Penanggalan

For this week's episode, we're heading over to Malaysia for the first time and looking at the terrifying Penanggalan! What do these horrible monsters hunt for in the dead of night, and attempt to hide during the day? How can you catch one and stop it from catching anyone else? Find out in this chapter!

Transcript

INTRO:

Hello and welcome to Myth Monsters, my name is Erin and I’ll be your host for these little snack bite size podcasts on folklore and mythical monsters from around the world. 

These podcasts focus on the actual cryptids, folklore and mythic monsters from global mythology, rather than focusing on full stories of heroes and their big adventures.

I’ll also be dropping in some references that they have to recent culture and where you can see these represented in modern day content so you can learn more, and get as obsessed as I am about these absolute legends of the mythological world.

This week, we’re heading more east and going over to Malaysia for the first time! How exciting! I’ll be honest, I thought this monster was Filipino before I did my research, and thankfully I was corrected when I announced this the other day on Twitter - so thank you for this! I usually research before the announcement, but I was running a little late this week as my last episode was only released on Sunday. 

DESCRIPTION:

The Penanggalan is described as a vampiric monster who floats around in the nights - this sounds kind of normal, kind of like a normal vampire right? There is one thing though - that actually they only have a head, and all of their entrails. Yes, you heard me right, literally just a bundle of organs and a noggin. They detach their heads and organs every night when they go out, leaving their bodies behind in the dark. They are always female and have a long, invisible tongue, fangs and tentacle entrails that she uses to wrap her gross organ arms around people. 

That’s the general description and it's hideous, I know. But worse is that she was once a normal person, but she had dabbled in black magic for the purpose of beauty. The legends say that after dabbling in this, the woman would have to keep a vegetarian diet for 40 days, and if she broke this fast, she would turn into a Penanggalan - cursed to spend her nights hunting for blood. This links us nicely onto what she eats, as in Malay culture, women who have just given birth do not tend to leave the house for 40 days after - until the head shaving ceremony called the Berchukor.

So you might have guessed it, but Penanggalan survive on the blood of pregnant women or newborn babies, being the darkest and most anti-maternal trait this monster could possibly be. She would do this in the nights, but during the days - she would try her best to get close to her prey, by midwifing. You could tell a woman was a Penanggalan if she avoided eye contact and licked her lips whilst working with the pregnant woman or baby.

Another one was that there would be a lingering smell of vinegar - which she would bathe her organs in every dawn, in order to fit them back into her body - which is gross. Some tellings actually say that she would leave her body in a vat of vinegar, rather than just having a little dip - and you could go and find her body in a barrel somewhere during the night if you were brave enough. 

So how would you stop a Penanggalan from getting you and your bubbies? New parents are encouraged to lock their doors and windows at night, as the monsters could reach into the windows with their long tongues or they could get their gross intestines to reach under the floorboards and snatch the babies this way. Another way was that you could find her body in either her vat of vinegar or in her house, then fill her body up with glass specifically. Then when she tries to reattach herself, she slices up her organs and dies. Or you could flip her body over so she reattaches her head backwards and everyone then knows that she’s a Penanggalan - this one is my favourite, imagine the excuses that woman would have to make.

The most common prevention method is to scatter the thorny leaves of a plant called Mengkuang. These spiky leaves would trap or damage the exposed organs, which again, is a gross idea. But women who are near labour would wrap these around their windows to protect themselves. Another method was planting pineapple trees under the houses - which are commonly built on stilts in Malaysia - then the Penanggalan would get stuck on the spiny leaves of the fruit and the inhabitants would be able to kill it. They’re also pretty scared of scissors or leaf cutters, so pregnant women are encouraged to keep these under their pillows.

You might be getting Mananaggal vibes - this monster from Filipino folklore, who are often mixed up, just like I did - is very similar in the fact that they are mostly women and able to detach a part of their body from another. They’re both pretty nasty monsters, and you can see why sometimes they’re confused with each other, even though they’re from differing mythologies that are close geographically. 

ORIGIN:

Now onto etymology, the name Penanggalan comes from the Malay word tanggal meaning to remove or take off, due to her detaching head and organs nature. That’s it, it’s a nice and simple one this week - so that’s fun.

