Spirit of a dead person who returns from the afterlife to seek revenge
In
mythology
and
folklore
, a
vengeful ghost
or
vengeful spirit
is said to be the
spirit
of a dead person who returns from the
afterlife
to seek
revenge
for a cruel, unnatural or unjust
death
. In certain cultures where
funeral
and
burial
or
cremation
ceremonies
are important, such vengeful spirits may also be considered as unhappy ghosts of individuals who have not been given a proper funeral.
[1]
Cultural background
[
edit
]
The concept of a vengeful ghost seeking retribution for harm that it endured as a living person goes back to ancient times and is part of many cultures. According to such legends and beliefs, they roam the world of the living as restless spirits, seeking to have their grievances redressed, and may not be satisfied until they have succeeded in punishing either their murderers or their tormentors.
[2]
In certain cultures vengeful ghosts are mostly female, said to be women that were unjustly treated during their lifetime. Such women or girls may have died in despair or the suffering they endured may have resulted in early death caused by the
ill-treatment
or
torture
they were subject to.
[3]
[4]
Exorcisms
and appeasement are among the religious and social customs practiced by various cultures in relation to the vengeful ghost. The northern
Ache people
group in
Paraguay
cremated
old people thought to harbor dangerous vengeful spirits instead of giving them a customary
burial
.
[5]
In cases where the person has been killed and the body disposed of unceremoniously, the
cadaver
may be
exhumed
and reburied according to the proper funerary rituals in order to appease the spirit. Another option is to salt and burn their remains(bones).
Media
[
edit
]
Vengeful ghosts have been featured in many contemporary movies of different countries such as
Candyman
,
The Grudge
,
The Pit and the Pendulum
,
Mostly Ghostly: Who Let the Ghosts Out?
,
Poltergeist
,
Ghost
,
The Fog
,
High Plains Drifter
,
The Ward
,
Cassadaga
,
Kaal
,
Left for Dead
,
Bees Saal Baad
,
Darling
,
ParaNorman
,
Ragini MMS
, Stree,
Dark Shadows
and the
Troublesome Night
film series
, as well as the television series
Spooky Valentine
,
Spooky Nights
,
Charmed
,
Ghost Whisperer
,
Supernatural
and the popular
Thai television soap opera
Raeng Ngao
and a popular K-television series Hotel Del Luna. They are also part of the theme of novels such as
Tamir Triad
and
Tamsin
, comic books such as the character the
Gentleman Ghost
, animated television series like
Danny Phantom
and
adventure games
such as the
Chzo Mythos
. Finally, there is also a female, controllable character called Vengeful Spirit in the
MOBA
videogame
Dota 2
.
Examples
[
edit
]
Africa
[
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]
- Madam Koi Koi
is the ghost of a female school teacher in African
urban legend
who haunts boarding schools after some students caused her death.
Ancient Rome
[
edit
]
- Lemures
in
Roman mythology
are the wandering and vengeful spirits of those not afforded proper burial, funeral rites or affectionate cult by the living.
[6]
Ancient Greece
[
edit
]
United Kingdom
[
edit
]
Eastern Europe
[
edit
]
Jewish culture
[
edit
]
- Dybbuk
, a malicious spirit that possesses living people
China and Vietnam
[
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]
India
[
edit
]
Japan
[
edit
]
- Onry?
, a generic name in Japanese folklore for ghosts (
y?rei
) who come back from purgatory for a wrong done to them during their lifetime.
Onry?
are mostly women and often manifest themselves in physical rather than spectral form.
- Funay?rei
(
船幽? or 舟幽?
, lit. "boat spirit")
, ghosts that have become vengeful spirits at sea. They are mentioned in the
folklore
of various areas of Japan.
- Kuchisake-onna
, the vengeful ghost of a woman mutilated by her husband
- Gory?
, a certain type of spirits, usually the ghosts of martyrs, from
Japanese mythology
[15]
Latin America
[
edit
]
- Dama Branca
, also known as
Mulher de Branco
, meaning 'Woman in White' in
Portuguese
, is the ghost of a young woman who died of
childbirth
or violent causes in
Brazilian
mythology.
[16]
- Corpo-Seco
('Dried Corpse'), is the ghost of a man who was so evil when alive his soul was rejected by
God
and the
Devil
and so was cursed to haunt the living as a
undead
corpse in Brazilian mythology.
[17]
- La Llorona
, also known as 'the Weeping Woman'; can be a female spirit from
Mexico
who drowned her own children because her husband cheated on her with another woman and subsequently left her.
- La Sayona
, a female spirit who believed her husband had an affair with her mother in
Venezuela
and
Colombia
- Patasola
, a female spirit from
South America
that appears as a beautiful woman. She attracts men and lures them to the depths of the rainforest, where she turns into a beast and devours the man.
