Household stories / Ghosts

Ghosts, Monsters, and the Snow Bear (भूत, प्रेत, राक्षस र हिममानव)

Yeh-Teh (གཡའ་དྲེད) means a bear of the rocks. Yeh means the loose rock and the cliff. Teh means the bear. People in the high mountains use this name for three animals. Each animal lives on a different kind of ground. Later, English posters used the title Abominable Snowman. Those posters put the three animals into one monster. The three kinds come next.

1. The yeti (येती)

The big one is the Dzu-Teh (རྫུ་དྲེད). People also call him the yak-killer. They say he is eight or nine feet tall. His hair is yellowish-black or red-brown. It is long and thick. He usually walks on four legs. He stands up to meet a line of yaks carrying loads. He also stands up at a herder's stone hut.

The Thel-Teh (ཐེལ་དྲེད) is smaller. People say he is four or five feet tall. His hair is red-brown. He jumps among birch and juniper trees near the snow. Birch and juniper are mountain trees. The cry they talk about is a high whistle. It sounds like a bird.

The Mi-Teh (མི་དྲེད) walks on two feet. His skull comes to a point on top. A ridge of bone runs along the top of his head. His hair is dark red and tangled. His face is flat. He leaves one line of huge footprints in the hard snow.

People say the feet point backward. The heels face forward. The toes face back. If you follow the prints, the path leads to a cliff edge. A lost person may notice this too late.

People say a long whistle crosses a mountain pass hours before a bad storm. The storm may be a blizzard or an avalanche. An avalanche is a big slide of snow. Herders tell children another saying. If it chases you, run only downhill. They say the long hair on its chest falls over its eyes on the way down. Then the animal falls in the snow.

Herders tell one story. Followers of Nyingma tell another. Nyingma is a school of Tibetan Buddhism. When Guru Padmasambhava came into these mountains, he bound the fierce spirits with an oath. That oath is called damcan. The spirits had to watch the hidden valleys through a dark age. A dark age here is a long hard time. The hidden valleys are called beyul (बेयुल). In that story, the yeti stands on that border and watches.

The monasteries at Khumjung and Pangboche kept scalps and hands for a long time. People called them yeti scalps and yeti hands for as long as the monasteries held them.

In 2017, Charlotte Lindqvist's study looked at nine samples. A sample is a small piece kept for study. People had offered those samples as yeti. Eight of the nine were bears. They were the Himalayan brown bear or the Asian black bear. Scientists call the brown bear Ursus arctos isabellinus. They call the black bear Ursus thibetanus. The Himalayan brown bear's ancestors split off from other brown bears long ago. That time is called the Pleistocene. It was an old ice age. People still tell the story of the footprints.

2. Kichkandi (किचकन्नी)

The name a house says is kichkandi. People write it किचकन्नी, and also किच्कन्डी. The dictionary's main spelling is किचकन्या. The dictionary entry for किचकन्नी points to that spelling. All three spellings name one spirit.

She is a girl who died before her time. The stories name three causes. They are suicide, murder, or death in childbirth. The funeral rites were left unfinished. Those rites are called kriyā. People meet her late at night. One place is a hanging bridge. One is a burning ground, where dead bodies are burned. One is a resting platform under a banyan tree. That platform is called a cautārī (चौतारी). One is a sharp turn in the road with no house nearby.

To a man walking alone, she looks beautiful. She is dressed in red or in white. She wears glass bangles on her wrists. She smells like flowers. She walks beside him and talks. People say to look at her feet. The feet point backward. She has no shadow.

In the stories, he is at the edge of the trees by morning. He has a fever. His strength is gone. The stories call that strength ojas. This page does not give the steps.

3. Rā̃ke (राँके)

A flame keeps moving from place to place. People see it on a muddy bank, in a bog, or in a sal forest. A bog is soft wet ground. Sal is a tall forest tree. The flame is called Rā̃ke. A rā̃ko (राँको) is a torch. This flame is blue or deep red, and it jumps. It goes out in one clump of bushes. It lights again about fifty steps away.

