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KRABI, Thailand — The victims of last week's tsunami are buried in debris, stuck in trees and floating in the sea. Collecting and identifying the remains have been enough of a challenge, but many Thais face an equally serious task: appeasing the spirits of the dead.

The vast majority of Thais believe in ghosts, and so the stories are starting to emerge of dead tourists playing on the beach or of lost loved ones visiting surviving family members.

"There are a lot of ghosts on Phi Phi Island right now," said Vinaporn Danghon, a 23-year-old clothes seller who narrowly escaped last Sunday's raging waters.

More than 4,800 bodies have been recovered in Thailand so far, but thousands more still are missing off of the southern coasts. Many of Thailand's dead were from Phi Phi Island (pronounced Pee Pee), one of Thailand's most beautiful beach resorts, with dramatic limestone cliffs, sparkling waters and stunning coral reefs.

Vinaporn lost her aunt and several friends. "I cannot count. There are so many," she said Friday outside the provincial police station where she had come to file a claim for lost property.

When the tsunami crashed into her seaside village, Vinaporn and her boyfriend, a handyman, fled to higher ground. During the night, they heard a small group of people on the beach "screaming as if they were scared of the waves," she said with vacant eyes.

A policeman who was guarding the stranded villagers ran down to check the noise. According to Vinaporn, he saw several human figures "with no feet" floating across the beach. "The policeman rushed back and told us what he saw," she said.

Many others in this traumatized nation have heard similar stories.

Samarn Damkul, the driver of a long-tail boat for tourists, insisted Phi Phi Island was full of spirits. "There are ghosts, there are ghosts, there are ghosts," he said from one of Krabi's central piers.

Samarn told of a fellow speed-boat driver who lost his friend, a woman, to the 35-foot-high waves. His friend spent several days looking for her body but could not find it. On Thursday night, Samarn said, the woman's ghost paid a visit to the boat driver.

"He said he wasn't dreaming," Samarn said. "She said to him, 'Don't search for me anymore. I'm here at the Chinese temple [where corpses are being collected]. Please take care of my son.' "

The friend went to the temple the next morning and found the body, which he returned to an island north of Phi Phi for a funeral.




Mat Thai-aium, whose boat was destroyed, stands amid boats under repair.

Samarn and other boat drivers say the residents of Krabi province are easily spooked and fear a return of the killer waves. "People around here are paranoid," said Samarn's brother, Chain Damkul. "They hear a motorcycle engine start, and they start to run."

A leading Thai-language newspaper ran a front-page headline on Thursday that roughly translates to "Creepy Phi Phi, Scary International Ghosts." The paper reported that marine police were too scared to spend the night. A 45-year-old woman who came to search for her missing family saw "foreigner ghosts" playing in the water.

The reported sightings are sure to feed local superstitions and may keep many Thai tourists from returning to the famous beach resort — which could be devastating to the economy. Tourism generates more income in Thailand than revenue from the number-one export item, computers and accessories. And Krabi province — known for its many islands and limestone formations — depends heavily on tourism, as well as fishing, rubber trees and palm oil.

"I don't want to go back to Phi Phi Island anymore," said Thitinun Aussavamahasakda, owner of Eighty Nine Cafe, a restaurant and travel shop in downtown Krabi, the closest mainland port. "I'm scared. It's like a graveyard."

Thitinun has been comforting dazed tourists and Thai friends, urging them to pray at the local Chinese temple. "We're all sad and in grief," she said. "It's incomprehensible."

Like many Thais, Thitinun believes that when a person dies unexpectedly, the soul is not prepared to move on to the next place. A special "merit-making" ceremony must be held where friends and relatives of the victim donate food and money to local Buddhist monks, who hold a ceremony to help the spirit on its way to its next reincarnation.

"I believe quite strongly in ghosts," Thitinun said.

Buddhism and animism have coexisted for centuries in Thailand, with belief systems blurring over time. Most Thais, more than 90 percent of whom are Buddhist, have "spirit houses" to honor the dead people who used to live on their property.

The spirit house is a miniature structure, like a doll house, usually made of wood or concrete and kept in the corner of the property. Homeowners typically place incense, water or tea, and a plate of fresh food in the spirit house every morning while saying a brief prayer.

Similar "merit" will be needed to get the ghosts from the deadly tsunami on their way. The ghosts of foreigners need particular help, Thitinun explained, because they do not know how to return to their native countries. Some wander around as if they were still alive.

She said a group of Krabi-area travel agents had chartered a boat on New Year's Day for more than 400 people to visit Phi Phi Island to make merit for the dead. They did not plan to spend the night