Japanese, Chinese and Korean ghosts: how are they different from Thai ghosts?

Almost every culture's dangerous ghosts come from deaths that broke the rules, but each stresses a different rule: China fears the unfed dead, Korea the unmarried dead, Thailand the living sorcerer.

Thai ghosts: peta, violent-death ghosts and living sorcerers

Thailand has 20 kinds in this dataset from 3 belief systems: Theravada Buddhism, Thai folk belief and the Sukhothai-era spirit cult. Counting only dead-human ghosts from the first two leaves 6, with two kinds of cause. The first is bad karma, 3 kinds: the peta of both the Buddhist and folk sources, and the phi kala-yak. The Traiphum Phra Ruang says one sort of peta beats its own head with a red-hot iron hammer without end because in a past life it struck its parents. The phi kala-yak who guards temple treasure is said to be the spirit of a monk or abbot who broke the monastic rules and cannot be reborn until the karma is spent.

The second is unnatural death, 3 kinds. The phi tai hong died suddenly and unnaturally, shot or hit by a car, and haunts the place of death. The phi phrai is a young woman who drowned and pulls people into the water because she wants company. Mae Nak is the ghost of a woman who died giving birth. Thai remedies therefore turn on precepts and merit: the source says a violent-death ghost can only possess someone who does not keep the 5 precepts, and one class of peta survives only on the merit the living dedicate to it.

The ghosts Thais talk about most sit outside the dead-human category. An Isan source says the phi pop comes from someone who studied magic and could not keep it, or broke a taboo, and it runs in families. The krahang is a man whose sorcery turned on him and who flies at night with a winnowing basket for wings. The krasue possesses a living woman; the source does not say why. Anthropologists explain the phi pop as a mechanism of mistrust within a community, and people accused of it were driven out of their villages, so these stories have had real consequences.

On whether they stay put or follow people, 9 of the 20 Thai kinds are bound to a place: Nang Takhian in the takhian tree, Nang Tani in the wild banana, the phi phrai in water, the violent-death ghost where it died. Only the phi pop is said to follow people, because it lives inside a person and passes down the family. For the other 10 the sources do not say.

Chinese ghosts: the dead no one burns incense for, and the hopping corpse

China has 16 kinds in this dataset, from Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, Chinese folk religion and Daoism, and the Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese folk religion of the south. The first two sources give 6 dead-human ghosts, and 4 of them share one cause: no one feeds them, the highest share of any group compared. The southern Chinese source says plainly that the ghost without kin is in essence the same as an ancestor spirit; the only difference is whether anyone worships it. People who died violently in war, epidemic or accident, or died young without descendants, have no one to burn incense for them, so they pester the living to be fed. People call them ho hia ti, 'the good brothers'. The remedy is a small three-walled shrine for them to rest in and offerings in the 7th month.

A pattern the data shows for China and Vietnam is the ghost who seeks a substitute. The Chinese water ghost is someone who drowned in an ill-omened way and cannot be reborn; to be released it must drag someone else into the water to die in its place, a practice called catching a substitute. Thailand also has the phi phrai, who pulls people into water, and Korea has a water ghost that drags people under until they die, but the stated reasons differ: the phi phrai wants company, and the Korean source gives no reason. Only China and Vietnam have ghosts who must get someone else killed in their place to be reborn.

The Chinese ghost Thais search for most is the hopping one, jiangshi (殭屍) in Chinese. In Ming and Qing legend it forms when the soul cannot leave the corpse, because the person died with a grudge or the grave's feng shui was destroyed, and it kills living things to drain their life force. Among the Asian ghosts in this dataset, the jiangshi is the only walking corpse. English Wikipedia, which we consulted additionally, describes the familiar image: the robe and hat of a Qing dynasty official, greenish-white skin, and a paper talisman hanging from the forehead. As for the hopping, the same source traces it to the trade of carrying corpses home, since the Chinese believed a soul buried far from home would be homesick. The bodies were stood upright in single file and tied to long bamboo poles carried by a man at each end, and when the bamboo flexed, from a distance the corpses seemed to hop in unison.

