Nyi Blorong, Commander of the Southern Seas and Bringer of Wealth

One afternoon in the 1960s, the people of Magelang in Java, Indonesia, gathered on the edge of the main road which connects Magelang and Yogyakarta and sounded anything they could find which could make a loud noise. After some time, the wind blew from the south. This southern wind, according to the local legend, was a Lampor. A Lampor refers to trips to several regions in Java which are carried out by the soldiers of Nyi Roro Kidul, the mythical Queen of the Southern Seas, led by her commander Nyi Blorong. The reason people needed to make such a din was so that Nyi Blorong's supernatural troops would not stop by the residents' houses, thus bringing an outbreak of disease to the area.

Around the time of the Indonesian Independence Day in August 2001, a rumor spreading throughout East Java and at least as far west as Semarang, had it that Nyi Blorong had lost her selendang (scarf) and was angrily looking for it. Therefore, little plastic bags filled with variously colored liquids were strung up in front of houses and shops in Jember.
These penangkal (charms) were hung to ward off the fury of Nyi Blorong and prevent her from entering and bringing misfortune into people’s houses.
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