Churel

Auch bekannt als: chudail, churail, petni, shakchunni, pichal peri

Folklore und MythenUntotVariiertEin schlechter Tod oder ein schlechtes Begräbnis1500 bis 1899

The churel is the dangerous dead woman of South Asian folklore, the returned form of someone who died in childbirth or through ill-treatment. She seduces and destroys men, beginning with her own male relatives. The precautions taken against her are aimed squarely at the corpse: it is pinned, bound, broken and buried face down under thorns and stones. Those measures closely match anti-revenant burial practice in Europe.1

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Erstmals belegt

1880

Described in colonial-era ethnography, including William Crooke's study of North Indian folklore (1894)

Herkunft

South Asian

Indien, Pakistan, Bangladesch, Nepal

Was es auslöst

Ein schlechter Tod oder ein schlechtes Begräbnis

A woman who dies in childbirth, in pregnancy or during ritual impurity, or by cruelty, returns.

Wie man einer wird

Death in or around childbirth, or any unnatural death; in Bengal, dying unmarried or with desires unfulfilled.

Wie er sich bewegt

Variiert

Waits near trees and lonely places and leads men away into woods or hills.

Intelligenz

Clever

Schwachstellen

filling the grave with thorns and piling stones on top
nailing or binding the fingers and toes with iron
breaking the legs, sewing the eyes shut with thorns and burying the body face down
sowing mustard seed along the funeral route
carrying the body out through a side door