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Penanggalan The Malay Peninsula Vampire

Penanggalan The Malay Peninsula Vampire


The Penanggalan is a peculiar blend of vampire, witch and a supernatural being.

Although the name Hantu Penanggalan means “detached ghost” it is not technically a ghost and even though it feeds on the blood of its victims, it is not technically a vampire either, during the day it is a normal woman, unusually attractive, but still normal. As soon as night falls the penanggalan detaches her head, spinal column and internal organs from her body, she grows fangs and her tongue lengthens.

The penanggalan floats, searching for victims, in some areas it is claimed that the dangling internal organs of the penanggalan glow like those of a firefly.

How to Become a Penanggalan


  1. Practicing black magic to appear more beautiful.
  2. Making a pact with a demon, usually in exchange for youth or beauty.
  3. Being cursed by an extremely powerful bomoh (witchdoctor).
  4. Breaking a pact made with the devil.

Legend of the First Penanggal


Once upon a time, a midwife wanted to catch the eye of the village chief, she made a pact with the devil, he would make her the most beautiful woman in the area and she would not eat meat or have an impure thought for 40 days and nights. After 14 days the midwife was called to assist a woman in labor, the woman was in labor for hours and the midwife stayed at her side the whole time, after the ordeal, both women exhausted, thirst and hungry. The woman's family offered the midwife food and drink, the midwife, tired and not thinking straight gulped the food down and drank deeply of the bounty put before her.

Later that night she was woken from her sleep by an excruciating pain, her head pulled itself away from her body, eventually ripping itself away from her body, her spine and internal organs were still attached to her head and dangled down as her head floated towards the home of the family who just gave birth. As she floated closer, she felt indescribable hunger overwhelm her, she floated below the house, her tongue extended up through the cracks in the floor to lap at the drop of blood from the birthing that no one had noticed fall. When her head floated back to her body, she discovered that slipping her organs and spine back into her body was difficult, she then noticed a large pot of vinegar on her kitchen table, she had been planning to pickle vegetables the next day. Her head floated towards the vinegar and she slowly sank into it, as her entrails and internal organs soaked in the vinegar they shrank, she then floated back to her body and easily slipped into it like hands into a pair of gloves.

Since that day, penanggalan have always favored the blood of newborns or pregnant women.

How to Tell if a Woman is a Penanggalan


There are only three ways to detect a penanggalan, the first is that she will have an unpleasantly strong aroma of vinegar about her at all times, the second is that her beauty will be undiminished over the years and the third method is that when she sees or smells blood she will lick her lips in hunger.

How to Kill a Penanggalan


  1. Plant thorny plants around and under a home(Many Asian homes are build on stilts with sufficient space underneath to plant bushes), the penanggalans soft internal organs will get caught in the thorns and could cause her to perish.
  2. Find the penanggalans body while the heads is detached, then stuff the hollowed out body with pieces of shattered glass or other sharp objects, as the head reattaches itself, the sharp objects inside the body will pierce the internals organs and kill the penanggalan.
  3. Burn the body.
  4. Flip the body over, as the head reattaches, the body will be on backwards and can be dispatched later.
  5. Perform a cleansing ritual over the body and then burying it.


Regional Names for the Penanggalan,


In different parts of Asia, the penanggalan is known by different names, the creatures origins might also differ, but the description of the creature itself is nigh on identical.

Thailand it is called the Krasue
Laos it is called the Phi-Kasu
Cambodia it is called the Ap
Indonesia it is called the Leyak

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