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The penanggalang /malaysian folklore

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The Penanggalan

Malaysian Folklore

A young mother is rocking her newborn to sleep when suddenly the smell of vinegar fills the air. She quickly pulls the curtain back, and sure enough, the disembodied head of a woman is floating just outside the window, with long, finger-like tendrils slithering out toward her child. In a panic, the mother slams the window shut, just before the apparition reaches her, and breathes a heavy sigh of relief.

The Pennanggalan, also known as Hantu Penanggal, is a variation of the vampire myth that originates from Malaysia and is connected to a wider constellation of Southeast Asian horrors, from the Manananggal of Filipino folklore and the Leyak of Bali to the Krasue of Thailand and the Cambodian Ap.

So, if you’re planning on backpacking in Southeast Asia, make sure to double-check that your travel insurance covers “supernatural encounters”. “Penanggal” or “Penanggalan” in Malay literally means “to detach” or “to remove” and can be perhaps explained by the Penanggalan’s nasty habit of launching its head off of its body.

Penanggalan are typically female and are able to masquerade as normal human beings during the daytime, transforming into their hideous counterparts only at night. They tend to prey upon *******t women and new-born babies, which is why they often opt for professions as midwives. After all, sucking the blood out of helpless victims might sate your hunger, but it won’t pay the bills. By day, the Penanggalan largely goes about its business and cannot be distinguished from a normal woman.

At night, however, it twists its head off of its body and flies out into the night in search of blood. Like some awful harbinger of birth, the Penanggalan perches on the roofs of houses where women are in labour and lies in wait. As the woman gives birth, the Penanggalan will wriggle its invisible tongue into the house and begin draining the blood of the new mother. In some instances, it may even eat the placenta, drain the blood of the new-born, and feast on the flesh of its victims as well.

While the Penanggalan rarely drains its victims entirely, those who have been fed on by the Penanggalan will contract a wasting disease that is almost inescapably fatal. As if squeezing another human being out of your body wasn’t bad enough, now you have to contend with a blood-sucking pile of organs hanging outside your window. To add insult to injury, even if you escape the Penanggalan’s invisible tongue, you will still develop incurable open sores if you happen to be unlucky enough to be brushed by its hanging entrails.

According to most folk legends, the Penanggalan flies through the air in search of food, although alternative accounts state that they can pass through walls and can even ooze up through the *****s in the floorboards of a house in order to get to their victims. In some instances, they are depicted as being able to use their intestines like tentacles and entangle their victims in a mushy web.

The organised Penanggalan will always keep a vat of vinegar in their house, as otherwise it would be impossible for her to return to her body. After a night of floating-head shenanigans, the Penanggalan will return home to immerse her entrails in this vat of vinegar so that they shrink and can fit easily into the empty husk of body she left behind. That being said, we don’t recommend preparing a vinegar bath for those days when you’re planning on struggling into your skinny jeans.

If you happen to be going into labour in Malaysia, the best way to protect against a Penanggalan attack is to scatter thorny leaves on the roof or loop them around windows. It is believed that this sharp shrubbery will trap or injure the Penanggalan’s dangling viscera as it flies by. In some cases, families will even plant pineapple trees under their houses months before the birth of a child, as traditional Malay houses are built on stilts and the prickly fruit will supposedly deter the Penanggalan from squishing its way through the floorboards. As an extra precaution, the *******t woman will keep a pair of scissors or betel nut cutters under her pillow, as the Penanggalan is deathly afraid of these items. In short, the Penanggalan likes its betel nuts uncut and its draping entrails firmly intact.

During the day, the Penanggalan appears like a normal human woman. At night, however, this gruesome ghoul detaches its head and flies around of its own accord. As it flies, its internal organs dangle below it and are said to twinkle like fireflies as it glides through the moonlit night. Its long, tangled hair fans around it as it flies and its glowing red eyes pierce the darkness.

While the Penanggalan predominantly uses its invisible tongue to drain its prey, it is often depicted as having fangs. The number of fangs varies from region to region, with some describing it as having two, like the Western vampire, and others stating that the average Penanggalan is adorned with a mouthful of fangs.

