LAWANG SEWU

Lawang Sewu, a place that is popularly known by most Indonesian people

because of its story. Lawang Sewu, a place that what we call as a ghost-
hunter will mostly choose to do his hunting. What is Lawang Sewu actually?
Well, let me describe this place to you!

Lawang Sewu, is a bulid that is situated in a city in Central Java that is

Semarang. Lawang Sewu that had started to be built in 1904 and finished in
1907 used to be used as an office of NIS (Nederlands-Indische Spoooweg
Maatschappij) that is a Nederland Train Company that operated in Indonesia
at colonialize time.

Lawang Sewu literally means as “A thousand Doors”. People in Semarang

calls this place as Lawang Sewu as this building has many door though if we
count the doors it is not exactly a thousand doors. In fact, it is less than a
thousand doors. Lawang Sewu itself is a two-storey building and now, it is
used as an office by Indonesian Train Company since 1945 besides this
building is now also open for a local people or tourism to visit.

As an old building, lawing Sewu has its own spooky story. Many paranormal
activities has been reported from this place. A scream, a voice of woman
crying, an appearance of a Dutch soldiers, have been a part of story that
cannot be separated from this place. Lawang Sewu has reached the peak of
spooky place popularity in central Java. Rumor has it that lawing Sewu is
actually a place of Dutch and Japanese as people who accidently saw a ghost
in this place always said that the ghost always used a Dutch or Japanese
soldier uniform.

The ghosts of Japanese soldiers are reported to be seen in a room in the

building frontage. They, according to people that have seen them, are
Japanese soldiers that looks cruel. They have no nice place, no smile and
also they have a long moustache. They bring a samurai in their hands. 
 Not only there is an appearance of a Japanese soldiers, voices of a woman
screaming is also a common thing you will find in this place. The voice is told
to be a voice of woman that screams in pain. The voices is sometimes
followed by a voice tramps of boots. Sometimes, when you are “lucky”
enough, you will see a long-haired woman that is walking along the building
corridor who has dim illuminations. The woman is told to walk with an empty
stare, and as you look at her, she will gives you a scary and threatening face
expression.

In the building crypt, there were jails and bunkers. That Bunker was used to
imprison Indonesian people or enemies. This jail is called “standing Jail” by
Indonesia people. Why? because the prisoners put in this jail had to stand
crammed as this place is really narrow. Its width is only 60cmx 1m and
commonly, there would be 5 or 6 people that were forcedly put inside the jail.
People who was thrown in this jail would commonly die in a short time, and
those who still alive after the other’s died would be chopped in his head. The
chopped head then would be thrown on the river flowing besides the building.
Now, sometimes the scent of the blood or the corpse will be smelled when
you are in this place though now the place has been cleaned.

Moreover, if you sit all alone in this place and wait for a little longer, then you
will get a little “gift”. You will see a green-eyed creatures that’s is believed to
crawl in the building ceiling. That creature will crawl to everyone who
successfully see it. So, if you successfully see this creature then I suggest to
wear a running Nike shoes.

Besides the jails in the crypt, there is a torture chamber. This chamber is a
place of head-chopping. In this place is believed to a “nest” of chopped-head
people’s spirits. The spirits in this place sometimes show their appearance in
a very breath-taking form. They will be seen as a person who walk and bring
their own head in their hand.

From the crypt, we move to the front yard of the building. In the front yard, you
will see an old well. This well will give wrenching screams at night. The
scream of soldiers, Dutch soldiers more precisely. This well, in the past, was
used as a place of killed Dutch soldiers to be buried. . History tells us that
 when Indonesia was colonialized by Japan, many Dutch soldiers were
murdered in this place.

Well, that is a few stories of Lawang Sewu. Why do I say “a few”? Because I
believe this place still has more than a thousand untold storied that we do not
know. So if you want to reveal those stories, don’t be hesitated to visit
Semarang, Indonesia.