With Halloween steadily gaining popularity in Australia, and humanity’s never-ending desire to tell a very scary story, the SAARI Collective team wanted to celebrate the spooky season by sharing creepy creature stories from around the subcontinent.
We’ve compiled five different creatures from around South Asia, some rooted in local folk culture and some closer to modern times.
ONE - Nepal
If you see a woman in a red bridal gown wandering down a lonely road, asking to hitch a ride, be sure to look at her feet. If her feet are facing backwards, she’s a Kichkandi, and she’s here to sap your life force.
A story told to most Nepali children, Kichkandi is the spirit of a woman who was mistreated in life or wasn’t cremated properly. She’s been known to lure men, particularly cab drivers and rickshaw walas, to cemeteries and cremation grounds before drinking their life force. Victims of Kichkandi usually turn up looking weak, pale and skinny.
TWO - Sri Lanka
If you’re travelling in Sri Lanka with a significant other, stay far away from Lover’s Leap. Legend has it that a commoner and a prince were forbidden to marry, and leapt off the waterfall together. Their ghosts lure couples to their deaths, and if you go around past sunset, you might hear them screaming.
You can find Lover’s Leap in Nuwara Eliya, and to this day, the locals will tell you not to wander near the falls at night.
THREE - Pakistan
The locals in the valleys of Upper Chitral in Pakistan will tell you about a creature, not quite a man, not quite an ape, who can be seen roaming the mountains. When the snow is thickest, he may kidnap an unsuspecting young woman to be his mate.
Barmanu is a cryptid that appears frequently in local legends and has been studied by cryptozoologists since at least the 80s. In 1994, a group of researchers heard guttural moans “that could only have been made by a primitive voicebox”. Make of that what you will.
FOUR - Bangladesh & West Bengal
In the marshlands of Bangladesh and West Bengal, you might see a mysterious, flickering light. Be careful not to follow it, lest it lead you to a watery grave.
Aleya are a ghost light phenomenon that have been known to lure unsuspecting fisherman and boaters to their deaths with their irresistible voices. Local legends say they’re the spirits of fishermen who died on the job. To this day, fishermen in the Sunderban delta region perform a spirit-repelling ritual before going into the marshland.
FIVE - India
Many an Indian village have been terrorised by Ganji Chudail, a bald-headed witch who seeks out women with long hair and sets fire to their heads until they are bald themselves. No one is spared from her wrath – she’ll kill your neighbours after she’s done with you.
Though a ghost of modern times rather than folktale, Ganji Chudail has taken the internet by storm, with creators taking her story beyond her origins and finding new and inventive ways for her to torture the residents of the unspecified Indian village she lives near.
Happy Halloween from the SAARI Collective! This story originally appeared in the SAARI Newsletter. For fresh South Asian Australianness in your inbox, and the occasional spooky tale, sign up here.
Aditi Kutty is an Editor at SAARI Collective.
