Manananggal

 

The manananggal is a vampiric monster from the Philippines. It is most often found in the Visayan region of the country. The manananggal is found both in older folk lore and modern cryptid reports. It is typically seen in rural areas, flying over rice fields and small villages, and it's believed that city lights may harm the monster, as does daylight.

Manananggals are flying human torsos. They are almost always female. During the day manananggals are attached to a set of legs and hide their wings, blending in with the human population. At night they go through a transformation, growing bat wings, long claws and a proboscis like tongue, and separating their torso off from their hips and legs. The head, arms and torso then fly off into the night with their bat wings to find victims to consume. Manananggals only have power at night in the darkness. During the day they remain joined with their torso and appear as normal humans. It's only at night when they're capable of flying off in their vampiric form.

Manananggls mostly target pregnant women. They use their tongue to pierce through the woman's belly button and drink the blood from the fetus. They also attack new born infants, and brides and grooms before their wedding day. Manananggals always attack when their victims are asleep. They drink their victims blood with their extraordinary long tongues, but they have also been known to consume life energy, womb fluid, and devour babies entirely.

Manananggals always attack at night because they are powerless and must remain in human form during the day. At night they find a safe and hidden place to transform. While doing this they pull themselves off the lower half of their bodies and leave their legs standing in place. If the legs are found and destroyed, or even just covered in salt then the upper half of the Manananggal cannot return to them at sunrise and will die. This is considered the most efficient way to kill a manananggal.

In addition to destroying the legs, manananggals are warded off in various ways and can be kept from entering a house. Garlic, salt and holy water are the most common, and echo western vampire lore. In addition to those more unusual wards can also be used, such as daggers, vinegar, spices and stingray tails.

The folklore of the manananggal has a long history. However, people still report seeing the manananggal today, making it somewhat of a cryptid. Few stories about modern manananggal sightings have names and locations attached to them as there is a stigma related to being the monster's victim, which makes reporting on such things extra difficult beyond just the ridicule witnesses of the paranormal already face.

There are several other vampiric monsters in east Asia who also separate off parts of their bodies, such as the penanggalan, leyak and Krasue, but they deserve their own entries.