In Singapore, we call our beautiful girls chio bu. In Malaysia, they call them leng lui and leng zai for good looking girls and guys respectively. Did you know that they have a ghost whose name sounds similar to leng lui? It’s called the Lang suir, and no, it’s definitely not because of their appearance.
Lang suir are believed to be a relative of the infamous Pontianak. However, there are a few key differences between them. A Pontianak is the ghost of a female who died during childbirth. A Lang suir, on the other hand, are ghosts of mothers who suffered from labouring sickness and died. It was believed that 40 days after death, the mother will rise as a vengeful spirit so glass beads are usually placed into the corpses’ mouths.
The Lang Suir has a hideous appearance with red eyes and long sharp fangs. It was claimed by a few people who met them that Lang Suir has long matted hair, sharp claws, red eyes, rotting faces and usually wears a long white robe. They suck blood from their victims through a hole in the neck.
Their main victims of choice are pregnant women who they will attempt to kill or cause miscarriages and if they have a shortage of victims, they can live off the blood of fishes in the rivers or the seas. It was believed that if you can cut off the claws or fill the hole in the Lang Suir’s neck with its hair, it will turn these ghosts back into human form.
One advantage (if you could call it that) of meeting a Lang Suir as compared to a Pontianak is that they are easily identified, unlike a Pontianak who can appear beautiful to seduce clueless men.
