Malaysian Ghost Stories

Malaysian ghost stories and supernatural creatures. In Malaysia, there are many legends and myths about ghosts called “Hantu”. Some of these legends are shared with Indonesia and other Asian countries.

1. Pontianak

The Pontianak is a ghost of a woman who died while she was pregnant. She appears as an ugly woman with pale skin, long black hair, sharp nails and a white dress. She makes a sound like a baby crying at night as she goes in search of human prey.

The Pontianak attacks men and drinks their blood. She will plunge her sharp fingernails into your stomach, ripping out your internal organs and devouring them. She can also suck your eyes out of your head.

Read more about the Pontianak here.

2. Penanggalan

The Penanggalan is a female vampire that appears as a detached head, flying around on its own with the internal organs trailing behind it. She feeds on the blood of newborn infants or pregnant women.

She is a normal woman during the day, but at night, her head and entrails leave her body and fly around in search of victims.

If she can’t get into your house, she can still attack you. She has a long, sharp, invisible tongue that snakes out and oozes up through the floorboards, sticking into you and sucking your blood.

Read more about the Penanggalan here.

3. Orang Minyak

Orang Minyak (or “Oily Man”) is a demon with a bald head and glowing red eyes. He is completely naked and his entire body is covered in black oil. He was a deformed man who tried to win back his love with black magic. he made a deal with the devil to make himself handsome, but he was cursed. He breaks into the bedrooms of young women at night and attacks them as they sleep. His black, oily body makes him difficult to see in the dark and almost impossible to catch because he is so slippery.

Read more about Orang Minyak here.

4. KumKum

Hantu KumKum is a disfigured old woman who goes from house to house, looking for young girls so she can drink their blood. She was once a very beautiful and vain woman. She went to a Malaysian witch doctor (a “Bomoh”) to improve her looks, but the black magic went wrong and her face was destroyed. By drinking the blood of young girls, she hopes she can restore her lost youth and beauty.

Read more about Hantu KumKum here.

5. Aisha

Aisha was a young girl who had a rare condition called Photophobia. She was abducted and murdered by a gang of men who took pictures of her. Aisha’s ghost returned from the dead and exacted her revenge. They say that she will kill anyone who looks at a picture of her corpse.

Read the full story of Aisha here.

6. Langsuir

The Langsuir is the ghost of a woman who died while giving birth to a dead baby. She is similar to the Pontianak, but there are some differences. She appears as a hideous woman with glowing red eyes, a rotting green face and long sharp nails. She has long black hair that hangs down to her ankles and is usually wearing a green or white dress.

The Lang Suir is jealous of pregnant women, so she attacks them and tries to kill them or cause their babies to be born dead. She has a hole in the back of her neck through which she can suck the blood of her victims. She can also possess her victims and suck out their blood from the inside.

The Langsuir lives near the coast and when she can’t find human victims, she resorts to sucking the blood out of fish.

To prevent a pregnant woman’s corpse from becoming a Langsuir, you have to place needles in both of her hands, glass beads in her mouth and an egg under each armpit.

It is possible to tame a Langsuir by cutting off her long nails and stuffing her long hair into the hole at the back of her neck.

7. Polong

A Polong is an evil spirit that is controlled by a Malaysian witch doctor (or “Bomoh”). If you are its master, you can use it to torment your enemies with madness, sickness and eventually death.

To summon a Polong, you put the blood of a murdered person into a bottle and use incantations and magic spells. After two weeks, you will hear a chirping noise or the sound of crying coming from the bottle. Then, you cut your finger and allow the blood to drain into the bottle and feed the demon. This binds the Polong to you, telling it that you are its master and it is your servant.

Nobody knows exactly what a Polong looks like. Some say it appears in the bottle as a naked woman around an inch tall. Others say that when it is let out of the bottle, it looks like an egg-shaped fiery ball.

8. Pelesit

The Pelesit is a dark spirit revered by shamans in Malay culture. It feeds on blood and works as a servant for its master. It demonizes people and causes chaos in society. Pelesit must have a continuous host and therefore needs to be passed down from one generation to the next. It should always be taken care of and fed constantly because if not, the demon will soon create havoc among the local inhabitants of its master’s village, especially after the master’s death.

9. Hantu Tetek

Hantu Tetek means “Breast ghost”. It is also known as Hantu Kopek which means “nipple ghost”. She is the ghost of an old woman who was never able to have children. She has a haggard, wrinkled face and enormous, saggy breasts that grow out of her back. She kidnaps children and hides them under her huge breasts, sometimes raising them as her own. She also uses her huge breasts to suffocate people.

This is very similar to Wewe Gombel in Indonesia.