Cipto hospital refuses to examine 'mummy'

JAKARTA (JP): The Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital refused to examine yesterday a 15-centimeter mummy its owner claims is 3,000 years old.

In spite of strong public curiosity and the media blitz that Jenglot, as the gray-bearded tiny creature is called by its owner, has generated, the hospital insisted that the owner should go through normal procedures and apply to have it examined.

He was told to come back today.

Jenglot is one of four mummies currently being displayed at Plaza Sentra Buana in Central Jakarta. The other mummies are named Betoro Katon, Begawan Kapiwiro, Begawan Kapawiro.

Hundreds of people have visited the exhibition for a glance of the creatures, paying Rp 6,000 ($2.20) for the privilege.

"We're not commercializing them. All the money will be used to preserve the creatures," Rose Pangaribuan, marketing manager of Sentra Buana, said.

Dozens others flocked to the Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital yesterday, but were disappointed at doctors' decision not to examine Jenglot.

"Yes, we're interested to find out what creature it is, but I can only say that it's not a living creature. It's dead," Hemansyur, the hospital's vice director, said.

At the suggestion that the mummy's hair and nails had continued to grow, Hemansyur said: "That's a mystery, and the doctors here will help disclose the reason."

He said the creature would likely be sent to the radiology unit for a preliminary examination today.

Earlier press reports, quoting the owner, suggested that Jenglot was alive and consumed human blood.

Abas Sugiyono, a psychic and one of the people who found the mummies 25 years ago, rectified the reports yesterday by saying the mummies were only alive "in spirit".

Abas said Jenglot's beard and nails had grown while the mummy had shrunk. He recalled that when the mummies were first found, they were 25 cm long.

Each mummy has been sustained by one cubic centimeter of O type human blood every 35 days, which the owner buys from the Indonesian Red Cross.

"We don't feed them, but simply open the cap of the specimen bottle when the time comes. Their spirits will take the blood concentrate," Abas said.

The owner of the creatures, Hendra Hartanto, a businessman from East Java, said he went to the hospital hoping to get a statement from competent people.

"People are curious, some believe and some don't.

"We don't play around with such creatures. We see them as our heritage, and as charms. But that's our business.

"I think people need a logical explanation," Hendra said.

Hendra said he received the mummies from a group of psychics who found them on Ngliyep beach, Wlingi in East Java in 1972.

They were found at different times in the same year, he said.

There was some commotion at the hospital when the mummy arrived yesterday.

Wiyono, a hospital security officer, said he didn't believe that such a creature existed.

"First I thought it was a bird or a bat. But it had a pair of fangs and smelled strange, like a dead body," he said. (04)