Balum Bili, a legendary myth

"Balum Bili" is known as a supernatural creature that lives under the surface of the water, it is believed to be a deadly blood-sucking creature.

This myth continues to be indoctrinated in the lives of the community as a factual story, the Acehnese people in particular believe in the existence of this creature under the surface of the dug well. The belief that has been formed for a long time has turned this story into a legend, continuing to be a story and supernatural phenomenon that cannot be proven scientifically.

The origin of the Balum Bili story is unknown, what is certain is that I as part of the Acehnese community have continued to hear discussions about this creature since I was little until now.

About 25 years ago, the tragedy of this myth began to be heard and became a prolonged discussion. A small child who was drawing water from a dug well fell into a deep well, no one knew where he was, even though it was getting dark.

The high social value in the order of life of the Acehnese people has become a concern for the community, especially since one of the 6-year-old children was not at home, children his age should have rushed to non-formal education in the evening.

Almost all the villagers were looking for him, the community scattered looking for several locations that were usually the center of children's play, some chose to look for him in the river not far from the village, the soccer field. Even by evening he had not been found.

One of them looked for him in one of the old wells located in front of the non-formal learning centre, the middle-aged man saw a corpse floating on the surface of the well water, with the lighting of a torch made of bamboo and given a wick, he shouted, "There is a corpse, the corpse is floating in the old well" said the middle-aged man in a loud voice.

People flocked to the scene, and one of them using a rope began to enter the well, he brought a piece of cloth to wrap the body and lifted it to the surface, that night the boy's body was buried leaving sadness for his family.

Since that incident, I who was only 15 years old continued to be haunted by the spirits inhabiting the well, even an excessive fear arose, I did not dare to draw water from the well and even other children my age at that time.

2 years ago the same case happened again, but it did not happen to children, but to a middle-aged man who worked as a well digger, together with his 3 colleagues working to dig a well to a depth of 20 meters, or even more. When this middle-aged man started digging at a depth of 10 meters, the man fell into the water, even though the water discharge of the well was only 1 meter from the ground surface.

His colleague who was above called him repeatedly from above, but he did not answer, it turned out that after his colleague went down to the bottom of the well, it was found that the middle-aged man had died.

This incident reminded me of past events when myths circulated about spirits inhabiting wells, and so it is today, people with all their limited information and knowledge, some assume that his death was due to "Balum Bili", but a small part of the community does not believe it and considers his death to be caused by health factors.

Fact

North Aceh Regency is known as the largest oil and natural gas producing area, almost everywhere gas pressure is often found when excavation is carried out to a certain depth, so the local government issued a regulation restricting conventional spring excavation or using drilling machines.
This regulation is to avoid gas bursts that can be dangerous, for example, poisoning and fires can occur.

The "Balum Bili" phenomenon is actually related to gas pressure from excavations carried out by the community, such as the second case above shows that the death of a middle-aged man was caused by respiratory system disorders (gas poisoning), this is proven by the results of a post-mortem conducted by the local hospital.

However, on the other hand, the death of a child 20 years ago cannot be linked to the spirits inhabiting the well, the child probably fell, because he was unable to swim, he drowned and died.

Although the facts have been revealed since the discovery of the gas poisoning case that caused death, the myth about the spirits inhabiting the well continues to be a mystery.