leak bali

Leyaks are humans who are practicing black magic and have cannibalistic behavior. Their mistress is the "queen of Leyak", a widow-witch named Rangda, who plays a prominent role in public rituals.[1] Her mask is kept in the village death temple and during her temple festivals, she is paraded. Besides leyaks, demons are said to be the followers of Rangda.

Leyak are said to haunt graveyards, feed on corpses, have power to change themselves into animals, such as pigs, and fly. In normal Leyak form, they are said to have an unusually long tongue and large fangs. In daylight they appear as an ordinary human, but at night their head and entrails break loose from their body and fly. Leyak statues (a head with a very long tongue and sharp fangs) are sometimes hung on a wall for house decoration.

In practice, Balinese people sometimes attribute certain illness or deaths to leyaks.[1] A balian (Balinese traditional healer) will conduct a seance to identify with witchcraft who is responsible for the death. During the seance, the spirit of the dead will directly or indirectly point to his/her attacker. However, vengeance by the victim's relatives or family is usually counseled against, and people are advised to leave any action to the spirits themselves. Hence, the suspicions and fears of the family and relatives are confirmed, but revenge upon the witch is discouraged by the healers.
See also

leak clown

leak long nails

ondel-ondel

Ondel-ondel is a form of folk performance using a large puppets. It originated from Betawi, Indonesia and is often performed in festivals. The word ondel-ondel refers to both the performance and the puppet.

Ondel-ondel, the puppet, is about 2.5 meters tall with ± 80 cm diameter, made of woven bamboo. It is constructed in such a way so that it easily lifted by one person from the inside of the puppet. The puppet is usually dressed in brightly coloured garments, and in some occasions, in traditional Betawi clothing. The puppet's mask face is typically made of wood, and the hair from dried palm tree leaves that has been shredded lengthways. An ondel-ondel can either be of the female or male gender. The wooden mask of the male puppet is traditionally painted red, while the female painted white.

Ondel-ondel as a folk performance is also practiced in other parts of Indonesia. In Pasundan, it is known as Badawang, while in Central Java it is called Barongan Buncis. In Bali, it is better known as Barong Landung.

Traditionally, ondel-ondel is performed to provide protection against calamities or for warding off wandering evil spirits. It is often thought of as a spiritual representation of the ancestors who safeguards the village residents and their descendants. Although, as of late, ondel-ondel is utilised more for livening up festivals or for welcoming guests of honor. Ondel-ondel is one of only few Indonesian folk performances that has survived modernisation and is still being regularly performed, while other folk performances are slowly dying out.

The musical acompaniment for the ondel-ondel performance varies with regions, occasions and groups of performances.

couple ondel-ondel

ondel-ondel eyes ball

The pontianak (Dutch-Indonesian spelling: boentianak) is a vampiric ghost in Malay and Indonesian mythology. It is also known as a matianak or kuntilanak, sometimes shortened to kunti. The pontianak are said to be the spirits of woman who died while pregnant. This is often confused with a related creature, the lang suir, which is the ghost of a woman who died while giving birth. The word pontianak is reportedly a corruption of the Malay perempuan mati beranak, or “woman who died in childbirth”.[1] Another theory is that the word is a combination of puan (woman) + mati (die) + anak (child). The term matianak means "death of a child". The city of Pontianak in Indonesia is named after this creature, which was claimed to have haunted the first sultan who once settled there.

In Philippine folklore, the vampiric tiyanak shares many similarities in terms of origin with the pontianak. However, the Philippine tiyanak is the ghost of the child rather than the mother.

suzanna kuntilanak

kuntilanak with her son

A pocong is an Indonesian/Malaysian ghost that is said to be the soul of a dead person trapped in its shroud. Known in Indonesia/Malaysia as kain kafan, the shroud is the prescribed length of cloth used in Muslim burials to wrap the body of the dead person. The dead body is covered in white fabric tied over the head, under the feet, and on the neck.

According to traditional beliefs, the soul of a dead person will stay on the earth for 40 days after the death. When the ties aren't released after 40 days, the body is said to jump out from the grave to warn people that the soul need the bonds to be released. After the ties are released, the soul will leave the earth and never show up anymore. Because of the tie under the feet, the ghost can't walk. This causes the pocong to hop.

pocong's child

pocong community