Know which Ghost hunted you in India and China

Various cultures and traditions in a country led to imagine Ghosts in a certain form. An Indian imagines a Ghost as someone wearing long white dress with fiercely teeth, white weird eyes and mostly it will have long tangled hair who dares to come only in the night. While Chinese people imagine Ghost as someone who dwells in banana tree appears in the night. Chinese usually expect a long red tongue sticking out of the mouth. Mostly ghost takes revenge if it had experienced some injustice while alive. Looking very closely, we will find that there are lots of similarities in ghosts which are influenced by other Asian cultured and their beliefs. The funny and the major difference is that Ghost in India looks like an Indian and while Chinese ghost looks like a Chinese.

Ghosts in India

A few famous words used in India are Chudail, Daayan, Preta and Pretni, Rakshasa. Sometimes people use these words to curse someone or use it as slang.

Let understand a lit bit about these Ghosts:

Chudail-It’s a term used for unhappy woman spirit. It’s believed that they would have faced a lot of trouble in life during pregnancy, childbirth or due to negligence of the family members and died unhappy. Their unrest soul takes revenge by sucking the blood of the victim.

   

Dayaan-Basically it’s one step ahead of Chudail. Daayan comes from word “Dakini” which refers to female spiritual being. It is believed that Daayan prefers to suck blood and feast of human flesh. Dayaan worship Goddess Kali. They prefer handsome men with whom they fulfill their sexual desires and typically hunt young men at night.

     

Preta and Pretni-In spirit world, Preta and Pretni exist are love couple ghost who died unmarried or either one is dead by committing suicide or due to some unfortunate reason.

Pishacha-These ghosts are huge built, dark complexion and bulging red eyes. They have power to alter human thoughts and can become invisible. They haunt in cremation grounds and graveyards. Female version is known as “Pishchini”.

Rakshasa-It’s a very common term used in India which usually refer if someone eats too much without any burden. Rakshasa can used for both good and evil spirits. It’s believed that wicked human being dies to become evil spirits. Usually they are gigantic, huge and strong monster.

A lot of time Indian women are killed in the name of witch hunting.  

A few popular Ghosts in China

Hungry Ghost (E guǐ )-The spirit takes the form of a ghost if death is caused by negligence. According to tradition, it’s believed that Hungry Ghost souls are reborn. Reason for death was because of misery, greed, anger and ignorance of other people. Thus they take shape of Ghost to bring an end to the evil deeds.

Ghost women (Nǚ guǐ)-Typically a depressed woman commits suicide while wearing a red dress and return to the land to take revenge from its lover or any family members. Red is a sacred color however it also represents anger and vengeance so dying in red color is inauspicious. Usually Ghost wears a white dress with long hair and will take revenge by seducing man and finally kill them.

Water Ghost (Shuǐ guǐ)-These spirits drown the people in the water bodies. They wait for the human to cross a certain point usually the place where they died. Then they drag the victim underwater and drown them thus spirit gets a new life in the victim’s body and tries to control the victim’s body.    

New Year Beast (Nián shòu)-These creatures come out during Chinese New Year. They attack villages once in a year and create havoc by killing many people.  It’s in the shape of a lion but has single horn on his head. It is believed that Monster is scared of 3 things - Red Color, fire and loud noise like fire cracker. Thus in New Year, Chinese people will decorate the house with red color and burst fire crackers to keep away from monsters or evil things.

Chinese Zombies (Jiāng shī)-Chinese Zombies are known for hopping with its arms stretched. They are known as vampires too. They are depicted as stiff corpse and wear garments from the Qing Dynasty. Either recently dead person returns to life or long buried person body doesn’t decompose. They kill a living being to absorb the soul out of the victim’s body. 

Indian Rituals related to Spirits

In Hinduism, It’s believed that a dead person soul hangs around for 13 days. Detaching Soul from Body is a gradual process as it was attached with it for a long period so various rituals are conducted to depart the soul in peace. Food and water are offered in the name of dead person known as “Pinda” for 10 days to satisfy the hunger of the spirit. On the 10^th day, Pinda offerings are divided into 4 parts:

1.       Two parts build up a new body for the dead

2.       One part goes to Lord Yama’s messenger

3.       One part goes to Preta basically refers to the spirit of the dead person.

Disembodied spirit of the deceased to obtain a new body for reincarnation happens in the next 3 days and it develops hunger which can be satisfied by offering some delicious food which includes non-vegetarian food as well.   On 13^th day, soul begins to depart by the servant of Yama and regrets for its evil actions. 

Ghost Festival in China

It’s popularly known as “Hungry Ghost Festival” and is one of the traditional festivals to worship ancestors. It’s usually celebrated during July or August every year based on the lunar calendar. It’s believed that Hell gates open to allow ghost to go back to the living world. Because they are trapped for a long time, they might be hungry. So families offer delicious food to their deceased ancestors. People pay tribute and also visit the graveyards to offer prayers and distribute food in all directions so that ghost can eat food from any directions. Some taboos are also related to it such as people shouldn’t wear red color dress, shouldn’t swim or cry near water bodies, shouldn’t move or renovated house, complete no no to open umbrellas and whistling and finally no birthday celebration on that day. On last day of Hungry ghost month, gates are again closed up.