It spoils a person's sense of direction. It can do that without touching the person. The walker goes in circles. He ends up in a swamp and in thorny bushes. This lasts until a cock crows. By then, fog from the river covers the ground.

A chemistry book calls the light marsh gas. Marsh gas is gas that rises from wet ground. People on the road call it a soul. They say the soul still carries the fire that burned its body. People say both. A person walking home still has to choose one.

4. Murkaṭṭā (मुरकट्टा)

The night walker of the Tarai has no head. The Tarai is the flat land in the south of Nepal. His name is Murkaṭṭā. People say the name means a head that was cut off. Muro means the head. It was cut away. He died by that cut, in a battle or in a crime. He walks at midnight in winter fields of sugarcane and mustard. His eyes and his mouth are on his chest. He is fast. A traveler may hear an ox-cart chain behind him. Or the traveler may hear only breathing.

People say iron bothers him. They say a holy fire bothers him too. This page does not give the steps.

5. Gurumāpā (गुरुमापा)

Gurumāpā took children from the courtyards, and he ate them. In the story this page tells, Kathmandu gave a feast. It also gave him a new place to live.

The man in this story is Keśacandra (केशचन्द्र). He was a merchant who had lost his money by gambling. The story says pigeons brought him gold. At Itum Bāhāḥ, a courtyard in Kathmandu, he offered a bargain. Once a year the city would set out rice and a buffalo. Gurumāpā would leave the lanes for Tuṇḍikhel (टुँडिखेल). Tuṇḍikhel is the big open field. He would leave the children alone. He agreed. This page does not give the steps. It does not say how the man faced him.

The horse page says that other people name a different man. The danger stays the same. The horses stay the same. On the new moon that ends the month of Chaitra, after Rāma Navamī, the horses gallop at Tuṇḍikhel. That day is Ghode Jātrā. The horses run so Gurumāpā stays under the ground.

6. Majipā Lākhe (मजिपा लाखे)

A lākhe has red eyes. He has long teeth like a wild pig's. He has long red and black hair. Majipā's lākhe is that same demon after the city let him stay.

He lived in the forest around the valley. He fell in love with a Newar girl from Majipā. He put on human clothes. He came through the city gate at night. The town found him. They caught him and took him to the king. He had harmed no one. He had come because of love. The king in the story accepted that. The lākhe could stay inside the city walls. He had to keep the children safe from sickness. He had to keep them safe from other spirits.

At Indra Jātrā he comes out. Drums called dhimay (धिमे) go with him. He dances. He chases a boy named Jhyālinchā (झ्याँलिन्चा). The boy is there to tease him and to be chased. Children watch from carved windows. The dancer is frightening to see. Those children are the ones he promised to protect.

7. Bokṣī (बोक्सी)

A bokṣī (बोक्सी) is a living woman the village fears. Often she is the neighbor. The lane puts that name on her. In the morning she is still in the house next door.

The house says she goes out after the doors are shut. One story gives her a black cat. Another story gives her a screech owl, a bird that cries at night. Another story gives her a small light. A child may cry all night. A cow's milk may stop. A person may get sick, and nobody can find an ordinary cause. The house says these things come from her look. That look is called āṅkhā lāgnu (आँखा लाग्नु). The words mean her eyes have fallen on someone.

People talk about her most on the year's dark nights. Those nights are Kuśe Auṃsī, Gathemangal, and a new moon. They name a place where two rivers meet. That place is a dobhān (दोभान). Or they name a crossroads. That place is a cābāṭo (चबाटो).

A child may see a dark mark behind a baby's ear. A child may see a small piece of iron kept on the body. If the fear stays, the house calls a dhāmī or a jhāṅkrī (धामी, झाँक्री). That person is a healer who works with spirits. The lane calls that work ṭūnā-mūnā (टुनामुना). This page does not give the steps. It does not teach the harm or the cure.