- Sihuanaba
, a female spirit who had an affair and attacks unfaithful men in
El Salvador
and
Guatemala
- The Silbon
, a young man who killed his father after the father would rape the youth's wife. His grandfather then cursed him to roam the Earth forever with his father's bones, so the youth's ghost kills people if they act like either of the men who hurt him, mostly womanizers and drunks.
- Tulevieja
a female spirit of
Costa Rica
who punishing lustful men and irresponsible fathers.
North America
[
edit
]
Southeast Asia
[
edit
]
- Dambir ow
, in the mythology of the
Asmat people
of western
New Guinea
, are ghosts of women who die in labor. Anthropologist
Jan Pouwer
writes that they have "frightening looks, a sharp nose, sharp teeth, long nails, and eyes as red as their hair. They take revenge on men by carrying them to the underworld, where they torture them to death with thorns."
[18]
- Krasue
(
Thai
:
??????
), known as
Ap
(
Khmer
:
???
) in
Cambodia
, as
Kasu
in
Laos
, and Palasik, Kuyang, and Leyak in
Indonesia
, a nocturnal female spirit of
Southeast Asian
folklore
- Phi Tai Hong
(
Thai
:
????????
), the restless spirit of a person that suffered a violent or cruel death in
Thai folklore
[19]
- Phi Tai Thang Klom
(????????????), also known as
Phi Tai Thong Klom
(????????????), a
Thai ghost
, is the wrathful spirit of a pregnant woman who committed
suicide
after being subsequently betrayed and abandoned by her lover.
[20]
- Suanggi
, a malevolent spirit in the folklore of the
Maluku Islands
,
Indonesia
- Sundel bolong
, in Indonesian mythology, is the ghost of a woman who died when she was pregnant and gave birth in her grave so that the baby came out from her back, where she has a large wound.
[21]
- Wewe Gombel
, a female ghost in Indonesian mythology. It is said that she kidnaps children.
[22]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Kwon, Heonik (2008).
Ghosts of War in Vietnam
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
978-0-521-88061-9
.
- ^
Jerrold E. Hogle (4 December 2014).
The Cambridge Companion to the Modern Gothic
. Cambridge University Press. pp. 216?.
ISBN
978-1-316-19435-5
.
- ^
Henry Whitehead
,
The Village Gods of South India
, Asian Educational Services, New Delhi 1988 (First ed. 1921),
ISBN
978-8120601376
- ^
Xavier Romero-Frias
,
The Maldive Islanders, A Study of the Popular Culture of an Ancient Ocean Kingdom
, Barcelona 1999,
ISBN
84-7254-801-5
- ^
Pierre Clastres
,
Chronique des indiens Guayaki. Ce que savent les Ache, chasseurs nomades du Paraguay.
Plon. Paris, 1972
- ^
St. Augustine,
The City of God
, 11.
- ^
Hesiod
,
Theogony
211, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White
- ^
Crathes Castle
- ^
Nu Gui (女鬼) at the anime festival in Shenzhen, China
- ^
Kong Zhiming (孔志明) (1998).
"左傳中的?鬼問題及其日後之演變 (The ideas of vengeful spirits in the
Zuo Zhuan
and later developments)"
(in Chinese). Archived from
the original
on 2 November 2013
. Retrieved
4 March
2013
.
- ^
Janet Chawla (1994).
Child-bearing and culture: women centered revisioning of the traditional midwife : the dai as a ritual practitioner
. Indian Social Institute. p. 15.
- ^
Cheung, Theresa (2006).
The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World
. Harper Element. p. 112.
ISBN
978-0-00-721148-7
.
- ^
Fane, Hannah (1975). "The Female Element in Indian Culture".
Asian Folklore Studies
.
34
(1): 100.
doi
:
10.2307/1177740
.
JSTOR
1177740
.
- ^
Bane, Theresa (2010). "Chedipe".
Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology
. McFarland. pp. 47?8.
ISBN
978-0-7864-4452-6
.
- ^
Iwasaka, Michiko and
Toelken, Barre
.
Ghosts and the Japanese: Cultural Experiences in Japanese Death Legends
, Utah State University Press, 1994.
ISBN
0-87421-179-4
- ^
E de arrepiar: Mulheres de Branco - Supernatural Brasil
- ^
Corpo-seco: quem e, origem e o que faz - Brasil Escola
- ^
Jan Pouwer (2010).
Gender, Ritual and Social Formation in West Papua: A Configurational Analysis Comparing Kamoro and Asmat
. Brill. p. 123.
ISBN
978-90-04-25372-8
.
- ^
Phi Tai Hong
Thai book
- ^
Ghosts in Thai Culture
- ^
Clifford Geertz (1976).
The religion of Java
.
University of Chicago Press
. p. 18.
ISBN
978-0-226-28510-8
.
- ^
Indonesian Ghosts
External links
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