Japanese ghosts: white robes, no feet, and too little data to conclude

Japan has 9 kinds in this dataset, all from Shinto, but 7 are not dead people. They are spirits and demons such as the oni, kitsune, tengu, kappa and tsukumogami, household objects that gain a spirit after nearly a hundred years. There are only 2 dead-human ghosts, the yūrei and the onryō, and both have a grudge among their causes. The onryō is the spirit of someone who died with a grudge, feared for bringing disaster through possession. The yūrei carries all 4 causes at once: a sudden or violent death, funeral rites not done properly, attachment or jealousy, and a grudge. The source adds that the lower or more oppressed the dead person was, the more strongly they return. The remedy is proper funeral rites and prayers for the soul to pass on.

With only 2 kinds we cannot say Japanese ghosts are grudge ghosts, because 3 of Korea's 5 and 3 of China's 6 dead-human ghosts carry a grudge too. Grudges look like an East Asian matter in general, not something peculiar to Japan. Real-world Japan also has far more ghosts than this dataset holds, such as the ubume, a mother who died in childbirth or left small children behind and comes back to care for them, often bringing sweets. We found that one through an additional search of English Wikipedia; it is not in the main dataset.

The yūrei look Thai audiences know from films, white clothes, long black hair, a triangle on the forehead and no feet, has a clear history according to English Wikipedia. The white is the white burial kimono of Edo period funerals. The long, disheveled hair is believed by some to come from kabuki theatre. The small white triangle on the forehead is called a tenkan (天冠). Having no legs or feet and floating in the air began in Edo period ukiyo-e prints, and the first known yūrei of this kind is The Ghost of Oyuki by the painter Maruyama Ōkyo. Yūrei are often shown with a pair of floating flames called hitodama, in blue, green or purple.

Korean ghosts: the girl who died unmarried

Korea has 12 kinds in this dataset, from Korean shamanism (Muism) and the early religion of Goguryeo and Silla. Five are dead-human ghosts. The general word is gwishin (귀신): the dead who are still tied to the world of the living and must take revenge or look after a loved one before going to the underworld. The Korean source says gwishin are transparent, legless and floating, so the legless ghost appears in both Japan and Korea. To keep ghosts out of the house, Koreans scatter salt or beans.

The standout cause is dying before marriage, 3 of 5 kinds, against just 8% worldwide. The cheonyeo gwishin is a young woman of marriageable age who died unmarried; she tends to attach herself to women of her own age and harm them, and the remedy is to worship her as a household deity. There is a male counterpart, the mongdal gwishin. The wongwi is a ghost with a grievance because it died cruelly or unjustly, as a child, far from home, or without proper funeral rites; it wants revenge on its killer or harms the living at random, and the remedy is a proper funeral and a gut ritual to send the soul on. But dying unmarried is not Korea's alone, and grievance is just as prominent, also 3 of 5.

For the Korean maiden ghost of the films, English Wikipedia says she usually wears the white hanbok worn at funerals, has long, drooping black hair, and is sometimes faceless. So the Korean maiden ghost and the Japanese yūrei wear white for the same reason: it is the colour of funeral dress.

Southeast Asian neighbours: flying heads that belong to the living

Cross into Cambodia, Vietnam, the Malay world and the Philippines and every one has a relative of the krasue. Cambodia has the ahp, a woman whose black magic failed and turned its curse on her. Vietnam has the ma lai, which appears as a woman's head with her internal organs dangling. The Malay world has the penanggalan, a living person who learned black magic until the head could detach and fly with the entrails hanging. The Philippines has the manananggal, which splits off its upper body and grows bat wings. Manananggal and penanggalan come from the same root, tanggal, 'to detach'. Counting the krasue, all 5 are living people, not the dead, and 4 of the 5 prey on women in childbirth, pregnant women or infants.

