What happened
Kuldhara, on the edge of the Thar Desert, was probably founded in the 13th century by Paliwal Brahmins who had migrated from the Pali region. The village was prosperous: houses were built of local yellow stone, along with a temple, wells and a stepwell. By the early 19th century it had been abandoned. Legend says that a minister of Jaisalmer State, Salim Singh, a cruel tax collector, set his sights on the village headman's beautiful daughter and demanded her, threatening revenge. The people of Kuldhara and the neighbouring villages held council and in a single night left together, leaving no trace of where they had gone. As they departed, they are said to have laid a curse: no one would ever live in the village again. It is said that those who tried experienced strange phenomena and fled. Today hundreds of roofless houses stand in the desert sun, and in the early 2010s members of the Indian Paranormal Society spent a night here, describing moving shadows, voices and handprints. The Rajasthan government is developing the village as a tourist attraction.
Witnesses
Local tradition, tourists and researchers from the Indian Paranormal Society, who spent a night here in the early 2010s.
Explanations and hypotheses
Historical sources show that the village emptied gradually: the British officer James Tod recorded about 800 inhabitants in 1815, and by 1890 only 37 remained – so there was no sudden exodus. Likely causes include wells drying up while taxes stayed unchanged, and a study published in Current Science in 2017 points to signs of earthquake damage. Local people do not themselves believe in the ghosts, but happily tell tourists about them.
Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
Sources
More: Wikipedia (en)