The occult shops of Singapore: talismans, corpse oil and witches

Believing himself to be a victim of black magic, a man turned to social networking site Reddit in June pleading for help. Inside his pillow, he had found a talisman containing a picture of himself, a piece of paper bearing Arabic script and some unidentifiable debris.

He was not in Haiti or New Orleans, places you might associate with voodoo or other dark arts, but the modern, cosmopolitan city of Singapore.

There are occult stores throughout the Lion City, where the superstitious can buy everything from mystical amulets and potions allegedly made from corpse oil, to talismans to attract lovers and tattoos to ward off evil ­– imported from neighbouring Thailand and Malaysia.

Just outside the city centre on Rochor Road, in Bugis district, is the Fu Lu Shou Complex, a shopping centre named after the Taoist concepts of good fortune (fu), prosperity (lu) and longevity (shou). Many of the vendors occupying its five floors sell Thai amulets that supposedly bring wealth, luck, health, love or happiness to the wearer. One outlet that stands out is Siam Arts, which has glass cases displaying a huge range of strange amulets and talismans of different shapes and sizes.

Penis-shaped talismans are meant to charm and attract lovers. Tiny scrolls in tubular cases called takrut supposedly have the capacity to help with anything from making you more popular to increasing wealth, and small vessels with child-shaped sculptures allegedly contain kuman thong – spirits of aborted children – which will do your bidding.

The latter objects are known as barangs, which, according to a moderator of amuletforums.com, are “magical objects empowered by spiritual beings geared towards worldly goals”.