What’s even more fun is that Penanggalan exists in pretty much every country in Southeast Asia. It’s called balan-balan in Sabah, leyak in Bali, kuyang in Kalimantan, palasik in West Sumatra, kra-sue in Thailand, kasu in Laos, ahp in Cambodia, and the manananggal in the Philippines, as we mentioned earlier and have talked about in a previous episode. Highly recommend checking that out because duh - I also had one of my Filipino pals do the intro, and it was so fab.

There’s no specific time in history that I can track this monster down to, I’m afraid. The only official record I have of this is that of a folklore tale back from 1834 from a East India Company Officer. The story went that a man had two wives, both with different skin colours. He suspected that they were both Penanggalan and so told them that he was going off on a business trip. He waited for the night, and the wives - thinking he was gone, went out hunting for the night, leaving their bodies behind in the house. He snuck in and swapped the two bodies and in the morning, both women had each other’s bodies on, which was clear by the differing skin tones. Can you imagine how bloody funny that must have been? But yeah, I imagine that that was pretty traumatic for him.

There isn’t really much more to it with this monster, there’s not really any specific real life example to compare this to, as it’s just not something that could possibly be linked to an animal in reality or something that was misconstrued - but it is very cool. 

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: 

Onto our lovely cultural stuff - we’ve not got a lot today, seems that this monster is a bit more elusive in nature in media, but there are a few bits that you can look at here and there!

For art - right, for this one, there are a few arty pieces, I mean in the sense that there are some gorgeous masks that exist within Southeast asia to represent these monsters like the Penanggalan, that people wear during festivals and celebrations to ward them off. So I highly recommend having a look at those - I’ll pop them onto the Twitter just in case you’ve got the time! But otherwise, for actual art art - have a look at independent stuff this week, I really recommend it too, there are some really spooky and grim pieces that really reflect how vile this creature is. 

For movies this week, we only have a few and they are Malay or South east asian films, so my western audience might not have heard of them. I have given some of these a watch so recommend you do too! There is Mystics in Bali, Fei Tou Mo Nu, Demonic Beauty, Penanggalan, Creepshow, Manananggal and The Boxer’s Omen. 

For TV, there is literally nothing for Penanggalan specifically - I’m so sorry, but you can catch some very similar monsters such as the Manananggal in Marvel Anime: Blade, InCryptid, Elemento, Supernatural and Grimm.

In video games, we’ve got Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Indivisible, Dark Conspiracy, Malifaux and Final Fantasy. So also not many I’m afraid - but hey, give these ones a go!

For my book recommendation this week, I have two! Firstly is Malay Magic by Walter William Skeat which is actually an e-book which I gave a little read before recording this, and it’s so good, and it’s free! The other one is Malay Myths & Legends by Jan Knappert, again - a fab one, have a looksee.

DO I THINK THEY EXISTED? 

Now it’s time for, do I think they existed? Right, well I’m going to just flat out say no to this one - because look at the state of it! It’s a ridiculous concept but I do get that they are quite terrifying. 

Although I know that I’ve just literally said flat out no - I get that actually, the horrible idea of something happening to a baby you just pushed out or something happening to you whilst carrying said baby, is just terrifying. So maybe it was some folklor-y justification for child loss, or death during pregnancy or childbirth - which obviously back in the day before medicine, was quite common and devastating nonetheless.

OUTRO: 

This monster is so gross, but an interesting one nonetheless. Another really cool monster from a really cool mythos that I wouldn’t usually know anything about - although a lot of people seem to know this one so that’s interesting too!

Next week we’re heading to the US and looking at modern phenomena and cryptids, which I’ve been really looking forward to covering for the last few months. We’re looking at the horrid Slenderman myth - so get out of that forest and run for the hills from this monstrosity next Thursday!

For now thank you so much for listening, it’s been an absolute pleasure. If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a rating on the service you’re listening on - I’ve got the twitter for any questions, or suggestions on what monsters to cover next and I’d love to hear from you. The social media handles for Tiktok and Instagram are mythmonsterspodcast, and twitter is mythmonsterspod. But all of our content can be found at mythmonsters.co.uk - you can also find us on Goodpods and Patreon if you want to help me fund the podcast, ya know if you feel like it.

Come join the fun and share this with your pals, they might love me as much as you do.

But for now, stay spooky and I’ll see you later babes.