The defences are strikingly similar. Thais stuck jujube thorns under the raised house, believing the krasue fears thorns snagging its entrails. Khmer households lay thorny branches around the house and bury the placenta deep and far away. Malays set thorny mengkuang leaves around the house and plant pineapples underneath. Filipinos put garlic at doors and windows and sprinkle salt on the abandoned lower body, so it cannot rejoin and dies at sunrise.

Another regional pattern is the spirit someone keeps. The Malay source has 4 kinds that follow their owners. The toyol is a child-shaped spirit kept to steal neighbours' money. The pelesit hides inside a grasshopper and is fed with blood from its owner's fingertip every full moon. The polong is made from the blood of a murdered person sealed in a long-necked bottle. The hantu raya must be passed on to an heir, and if it is not fed it turns on its owner. The Malay source likens the toyol to a malevolent kuman thong. These spirits are neither bound to a place nor wandering; they cling to a person and a bloodline, much like the phi pop that runs in families.

The neighbours' dead-human ghosts include bad karma, as in Thailand. The Lao and Isan phi religion classes the phi pop and phi dip as phi phet, the souls of people who did evil in past lives or died tragically. Cambodia has the peta who walks the full 7 temples during Pchum Ben looking for relatives, and may curse them if none has made merit for it. Vietnam is closer to China: 5 of its 6 kinds are dead humans, including hungry ghosts with no kin to feed them and 2 substitute-seeking ghosts. The ma da is a drowned person who pulls at legs or capsizes boats so it can be reborn, and the ma trành is a tiger's victim who leads the tiger to eat someone else in its place.

The European side: corpses that rise, but no vengeful ghosts

The European side has far more data than Asia, 125 kinds from 30 belief systems, and in this dataset it also takes in Siberia and the Central Asian steppe. So we use it as the comparison and focus on 15 Western belief systems, from Greek, Roman, Norse and Slavic to Romanian, which have 14 dead-human ghosts. The common causes are violent death, 5 kinds, and missing rites or baptism, 4 kinds. What never appears is a dead-human ghost born of a grudge: 0 in 15 belief systems.

Europe's dangerous dead are often corpses. The Norse draugr is a walking corpse; Icelandic custom laid open iron scissors on the chest, tied the big toes together or drove needles through the soles to stop it walking. The Slavic upyr is the corpse of someone who died unnaturally and rises from the grave at night to drink the blood of people and livestock; the remedy is an aspen stake through the body, then burning. The Romanian strigoi leaves the grave at night and turns into an animal or phantom to harm the living. By contrast, the only walking corpse among the Asian ghosts in this dataset is China's jiangshi.

Dying before marriage is a pattern Eastern Europe shares with Korea. The Slavic rusalka is mostly believed to be an unbaptised child, a drowned girl or a woman who died before marriage. The południca is a woman who died just before, during or soon after her wedding; she attacks people in the fields at noon, and you survive if you can answer her riddles. The Romanian moroi is an infant who died unbaptised and cries at night asking for baptism. The dataset has 4 such kinds, dead before marriage or as children, across 3 belief systems: Slavic, Finnish and Romanian. The Finnish one comes from an outsider's record.

Nation by nation: cause, form, place or person, remedy

This table summarises every kind in each nation's group. The number after each nation is its total number of kinds. The cause column counts only dead-human ghosts, and one kind can have several causes. Where the sources are silent we say so. The European row uses only the 15 Western belief systems.

What really is shared

Set every nation side by side and the core that holds up is that dangerous ghosts come from deaths that broke the rules. Across the 101 belief systems worldwide that have dead-human ghosts, the commonest cause is unnatural death at 33%, then no one to feed them at 28%, grudge 11%, sin 10% and dying unmarried 8%. So the remedies look alike: restore what was missing. The Thai peta receives merit, China's kinless ghosts get incense in the 7th month, Korea's maiden ghost becomes a household deity, the Romanian moroi asks for baptism, and the unburied Greek dead cannot cross to the underworld until they are properly buried.

