Re: Real World Oriental myths

From: Alison Place <alison_place_at_...>
Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 06:07:14 -0700 (PDT)


Dear Philippe,

     If you have the time to find them, look for the Barry Hughart stories that I mentioned a little while ago. The central story in 'The Bridge of Birds' is a slight twist on an existing myth, in which a goddess falls in love with a mortal man, and birds make a bridge up into the sky so that they can meet. The chiang'shih (found in a later story) is also a classic monster, a kind of ghoul.

     Also, if you're interested in vampire-like demons, there are various types all over the region. (Reference is 'The Vampire Book', by Gordon Melton.)

     Here are three Malaysian types. Firstly, the langsuyar, who is a banshee-like flying demon. The first was a woman of extreme beauty who bore a stillborn baby, and when told of her baby's condition, she clapped her hands and flew away to a tree. She could be identified afterwards by long fingernails, lovely black hair down to her feet, and her green robe. At the back of her neck, hidden by the hair, is an opening through which she sucked the blod of children.

     A woman can become a langsuyar if she dies in childbirth, or during the 40 days after. To prevent this, put beads in her mouth (stops her screaming), eggs in her armpits (to stop her flying), and a needle in the palm of each hand. You can also tame them by cutting the hair and nails, and stuffing the hole in the back of the neck with them. These women may actually marry and have children. The charm may fail if they dance.

     Later langsuyuars were flesh eaters with a particlar fondness for fish.

     The pontianak is the langsuyar's dead child, which looks like a night owl. Same remedies apply, and there are special words to say in each case, also.

     The penanggalan arose when a woman was startled by a man while she was performing a penance ritual called dudok bertapa. She was sitting in a vat of palm tree vinegar when this happened. She tried to leave the vat so quickly that her head separated from her body, and flew up into a tree, trailing her stomach and entrails. This became an evil spirit, and appears on the roofs of houses where children are about to be born. It whines a high-pitched sound, and tries to suck the baby's blood (and sometimes the mother's, too).

     A different version is that the first demon was a female sorceror who was learning how to fly. Guess the spell wasn't quite worked out.

     To protect mother and child, thistly leaves of the jeruju plant can be placed around the house, and thorns placed in any blood spills. If the penanggalan is wounded by them, and the blood drips onto others, they can also transform into penanggalan. Actually, the ripped-out intestines tend to drip, anyway. No huge surprise there!

     You can be married to a penanggalan, and not know it.

     There are other creatures, too. If you're interested, tell me, and I'll put them in a second post. Their names are polong, pelesit, eng banka and maneden.

Alison

> Hello,
>
> does anyone knows of easily reusable oriental myths
from the real world? I remember fox demons from Japan, brothers rivalry in Polynesia and a princess stealing the silk secret from China, but I'm looking for other sources. Anything from India, China, Indonesia, Polynesia and Japan is OK ;)
> Thanks,
>
> Philippe
>



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