Balinese Monster and Scary Creatures
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 by Sidarta WijayaSpeaking about monster or scary creatures, Egyptians have their mummy, Pennsylvanians boast of their Dracula, but what do Balinese have? Since Leak is technically a human who change their shape into various other scary creatures or weird things and can assume their human form again when their time is over so it cannot be categorized as monster or scary creatures and the last choice for the equivalence of monster and scary creature in Balinese culture is Bhuta Kala.

An exorcist priest destroy Bhuta Kala and hobglobins by meditating. I Rena, Batuan (c. 1940), China ink and watercolour on paper, 25 x 38 cm. Basle, llc 16459 (E. Schlager Beguest, 1971).
Though philosophically Bhuta Kala is defined as negative force of nature not necessarily monsters or scary creatures but most Balinese believe that Bhuta Kala has scary and weird form. There are Bhuta Kalas with monstrous eyes, small heads, large stomach, flaming hairs, bald heads, some consisting of only right or left side of the body, flying head (begoong), of one arm with a face (tangan-tangan), a trunk with a face (lawean), a knee (katugtug), a leg with a face (enjek pupu) or flaying entrails (basang-basang).