According to traditional Malaysian folklore, a Penanggalan is created when an old or young woman uses black magic in order to obtain everlasting beauty. The woman will typically make a pact with a demon and, as part of this pact, it is stipulated that the woman must not eat meat for 40 days. Apparently these women weren’t great at reading the fine print on their contracts, because breaking this pact results in them becoming a bloodthirsty Penanggalan.

This may seem like an insane lack of self-control on the part of the woman, but imagine going without bacon for over a month and we’re sure you’d ***** too. In some instances, the woman either died during childbirth and transformed into a Penanggalan or was subjected to a powerful curse that was outside of her control, although this is far less common.

There is alternative Malaysian folktale that states the original Penanggalan was once a beautiful priestess. One day, this priestess was taking a ritual bath in a tub that originally held vinegar. As she bathed herself and entered into a state of deep meditation, a man entered the room without warning and startled her. Out of shock, she jerked her head up so quickly to look at him that the sheer force severed her head from her body and eviscerated her in the process, which is often known in Malaysia as the “overreaction of the century”.

Enraged by the peeping tom, the priestess flew after him and left her empty body behind her in the tub. In this version of the legend, it’s not entirely clear why the Penanggalan went on to target *******t women and new-borns, although to be honest we’re willing to question the sanity of a woman who thought tearing her own head off was an appropriate response to anything.

Another version of this legend states that the original Penanggalan was an ugly young woman who had become consumed by bitterness at her single status and was feverishly jealous of all married women. Her unchecked rage eventually resulted in a murderous rampage, during which she murdered many innocent *******t women. As punishment for her heinous crime, the people of her village hung her head from a tall tree and tied her legs to a bull.

When the bull charged, her body was torn away and her severed head was left dangling from the tree with all of the internal organs still intact. While the people of the village celebrated their triumph over evil, they were less than pleased when they discovered that the severed head had gone missing later that night and that they had unwittingly unleashed a hellish demon on their small settlement.

Malaysian documentary filmmaker Justin Ong suggests the legend really belongs to past generations, mostly in rural areas. He adds that it is likely a variant of the PONTIANAK, a spirit with the same motives but more tragic origins: Most stories state she is either the spirit of a woman who died in childbirth or a stillborn child. Other versions of the legend suggest a more violent death and a desire for retribution. Unlike the Penanggalan, the Pontianak appears as a beautiful woman with long hair and pale skin who smells like a plumeria flower, which helps to mask her rotting flesh. Also unlike the penanggalan, she doesn’t expose her own innards, but rather her victims’ to eat.

The Penanggalan is likely the same monster as the Laosian Kasu, Cambodian Ahp, Thai Krasue, Filipino Manananggal, and the Balinese Leyak, all of which are associated with childbearing and birth.

Take the Sumatran palasik. One local Indonesian woman, Azka Namirah, explains that the palasik isn’t a flying head or a beautiful woman, but rather a normal, old woman, whose only tell is that she doesn’t have a philtrum, the little groove between the nose and upper lip. The woman recalls a story her grandmother told her about encountering a palasik as it feasted on a young child. Fortunately, she says, her grandmother chased the palasik off, and the child was treated and saved by a shaman. (Those looking to stop a palasik should know that the creature is partial to its own family, and can be dissuaded by telling her that her prey is actually her own grandchild.)

Another variation comes as the Manananggal in the Philippines. While typically female, it isn’t always. It also doesn’t expose its entrails, but rather detaches its entire upper torso and sprouts wings. One local, John Villegas, explains that it’s mostly a provincial superstition, but added that it is a favorite scary story among grandmothers, including his own. He further differentiated this creature as a scorned lover who hunts brides and grooms out of jealousy.

No matter the Penanggalan’s form or name, they seem to hover around the anxieties of risky childbirth in remote, rural areas. Most agree it is a spirit to be avoided at all costs, lest its floating head be the last thing you see.
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