#penanggal

9th september was @kamilaqurr’s birthday so I turned her into a kuyang.

Manananggal. One of the most popular monsters in Philippine folklore and a staple of Pinoy horror movies. Almost every Filipino knows what a manananggal is but to those who don’t, well, a manananggal is a variant of the aswang. By day, is just a normal person, usually a woman, but come sundown she goes to a secluded area, goes naked and rubs a specially prepared oil all over her body while…

Inktober #9: Penanggal! So yeah, the rest of this month will be minor spirits or monsters from various pantheons, with the occasional seasonal bent.

I meant for this to be a set with the other Penanggal, but can’t imagine that’s happening tonight. He’ll show up somewhere down the line, anyway; you can see what’s left of a preliminary sketch in the bottom left-hand corner there.

SMT MYSTERY DEMON EXTRAS #1: PENANGGAL

Before we found out its true origins, I feel it’s safe to say that everyone thought Kaneko’s Penanggal was a joke. Everyone knows the “real” Southeast Asian haunt, so why were there arms instead of entrails? Why a bee, other than the pain of the design’s apparent mediocrity stung like one? 

Truth be told, I wasn’t even looking for Penanggal while trying to track down Tingkat, but it kind of tagged along for the ride since the two of them shared a primary source, Jah-Het of Malaysia, Art and Culture, discovered of course thanks to the legendary paper trail of Shigeru Mizuki. Bee-form Penanggal was still an original spin, but one that ultimately didn’t come out of left field: it more or less accurately portrayed the beliefs and spirit carvings of the Jah Hut people and Penanggal’s own role as a protector of bees. 

Something I didn’t feel there was room for in the original post was the existence of a third Penanggal carving in the book, seen last in the photoset, as it wasn’t described in relation to bees nor did it serve as obvious artistic inspiration. The whimsical style of this bean-shaped guy (the book specifically states this and the fanged one used as the basis for Mizuki’s design are male--is the other female? It doesn’t say either way) makes him look like he’s ready as-is to amble out of his own page and right into one of Mizuki’s works. Though the descriptions for each carving in Jah-Het of Malaysia are brief, Mizuki’s own profile for Penanggal is far lengthier, leading me to believe he may have just combined the three seen here into one. 

Even after reading the book, I personally don’t know if a distinction is intended between these three Penanggal or any other Jah Hut spirits described that have more than one entry/carving. However, the author of Jah-Het of Malaysia, Roland Werner, wrote additional books on Jah Hut spirits and their medicinal practices which Mizuki had access to and I yet do not, so I might be missing an integral part of the puzzle. Though most of the carvings represent malignant spirits, I was so enamored with the charm and inherent artistry in so many of them I’ll probably have to throw together a gallery of my favorite Jah Hut spirits sometime soon.