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There are many Malay ghost myths (Malay: cerita hantu Melayu; Jawi: چريتا هنتو ملايو), remnants of old animist beliefs that have been shaped by Hindu-Buddhist cosmology and later Muslim influences, in the modern states of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore and among the Malay diaspora in neighbouring Southeast Asian countries.
The Malay word for ghost is hantu. However, this word also covers all sorts of demons, goblins and undead creatures and are thought to have real physical bodies, instead of just apparitions or spectres. The most famous of these is the pontianak or matianak, the ghost of a female stillborn child which lures men in the form of a beautiful woman.
The word hantu is most often translated as ghost in modern Malay, but is actually closer in meaning to "spirit". The word raya roughly means "great" or "high". The term hantu raya (therefore meaning "great ghost") is sometimes mistaken as meaning a supreme demon which rules over all ghosts, but its high status comes not from its position and instead refers to the spirit's power, being one of ...
The penanggalan or penanggal is a nocturnal vampiric entity from Malay ghost myths. It takes the form of a floating disembodied woman's head, with its organs and entrails trailing from its neck. From afar, the penanggalan is said to twinkle like a ball of flame, similar to the will-o'-the-wisp phenomenon.
These very real and very scary ghost stories about paranormal hauntings, apparitions and the supernatural will turn even the biggest skeptics into believers. 16 very real, very scary, ghost ...
In his book Malay Magic, Walter William Skeat, an English anthropologist, recorded the origins of the langsuyar myth, as told by Malays in Selangor: . The original Langsuir (whose embodiment is supposed to be a kind of night-owl) is described as being a woman of dazzling beauty, who died from the shock of hearing that her child was stillborn, and had taken the shape of the Pontianak.
There have been many sightings of the creature, which the local Orang Asli people call hantu jarang gigi, which translates as "Snaggle-toothed Ghost". [1] Recorded claims of Mawas sightings date back to 1871.
The 2010 story Toyol by Nicole Lee is a narrative written from the perspective of a female toyol named Meera who is an originally deceased child that has been brought back to life. [ 28 ] The 2012 book Malay Sketches by Singaporean writer Alfian Sa'at has a segment titled "A Toyol Story" that focusses on a father-son pair. [ 29 ]