- CHIANG MAI, Thailand - Thanks to a close encounter with a ghost 50 years
ago, Hmong tribesman Lu Seng La is today a famous man.
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- Ripley's Believe It or Not!, the American
authority on human and other oddities, has just declared the Thai septuagenarian
as possessor of the world's longest hair.
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- Visitors now flock to see this witch
doctor and his flowing tresses in his shanty home in Mon-Ngor village on
a hilltop in Maetang district in northern Thailand.
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- "When I was 18, I got annoyed with
my shoulder-length hair and cut it. But I became very ill soon after that,''
he told Reuters as proud family members rolled out all 12.7 feet (3.87
meters) of his matted brownish-black hair.
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- "I was about to die when the spirit
of a ghost entered me and demanded to use my body as a medium. But it ordered
me never to cut my hair forever,'' said Lu.
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- Since then, the 77-year-old has been
the local medicine man, using power from the ghost to heal the sick and
drive evil spirits out of the possessed.
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- Witch doctors are held in high esteem
by the animist Hmong, who have strong faith in evil spirits and those of
their ancestors.
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- "I'm a witch doctor, medium of the
spirit of ancestors that can cure patients who are suffering,'' Lu said
as he took a long drag from his bamboo pipe.
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- "I have cured thousands,'' he added,
as family members huddled around him near a warm, crackling fire in the
near-freezing mountain temperatures.
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- The Mon-Ngor hill tribe community has
306 people living in 44 shanty homes. The Hmong used to cultivate poppies
to sell to opium traffickers, but now they have switched to oranges, coffee
and lychees.
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- Lu is not the only one in the family
to have been touched by the supernatural.
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- His elder brother Yi Tao, 82, said he
had a similar experience with a ghost many years ago and has not cut his
own hair in 35 years.
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- "But my hair is only 5.4 feet long.
I am well known as the ''younger brother,'' Yi said.
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- But youngest brother Yoh Tao, 67, has
bucked the trend and shaved his head bald.
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- "Long hair makes me uncomfortable,
I love the short skinhead look,'' he said.
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- Lu washes his matted locks only once
a year on the eve of the traditional Hmong New Year which fell this year
on December 18.
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- "It is difficult to dry so I wash
my hair once a year,'' Lu said. Normally, his mane is neatly pigtailed
and wrapped up around the nape of his neck.
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- A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS
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- Lu was paid handsomely to appear on Japanese
television some years ago, and tourists who come to see him also pay to
take his picture.
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- "Several foreigners and local tourists
have come to the village and taken pictures of my father,'' said Lu's son
Heu Saenglah, who is also the village headman.
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- "When tourists take pictures, they
sometimes give him 100 baht ($3.60) or 200 baht and that's extra income
for us,'' Heu said.
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- Last year, the village earned about one
million baht in income from orange sales, he added.
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- "And now the hair of my father has
begun to lure some extra money to the village,'' Heu said.
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- "We, mountain people, are very happy
when dignitaries from the lowland come to our village. Last week we had
the great honor of a visit to our house by (Thai) Prime Minister Chuan
Leekpai and his son,'' he added.
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- Lu told Reuters he never imagined his
long hair would bring him so much fame and fortune.
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- "Three years ago, I traveled to
Japan for one week and a Japanese television station gave me 30,000 yen
($260) upon my return,'' he said.
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- "And now Hmong relatives in the
United States have invited me to visit them but my son does not allow me
go,'' Lu said.
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- Lu is an opium addict like quite a few
of the elderly folk in his community and his son fears for his father should
he travel to foreign lands where the drug is illegal.
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- "I am scared so I don't allow him
to travel to other countries anymore,'' Heu said.
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