According to the supplied accounts, a polong is created by keeping the blood of a murdered man in a spherical bottle with a narrow neck; over a period of one to two weeks the maker utters incantations over the bottle and the blood becomes a polong. The created spirit refers to its human maker as its 'mother' or 'father' and is kept hidden outside the owner's house when not in use.
Traditional descriptions depict the polong as taking the form of a miniature woman the size of the first joint of the finger. The creature is stored in a small, spherical-necked bottle when not deployed and is concealed outside the owner's dwelling.
The polong functions as a hired or household spirit-agent sent to afflict a specified human target. Its attacks are narratively linked to a smaller companion, the grasshopper-like pelesit, which is said to enter the victim's mouth and chirp; the polong then follows and possesses the person. During possession the victim becomes frenzied: sources describe frothing at the mouth, tearing at clothing, attacking nearby people, and behaving as if insane. Some accounts add that victims are left with bruises, markings and often blood from the mouth (these latter details are noted as present in some sources). In exorcism the polong can speak through the possessed person in a falsetto voice to identify its owner, and it may attempt to resist by making the afflicted attack the shaman or by falsely accusing another person.
Weaknesses
- ritualOwner calls the polong off
- ritualExorcism by a shaman (dukun or bomoh) who asks the polong who its parent is
Wards
- ritualExorcism by a shaman (dukun or bomoh)
Pelesit
A Malay familiar spirit traditionally conceived as a small insect (generally a cricket or sometimes a grasshopper) kept by a human owner—usually a woman—and used as an instrument of magical harm. The pelesit chirps and may enter a victim's mouth tail-first; its chirping can call a more dangerous spirit (the polong).
Hantu Raya
A Malay spirit-familiar (hantu) described as a "great" or potent double that serves and substitutes for a human master, especially associated in sources with practitioners of black magic. It performs labor, provides alibis, and requires regular offerings to be kept under control.
Penanggalan
A Malay vampire consisting of a detached human head with dangling organs that flies at night to feed on the blood of infants and new mothers, then soaks its organs in vinegar to reattach.
Toyol
A malevolent fetal spirit used as a supernatural familiar in Malay and Javanese black magic — typically stolen or purchased from a dukun, fed blood, and set to steal from neighbors.
Badang
Badang is a legendary Malay culture-hero and supernaturally empowered strongman who gains immense physical strength after capturing a water spirit. Told in Malay Annals–style tradition and later retellings, his tales link feats of strength to local place-myths (split rock, thrown palace stone, graves) and to values of service and loyalty in a pre‑modern court setting.
Bawang Merah dan Bawang Putih
A widely told Malay/Indonesian folktale about two eponymous human stepsisters — Bawang Putih (the humble, patient sister) and Bawang Merah (the vain, cruel sister). The story uses small supernatural motifs (magic pumpkins, a talking fish, a gift-bearing old woman) set in rural liminal spaces to reward virtue and punish vice; it functions as a didactic children's tale rather than an account of a discrete spirit being.
Bisan
A female Malay/Jakun nature spirit who presides over camphor-bearing trees. She signals the presence of camphor by cicada-like song, is jealous of those seeking the resource, and must be propitiated or confused to allow harvest.
Datuk Keramat
Datuk Keramat denotes a class of locally venerated shrine-presences—respected ancestral or saintly figures associated with keramat (sacred graves/shrines)—forming a syncretic cult in parts of Malaysia and Singapore. Shrines are typically yellow, often sited under trees or at junctions, and receive offerings (food, joss sticks, paper money) from Malay and Chinese devotees seeking protection, wealth, or favors.
Ghost Child (toyol, urn)
A named supernatural figure appearing in the 2013 Singaporean horror film Ghost Child (Chinese: 鬼仔), identified in the film as a toyol kept within an urn that brings malicious domestic disturbances to a household. The film is the only supplied source that presents this discrete spirit as an agent in a folk-derived domestic narrative.
Hang Jebat
Hang Jebat is a legendary Malaccan warrior of the early 15th century notable in Malay court literature for his martial prowess and for rebelling against what he perceived as an unjust sultan after the apparent execution of his friend Hang Tuah. The figure embodies a moral tension between loyalty to ruler and opposition to tyranny and is commemorated in modern Malaysian and Singaporean toponyms and institutions.
Hang Tuah
Hang Tuah is a legendary Malay warrior-admiral and court retainer remembered in the Hikayat Hang Tuah and the Sejarah Melayu; he functions as an idealized silat master, diplomat, and exemplar of loyalty associated with 15th‑century Malacca. The figure appears in narrative cycles that mix court historiography and wonder-tale elements (notably an enchanted kris), while his actual historicity remains debated in scholarship.
Hantu
Hantu is a Malay and Indonesian lexical and conceptual category for spirits and invisible beings that includes ancestral souls, animistic nature spirits, and, in modern usage, ghosts or demons. The term covers many named subtypes (e.g., Hantu Raya, Hantu Tinggi) whose forms and roles vary across local traditions.
Hantu Penanggal (Penanggalan)
A nocturnal vampiric entity in Malay ghost myth, the penanggalan appears as a floating disembodied woman's head with trailing organs and entrails and is said from a distance to twinkle like a ball of flame.
Hantu Pocong
A Southeast Asian folkloric ghost understood as a dead body wrapped in an Islamic burial shroud (kain kafan), commonly associated with improper funerary procedure or unresolved death-related matters. Representations range from a hopping wrapped corpse in popular media to esoteric readings that interpret the phenomenon as residual energetic or liminal-layer disturbance.
Hantu Raya
A Malay spirit-familiar (hantu) described as a "great" or potent double that serves and substitutes for a human master, especially associated in sources with practitioners of black magic. It performs labor, provides alibis, and requires regular offerings to be kept under control.
Hantu Tetek
Hantu Tetek is named in Malay-language sources as a local hantu (ghost/spirit) variant within the broad family of female revenant or vampiric spirits found in Malay-region folklore. The available source treats it as one of many hantu types but provides no detailed, attested description specific to Hantu Tetek itself.
Community Record
- [1]Polong (Wikipedia). Wikipedia, entry 'Polong'wiki
- [2]Polong (legacy Aonprd bestiary entry). Legacy Aonprd bestiary entry 'Polong'other
- [3]Bezoar Mustika Pearls: polong, bezoar stones mustika pearls.. Bezoar Mustika Pearls: 'polong' pagefolk
- [4]Bottled Bloodsucker – Vampires (Vampires.com). Vampires.com: 'Bottled Bloodsucker' (discussion of polong)other