Ḍākinī (डाकिनी) is a different word. Tantra is a religious teaching. Tantra and the big monasteries use Ḍākinī for a fierce woman in their own stories. Sometimes a person in the hills puts that name next to bokṣī. This page keeps the two words apart. Kichkandi, in the section above, is already dead. A bokṣī is still alive in the village.

8. Khāyā (खाया)

Newar houses have a name for a weight that sits on the chest during sleep. The name is Khāyā (खाया). This page also writes Bhuñjā (भुञ्जा) next to that name. In Nepali, the pressing is called āi-thān (ऐँठन).

People say it comes through the crack of a locked door. It holds the arms and the legs down. The person cannot describe a face. Breathing is hard. The person cannot cry out. The person is awake the whole time. In the morning the weight is gone.

Some people mention iron, or a pinch of salt, under the pillow. This page does not give the steps.

9. The burning ground (मसान)

A masān (मसान) is a burning ground, usually on a riverbank. Ghāṭ is the other word for that same bank. Shamans talk about a fierce spirit that stays in the fire where the dead are burned. A shaman is a healer who works with spirits. They call that spirit a bīr (वीर). In the story, a master can bind one as a servant. If the spirit is made angry, it goes after farm animals. It also goes after a person's mind. This page does not give the steps.

Kaṅkāla (कङ्काल)

Kaṅkāla is the ordinary word for a skeleton. The word is the same in Sanskrit and in Nepali. In the stories, the skeleton stands up. The skeletons rattle through the hot coals at midnight. They follow Bhairava and Mahākālī. People talk about a bare white skeleton in the bamboo by the river. That bamboo grove is called bā̃sghārī (बाँसघारी). They say the time is about two in the morning. They say it is a sign of a bad illness, or of harmful spells.

Kawañ (कवं)

The valley tells these two spirits as a pair. Khyāḥ (ख्याः) is plump, hairy, and short. He is a goblin of the house. He might bring wealth. Or he might only spoil a night's sleep. Kawañ (कवं) is the other one. He is made of bone. He grins.

Kawañ goes with the eight mother goddesses. They are called the Aṣṭamātṛkā. He also goes with Bhairava. At Indra Jātrā, the dancers go into the street in white that looks like bone. They also dance at Naradevī, where Śvetakālī is kept. The dance is called Kawañ Pyākhan (कवं प्याखं). The clubs are made to look like bone. The city holds the dance to protect people from a spreading sickness and from bad signs. This page does not give the steps.

Citipati (चितिपती)

The pair that the big monasteries dance are the Citipati. They are the lords of the funeral fire. In Sanskrit the name is Cītīpati. In Tibetan the name is Dur-khrod bdag-po.

Two ascetics were meditating in a cemetery. An ascetic is a person who has left ordinary life to meditate. One was a yogi, a man who meditates. The other was a yoginī, a woman who meditates. A thief cut off their heads. The meditation kept going. Later they found out they were bone. The story says that finding was their awakening. Awakening means they finally understood. They saw emptiness. Emptiness here means a body does not last. They stayed as the lords of that ground.

Lamas dance them in Mustang, at Mani Rimdu in Tengboche, and in Ladakh. A lama is a monk in that tradition. The masks are grinning skulls. The dancers carry a bone staff. It is called the kankāla-daṇḍa. They carry a skull bowl. It is called the kapāla. The masks remind people that flesh does not last.

Masāne sukās (मसाने सुकास)

In the hills, people call a wasting illness masāne sukās (मसाने सुकास). A wasting illness makes the body shrink. They also say masān lāgnu. They say an unsettled spirit from the burning ground catches a living person. The flesh falls away. Skin lies on the ribs and the spine. The person is still alive. This page does not give the steps.

10. The pherī (फेरी)

On some dark nights, a horn wakes the house.

The horn belongs to two times of the year. One is the dark half of the month of Kartik, when Tihar is starting. The dark half is the two weeks when the moon is shrinking. The other is the dark half of the month of Chaitra. Chaite Dashain also falls in Chaitra. It falls on the bright eighth of Chaitra. The bright half is the two weeks when the moon is growing. It is the goddess's spring Navarātri. It is the day before Rāma Navamī. Many families also say it remembers Rāma's victory. Autumn Dashain falls in the month of Ashoj. That is a different month. In this story, the horn belongs to the dark nights.

