Indonesian city plans to build a 300 ft tall statue of this as a tourist attraction

Pontianak is considering building a statue based on the city’s name, and it’s leaving the residents restless.

The head of West Kalimantan’s Youth, Tourism and Sports Agency, Kartius has come up with an idea to put the city of Pontianak, Indonesia on the map.

May cities have statues that are built in their name. For example, the Merlion statue in Singapore was built wit the head of a lion and the tail of a fish, designed to symbolize the “Lion City” as well as relate to the cities fishing routes.

Kuching, Malaysia is a city adorned with cat statues because the name is derived from the Malay word for “cat”.

Pontianak, too shares a meaning in its similar name kuntilanak. A Kuntilanak is a vampiric female ghost in Malasia, similar to the horrifying ghost figure in Verbinski’s famous film The Ring. 

The kuntilanak is said to be the spirit of a woman who dies during childbirth and has the same appearance of blood-shot eyes, long black hair, and a white dress smeared with blood.

Kartius’s idea, then, is to build a statue of this figure in the city in order to attract tourists  – just like in other cities around the world.

Kartius claimed he would make the statue 100 meters tall to make it tower over where Kapuas River and Landak River meet. He thinks this is what will attract tourists to visit since it gives them the perfect view of the statue even from far away.

Many people tend to visit Singapore and Malaysia to take pictures with the infamous statues. Residents of Pontianak, however, are less than thrilled with the idea of building a ghost statue in their city.

https://twitter.com/clarissapgst/status/821705067761807360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F2017%2F02%2F10%2Fpontianak-haunting-statue-indonesia%2F

if they build a kuntilanak statue i definitely would not going to pontianak, ever😩

— mira (@mainv0cals) January 18, 2017

As for the progress of the statue? Kartius does not believe he will see the statue made during his time in office but thinks the idea could be something good for the city.

“I have never seen a kuntilanak, so if you have no idea how to make the statue, look at my face. It’s alright, you may call me crazy, I’m fine.”
– Kartius

There’s even speculation that the statute could be taken as more than just an idea down the road.

“The private sector has also offered to find investors.”
– Kartius

Source: The Jakarta Post