But the idea that each nation has its own single rule does not hold. Every group mixes 3 to 5 causes. The data shows 4 patterns that really do separate regions: China and Vietnam have substitute-seeking ghosts; Korea and Eastern Europe have ghosts of those who died unmarried; Thailand and Southeast Asia have living sorcerers and karmic ghosts; and Europe has rising corpses but no vengeful ghosts. All of these are matters of proportion rather than presence or absence.

So read the national figures as a direction, not statistics. The dead-human ghosts compared number Thai 6, Chinese 6, Japanese 2 and Korean 5; a difference of one changes the proportions by 15 to 50%. Worldwide, 92 of 181 dead-human ghosts, or 51%, have no cause recorded, and traditions with many texts, such as Buddhism and Chinese religion, are recorded in more detail than others. If a nation lacks some kind of ghost in our data, it does not mean they have none, only that the sources we checked have not recorded it.

What differs from what you might expect

The phi pop shows how one name can sit in different categories. The Isan source in Silpa Wattanatham says it is a living person who studied spells, but a source on Lao and Isan phi religion classes the phi pop as the soul of someone who did evil in a past life or died badly. The two sources disagree, so we give both. The black-robed Korean death messenger Thais know from dramas, the Korean source records, comes from a KBS drama, and the gumiho digging hearts from graves is an image from later literature; some old texts treat it as an auspicious spirit, and its evil image may owe something to the Japanese colonial period.

Some things repeat across borders. Magical foxes appear in China, Japan and Korea. The Chinese say a fox that cultivates itself for 50 years can become a woman, at 100 years a beauty, at 1,000 years an immortal, and the Korean source says the gumiho comes from the Chinese Shanhaijing. Old objects become spirits in both Japan and Korea: the tsukumogami is an object nearly a hundred years old, and the dokkaebi comes from discarded old things such as a broom. And beans drive off ghosts in both Korea and ancient Rome: Koreans scatter beans to keep ghosts out, and Romans threw black beans at midnight during the Lemuria to drive out the lemures, spirits of those who died violently.

Some nations' ghosts reach us through outsiders. The Philippine aswang was recorded by the Spanish as the most feared from the 16th century, and many of the defences, such as holy water, the crucifix and the rosary, are Catholic. The half-horse tikbalang is known from a Spanish friar's document of 1589. Several early Korean spirits come from Chinese records. Across the full dataset, 65 kinds from 31 belief systems come to us through outsiders.

Back to the horror film

Next time you watch a Japanese or Korean horror film, the white robe, long hair and footless float are an image that funeral dress, Edo period prints and television drama painted on later. The stories underneath are closer to Thai ghosts than they seem. China, Japan, Korea and Thailand all tell of people who died too soon, people no one made merit or burned incense for, and people who died before living the life those around them expected.

Frequently asked

What is the hopping Chinese ghost called, and why does it hop?

It is the jiangshi (殭屍), a corpse whose soul cannot leave the body. English Wikipedia says the hopping comes from the trade of carrying corpses home: bodies were tied upright to long bamboo poles, and as the poles flexed, from afar the corpses seemed to hop.

What is the Chinese ghost with a talisman on its face, and what are Chinese ghosts afraid of?

It is the jiangshi, with a paper talisman hanging from its forehead. English Wikipedia says it fears its own reflection in a mirror, things made of peach wood and glutinous rice, and that holding your breath hides you because it is blind. For the Chinese water ghost, the source says to invite a deity to subdue it or hold a rite for those who died in water.

Why do Japanese ghosts wear white, have no feet and wear a triangle on the forehead?

According to English Wikipedia, the white is the burial kimono of Edo period funerals, and the small white triangle on the forehead is called a tenkan. Having no legs or feet began in Edo period ukiyo-e prints; the first known example is The Ghost of Oyuki by Maruyama Ōkyo.