The man outside is a Kāpālī jogī, a wandering holy man. People also call him Darśanadhārī or Kānphaṭā. He follows the tradition of Gorakhnāth. The horn is called the pherī (फेरी), or the śṛṅgī (शृङ्गी). People say it is a human thighbone. Or they say it is the hollow black antler of a male deer. Silver or copper wire is wrapped around it. From midnight until the hours before dawn, the house hears a low wail. The sound is long. It moves along the outside wall. The dogs have gone quiet. People lie under quilts.

The door stays shut. The windows stay shut. People believe something moves through the courtyard with the horn. They believe it will come inside if the door opens. The people in the house listen. They stay back from the door and the windows.

He comes back in the daylight. He wears saffron cloth, which is orange-yellow. He wears large round earrings. He carries a cloth bag. Then the door opens. A gift is carried on a flat bamboo tray used to toss grain. The tray is called a nāṅglo (नाङ्लो). This page does not give the steps. The blessing he speaks is asked in Gorakhnāth's name.

11. Van-Jhāṅkrī (वन-झाँक्री)

Tamang, Rai, Limbu, Gurung, and Magar stories name one teacher of the dhāmī-jhāṅkrī. He is the Van-Jhāṅkrī (वन-झाँक्री), the shaman of the forest. A shaman is a healer who works with spirits. He is about three feet tall. His hair is fine. It is gold or red-brown. It is twisted into thick locks. His feet point backward.

He takes children. The usual story says the children are boys from eight to twelve years old. People say those boys carry a mark. A boy is out with goats, or looking for firewood, near a cliff. The Van-Jhāṅkrī carries him to a cave behind a waterfall.

The food in the cave is roots, yellow earth, and wild worms. If the boy cries, he is left at the edge of the forest. If he asks for salt and cooked grain, he is left there too. That boy is the wrong one. If he stays, he is taught the drum. The drum is called a dhyāṅgro (ढ्याङ्ग्रो). It has deer hide on both sides. He is taught how to set bones. He is taught the plants of these mountains. He is taught the speech of the spirits who live there.

The danger in the cave is the shaman's wife. She is the Van-Jhāṅkrīnī (वन-झाँक्रिनी). She wants human flesh. Her breasts are long enough to throw back over her shoulders. He hides the boy behind his own back. Or he hides the boy in a crack in the rock. He hides him until the teaching is finished.

Weeks later, or months later, the village has already held the funeral. The boy comes back to the line where the trees end. He has a drum and a handful of leaves. For a while he cannot speak ordinary words. Then the village has its jhāṅkrī.

12. The kāṅgliṅ (काङलिङ)

In Dolpo and in Mustang, a practice called Chöd (छोद्) uses a trumpet made from a thighbone. The trumpet is the kāṅgliṅ (काङलिङ, རྐང་གླིང). The old accounts are strict about which bone is used. One bone comes from a person who died in old age. One comes from a virtuous maiden, a good young woman. One comes from a realized yogi, a yogi who has finished the path. Later the bone is bound in leather and silver.

At night, a person who does this practice blows the trumpet. The place is a ground where vultures take the dead. The sound is for fierce gods. It is also for hungry ghosts, ghosts who are always hungry. It is also for the demons of the mountain. In the meditation that goes with the horn, the person offers their own body as food to those beings. This page does not give the steps. The other vessel of that same night is a skull bowl. It is called the kapāla (कपाल). This page only names it.

Where it sits

Three of these have a day of their own. The horses that keep Gurumāpā under the ground run at Ghode Jātrā. Indra Jātrā is the street festival that gives Majipā's lākhe a drum. It also gives a crowd to the dancers in white that looks like bone. At Gai Jātrā, people walk the year's dead behind a cow. A family walks in that line for its own dead. That festival has its own page.