The Krasue
Southeast Asia is known for its beautiful beaches, lush jungles, and rich cultural traditions. However, it's also home to some terrifying supernatural creatures, including the Krasue, a floating, disembodied head with a taste for blood and…other things. Let us delve deeper into the curse of the Krasue, exploring her origins and the fear she instills in those who are doomed to encounter her.
The Krasue is an interesting piece of folklore because during the day she is allowed to walk among humans as one of them. She appears as a typical human woman, often beautiful, and is able to interact freely with the world around her. However, as night falls, she transformed into a ghastly floating head with her entrals and spinal cord dangling below. In addition to this terrifying transformation, she is also said to take on a luminescent glow which can be seen from quite some distance.
At night, the Krasue feeds and her hunger can be insatiable. She is known to feast on livestock, leaving a trail of blood in her wake. If she cannot find fresh livestock, she is also known to eat garbage, rotting meat, and even feces.
But do Krasue exist as their own type of creature? Are they cursed humans? Or, something else? While the legend crosses multiple countries and includes slight variations, most believe that the Krasue is the ghost of a woman who was punished for her sins. These sins can be being disloyal, lying, or even using black magic. After dying, her spirit is cursed to roam the earth without a body, only a floating head with dangling organs.
A Krasue is often not capable of killing and ingesting a human. But, she has a taste for human parts—particularly placentas. Some people in rural Thailand bury placentas after births as a precaution against attracting Krasues. However, even if you haven’t recently given birth it’s likely that you don’t want one wandering around your home. It is suggested the families surrond their homes with thorny bushes or even sharpened bamboo stakes. Why? Well, remember Krasues have a lot of dangling parts and they hope to offset her curiosity by placing things in which her entrails could be tangled. It is believed that in order to truly kill a Krasue, and not just scare her off, you have to find the rest of her body that she uses during the day and destroy it, along with her head and entrails.
Others believe that the Krasue are ashamed of their curse and try to avoid human interaction, especially in their beastly form, as much as possible. Instead of livestock or humans, they are often said to feast on frogs, feces, and garbage in order to avoid detection of their true being.
To this day, there are headlines and reports of folks in rural areas blaming livestock deaths and other oddities on a Krasue infestiation. In fact, there are even patrol squads set up after a reported Krasue rampage to help keep villagers at ease.
Although the origins of the Krasue are unclear, her presence has become a fixture throughout multiple Southeastern cultures. In fact, there are several movies dedicated to this strange creature like the recent film, Inhuman Kiss (2019). The movie focuses on an innocent young woman is the unwitting host to a krasue, a demon who causes havoc in her village as it searches for vengeance at night. Despite the centuries of rumors, it’s clear that the Krasue remains an image of fear and, perhaps, pity among those who know her tale.
The featured blog image is from Flickr User Artem Beliaikin, and depicts the silhouette of palm trees at tropical sunset on Bali island. It is in the public domain.
Thanks to Brandon@TheArchive for this blogstonishing suggestion!