What kinds of Japanese ghosts are there?

This dataset has 9 from Shinto. The dead-human ghosts are the yūrei and onryō; the rest are spirits and demons: oni, kitsune, tengu, yomotsu-shikome, kappa, tsukumogami and tatarigami. Real Japanese folklore has many more, such as the ubume, the ghost of a mother who died in childbirth.

What are Korean ghosts called, and what are they afraid of?

The general word is gwishin (귀신), the dead still tied to the living because of revenge or a loved one. The Korean source says scattering salt or beans keeps them out of the house, and the maiden ghost who died unmarried is appeased by worshipping her as a household deity.

How do Thai ghosts differ from Western ghosts?

Much-feared Thai ghosts such as the phi pop, krasue and krahang are living sorcerers, and half of Thailand's dead-human ghosts come from bad karma. Western Europe's dangerous dead are often corpses rising from the grave, such as the draugr, upyr and strigoi, and among 15 Western belief systems there is no dead-human ghost born of a grudge.

What kinds of Khmer ghosts are there?

This dataset has 6: the neak ta, guardian spirits at shrines under big trees; the ahp, a flying head like the krasue; the peta who visits all 7 temples during Pchum Ben looking for relatives; the asurakaya; 4 kinds of fierce deities; and the me thmob or yeay thmob, the sorceress.

Sources for the traditions cited (30)

Chinese folk religion / Daoism · zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/鬼 · zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/殭屍

Mahayana / Chinese Buddhism · zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/餓鬼 · zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/八部眾

Korean shamanism (Muism / Musok) · ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/귀신 · ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/처녀귀신

Thai folk belief (phi, khwan, Yama) · www.silpa-mag.com/culture/article_98269 · th.wikipedia.org/wiki/กระสือ

Theravada Buddhism (Thai) · th.wikipedia.org/wiki/เปรต · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asura_(Buddhism)

Shinto (Japan) · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yūrei · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oni

Sukhothai-era spirit cult (Phra Khaphung Phi, 13th–14th c.) · lek-prapai.org/home/view.php?id=5388

Southern Chinese folk religion (Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese; incl. Thai-Chinese practice) · zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/孤魂信仰 · zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/水鬼

Vietnamese folk religion / ancestor worship (Đạo Ông Bà) · vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma · vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_lai

Early Korean state religion (Goguryeo & Silla) · zh.wikisource.org/wiki/三國志/卷30 · ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/사신도

Khmer folk religion (neak ta spirits, Pchum Ben, rice mother) · km.wikipedia.org/wiki/ប្រភព​អ្នកតា​ក្នុង​សង្គម​ខ្មែរ · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasue

Malay folk belief (bomoh/pawang, semangat, hantu, Main Puteri) · ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puntianak · ms.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsuir

Tagalog and Visayan native religion from Tagalog/Cebuano sources (anito, Bathala, babaylan) · tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswang · tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manananggal

Lao / Isan spirit religion (Satsana Phi, the phi and thaen cults) · id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepercayaan_tradisional_Tai · th.wikipedia.org/wiki/ศาสนาผี

Ancient Greece · el.wikipedia.org/wiki/Νύμφες · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keres

Ancient Rome · it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuri_(mitologia) · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manes

Norse · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landvættir · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elf

Slavic paganism (East, West and South Slavs) · ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Домовой · ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Леший

Latvian traditional religion (incl. modern Dievturība) · lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lietuvēns · lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilkacis

Lithuanian traditional religion (incl. modern Romuva) · lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laumė · lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaukas

Finnish and Karelian traditional religion (Kalevala tradition) · fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haltija · fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiisi

Sámi traditional religion · fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saamelainen_muinaisusko

Hungarian pre-Christian religion and táltos folk belief · hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidérc

