THE ATLAS, BY REGION
Asia & the Isles
46 records held across 14 traditions.
Chinese folklore · 5
Huli JingA Chinese fox spirit that cultivates essence until it can take human form. Distinct from Japanese kitsune and Korean kumiho, though all three share an East Asian vulpine lineage.JiangshiA hopping revenant of Chinese folklore and later popular culture, usually tied to a body animated by disrupted death rites or vital force.NianA horned New Year beast of Chinese popular legend, said to leave sea or mountain once a year to feed. Firecrackers, drums, and the colour red are remembered as the wards that drive it off.Nü GuiA Chinese category of female ghost, often the returning spirit of a woman who died under injustice. Not one named monster, but a recurring figure of grievance, mourning dress, and unfinished memory.Shui GuiThe water ghost of Chinese folk belief: the spirit of someone who drowned, lingering at that place and, in many accounts, seeking a living substitute so it may leave the water.
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✦Hakka and Taiwanese folklore · 1
◎Indonesian and Malay folklore · 1
⌂Indonesian folklore · 3
KuntilanakThe Indonesian cousin of the Malay pontianak: a female revenant of pregnancy or childbirth death. Names are often used interchangeably; tellings and the city of Pontianak’s founding legend keep them entangled rather than identical.PocongAn Indonesian ghost in the Islamic burial shroud. Folk belief holds that if the kain kafan’s ties are not undone in the grave, the dead may rise still wrapped. Hopping is a film sign; many accounts say a true pocong floats.Sundel BolongA Javanese and Indonesian female revenant: a woman who died pregnant or in childbirth, often after sexual violence, leaving a hole in her back. Distinct from kuntilanak though films blur them.
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✦Japanese folklore · 16
AkanameA yōkai associated with dirty bathrooms and neglected washing places, said to lick up the grime. A domestic warning dressed as a grotesque visitor.BakenekoA transformed cat of Japanese folklore, sometimes linked with age, mistreatment, or revenge. Related to, but not identical with, the split-tailed nekomata.Futakuchi-onnaA woman with a second mouth hidden in the back of her head, fed by writhing hair—often framed as a tale of neglected hunger, cruelty, or household injustice.GashadokuroA gigantic skeletal yōkai said to form from the bones of people who died of starvation or in battle without proper rites. Its approach is announced by a rattling, grinding sound.HyōsubeA kappa-like child of rivers and baths in Kyushu lore, known for invading bathhouses and leaving sickness or mischief behind. Local and kappa traditions overlap without being identical.JorōgumoA spider yōkai in Japanese tradition, often imagined as able to take the form of a woman and lure travellers.KappaA water-dwelling yōkai in Japanese folklore, famous for mischief and for stories where manners, bargains, and rivers matter.KitsuneFox spirits in Japanese tradition, ranging from messengers of Inari to tricksters and lovers in disguise. Age and number of tails mark power; not every kitsune story is malevolent.Noppera-bōThe faceless ghost of Japanese urban and roadside lore, often appearing first as an ordinary person before revealing a smooth, featureless face—a jolt more than a long chase.NurikabeA yōkai that appears as an invisible or plaster-like wall, blocking travellers at night. Folklore remedies include tapping the base; the joke and the dread share the same obstacle.OniOgre-like beings in Japanese storytelling and festival imagery, associated with punishment, otherworldly strength, and the driving-out of misfortune (as in Setsubun). Many local and literary variants exist.RokurokubiA yōkai whose neck stretches enormously at night while the body sleeps or sits still. Some tellings treat the person as unaware; others as knowing and predatory.TenguMountain beings of Japanese folklore, once feared as demons of pride and disruption, later also imagined as martial teachers and protectors of sacred peaks. Crow and human-like forms both appear.UbumeA spirit associated with women who died in childbirth in Japanese lore, often appearing near water or bridges and testing the living with a baby that becomes impossibly heavy.Yuki-onnaThe snow woman of Japanese folklore, appearing in mountain storms as a beautiful, deadly figure of cold. Motives range from predation to strange mercy depending on the tale.YūreiSpirits of the dead that linger for unresolved reasons — often bound to places, objects, or grudges — until the matter that holds them is finally settled.
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◌Javanese folklore · 2
GenderuwoA Javanese hairy, ape-like spirit of the memedi class. Clifford Geertz recorded it as more prankster than murderer; other tellings warn it wears a loved face to tempt.Wewe GombelA Javanese female spirit who kidnaps children. Folklore also says she keeps neglected children kindly until their parents change. Fright and shelter occupy the same figure.
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☾Korean folklore · 4
BulgasariA Korean legendary iron-eater whose name means, in one reading, the one that cannot be killed. Folktales make it a catastrophe of late Goryeo; folk craft also paints it on chimneys as a ward against nightmare and fire.DokkaebiNature-spirits or goblin-like beings of Korean folklore formed from old stained objects or arising in the wild—tricksters who punish greed and reward cleverness, not simple demons.GwisinA Korean term for ghost, spirit, or divinity. Unlike the dokkaebi, gwisin in folk usage are often the human dead who remain because of unfinished ties. Distinct from the kumiho, which is a fox, not a ghost.KumihoThe nine-tailed fox of Korean tradition, often more predatory in classical tales than some Japanese kitsune tellings, though modern media softens or romanticises the figure.
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◎Malay folklore · 1
☾Malay world folklore · 1
✦Philippine folklore · 7
AswangAswang is a broad, regionally varied Philippine category encompassing several frightening beings and stories rather than one fixed creature.BakunawaA Visayan and Bicol moon-eating serpent-dragon blamed for eclipses, quakes, and weather. People still remember rushing outdoors to clang metal until the sky’s light is given back.KapreA tall, dark, hairy tree-dweller of Philippine folklore, often seen smoking in acacia, mango, bamboo, or balete. Mischief more than murder, unless the tree is cut.ManananggalA nocturnal, flying figure in Philippine folklore, often described in regional stories as separating from its lower body to hunt at night.Nuno sa PunsoThe ‘old one of the mound’: a Philippine ancestral earth spirit dwelling in anthills and termite mounds. People ask leave before passing. Disturbance brings illness; respect keeps the ground quiet.TikbalangA Philippine forest being, now usually pictured as a tall, bony horse-headed humanoid, that misleads travellers. Early Spanish records call it a mountain phantom; the werehorse face arrived after horses did.TiyanakA Philippine being that mimics an infant’s cry to lure passers-by. Related in name to Malay childbirth spirits, but here the child, not the mother, is the hunter. Origins and forms vary by ethnolinguistic group.
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☾Thai and Khmer folklore · 1
☾Thai and Lao folklore · 1
❖Thai folklore · 2
Mae NakMae Nak of Phra Khanong: a specific Thai revenant of a woman who died in childbirth and waited for her husband. Her shrine at Wat Mahabut remains a place of living offerings.Nang TaniA Thai lady of the wood who inhabits clumps of wild kluai tani banana. Related to, but not the same as, Malay pontianak banana-grove motifs. Offerings and cloth on the trunk keep her favour.
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