “Mitos Nenek Gayung di Jakarta”. Kompasiana. Retrieved 2023, 7 September. https://www.kompasiana.com/dannysihombing/550d8476813311582cb1e411/mitos-nenek-gayung-di-jakarta.