Irish (Gaelic) pre-Christian religion and mythology · ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_sí · ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Púca

Welsh (Brythonic) pre-Christian religion and mythology · cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tylwyth_Teg · cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cŵn_Annwn

Basque traditional religion and mythology · eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basajaun · eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaueko

Etruscan religion · it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religione_etrusca

Romanian folk religion and folklore · ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strigoi · ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroi

Christianity · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_demonology · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_angelology

Philippine Anitism (Tagalog / Visayan) · tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswang · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manananggal

Additional sources (3)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yūrei

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangshi

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwisin

All 45 traditions

Asia (28) · Theravada Buddhism (Thai) · Mahayana / Chinese Buddhism · Chinese folk religion / Daoism · Shinto (Japan) · Ancient Greece · Judaism · Christianity · Thai folk belief (phi, khwan, Yama) · Korean shamanism (Muism / Musok) · Vietnamese folk religion / ancestor worship (Đạo Ông Bà) · Philippine Anitism (Tagalog / Visayan) · Tengrism (Turkic / Mongol) · Proto-Indo-European religion (reconstructed) · Scythian and Saka religion · Early Korean state religion (Goguryeo & Silla) · Göktürk (Türk Khaganate) religion · Xiongnu religion · Southern Chinese folk religion (Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese; incl. Thai-Chinese practice) · Ainu religion (Japanese sources) · Tengrism — Turkic/Mongol and Sayan-Altai layers (Russian sources) · Buryat shamanism (böö mürgel) · Evenki shamanism · Nanai (Hezhe) shamanism · Khmer folk religion (neak ta spirits, Pchum Ben, rice mother) · Lao / Isan spirit religion (Satsana Phi, the phi and thaen cults) · Malay folk belief (bomoh/pawang, semangat, hantu, Main Puteri) · Tagalog and Visayan native religion from Tagalog/Cebuano sources (anito, Bathala, babaylan) · Sukhothai-era spirit cult (Phra Khaphung Phi, 13th–14th c.)

Africa (2) · Judaism · Christianity

Europe (30) · Ancient Greece · Ancient Rome · Norse · Aztec (Mexica) · Judaism · Christianity · Tengrism (Turkic / Mongol) · Proto-Indo-European religion (reconstructed) · Scythian and Saka religion · Göktürk (Türk Khaganate) religion · Xiongnu religion · Ainu religion (Japanese sources) · Tengrism — Turkic/Mongol and Sayan-Altai layers (Russian sources) · Buryat shamanism (böö mürgel) · Tuvan shamanism (khamnaashkyn) · Sakha (Yakut) traditional religion — Aiyy · Evenki shamanism · Nanai (Hezhe) shamanism · Ob-Ugrian (Khanty and Mansi) traditional religion · Slavic paganism (East, West and South Slavs) · Latvian traditional religion (incl. modern Dievturība) · Lithuanian traditional religion (incl. modern Romuva) · Finnish and Karelian traditional religion (Kalevala tradition) · Sámi traditional religion · Hungarian pre-Christian religion and táltos folk belief · Irish (Gaelic) pre-Christian religion and mythology · Welsh (Brythonic) pre-Christian religion and mythology · Basque traditional religion and mythology · Etruscan religion · Romanian folk religion and folklore

Americas (4) · Aztec (Mexica) · Judaism · Christianity · Tengrism (Turkic / Mongol)

Oceania (1) · Tengrism (Turkic / Mongol)

How we counted: 370 traditions from every continent, living and ancient, from sources in dozens of languages. One tradition, one vote, and only where a source confirms it. A tradition missing here is not evidence it lacks the belief, only that we found no document. Scriptural religions (Buddhist, Hindu, Chinese, Jewish, Christian, Muslim) are described in more detail than oral ones, and some records come through missionaries or outsiders. This page does not judge which belief is true.

Read next: Ghosts: how many kinds · After Death: all questions

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