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Illustration of Ro-langs
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
Ifayile No. 436 kwa-446

Ro-langs

Ikwabizwa ngokuba: རོ་ལངས, rolang, Tibetan zombie
Iintsomi zemveli namabali amanduloIvuswe ekufeniIyarhuqaIidemoni okanye imimoya emdaka

The ro-langs is the Tibetan walking corpse. One kind is raised deliberately by a tantric practitioner for occult ends; the other is a body hijacked by a demon and spreads its condition by touch, in stories where a whole community is infected in a night. It is stiff, mute and has to be physically broken to be stopped. The combination of contagion by contact and a mindless, lurching body makes it one of the closest folkloric matches for the modern film zombie.1

Yiphose edabini
Imvelaphi
Tibetan
ITshayina
Oko kuyibangelayo
Iidemoni okanye imimoya emdaka
Either a sorcerer raises the corpse by tantric rite, or a spirit (gdon or bgegs) slips into the body before the funeral.
Indlela umntu aba yiyo ngayo
A touch on the head from a ro-langs turns the victim into another.
Indlela ehamba ngayo
Iyarhuqa
It cannot bend at the waist or any joint, so it lurches forward stiff-limbed with its arms held straight.
Ubukrelekrele
Ayinangqondo
Iindawo ezibuthathaka
  • low doorways, since it cannot stoop
  • breaking the skin, drawing blood, cutting the flesh or breaking a bone, according to its type
  • striking the single mole that is the only weak point of the 'mole' type
amanqaku ophando

Oko kuthethwa yimithombo

1

The name means 'risen corpse'1

2

It cannot speak and signals by wagging its tongue from side to side1

3

Tradition lists five types, named for what must be damaged to stop them: skin, blood, flesh, bone and mole1

4

It cannot be killed, only made to 'fall over'1

5

Old Tibetan houses are said to have been built with low door frames to keep it out1

6

Wylie noted that some 'risen' dead in the stories were probably people waking from coma1

Ungayigqitha ngokubaleka?

Udidi lwesantya ngokwendlela imithombo eyichaza ngayo (iyarhuqa), asingomlinganiselo.

Ro-langs malunga ne-3 km/h (1.9 mph)
Wena, uhamba malunga ne-5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Wena, ujoga malunga ne-10 km/h (6.2 mph)
Umntu omdala osempilweni ebaleka ngamandla malunga ne-24 km/h (15 mph)
Umkhweli webhayisikile okhawulezayo malunga ne-37 km/h (23 mph)

Imithombo

  1. Ro-langs - Wikipedia

Yonke inyaniso ekweli phepha ivela kule mithombo, ibhalwe ngamazwi ethu. Ubone impazamo? Sixelele ku-[email protected].

Yondla umkhosi. Akukho zintengiso, akukho zilandeli, ihlawulelwa ngumntu omnye. Ithiphu iyigcina ikwi-intanethi.Shiya ithiphu

Iintsomi zemveli ezivela kumazwe afanayo

JiangshiChinese, 1789Xiangxi walking corpsesChinese (western Hunan; attributed to Miao sorcery)

Ezinye ezifana nale

GhoulArabicPocongJavanese / Indonesian and MalayToyolMalay and IndonesianCondenadoAndean (Peru and Bolivia)Corpo-secoBrazilianDearg DueIrish (modern legend)
Yondla umkhosiShiya ithiphu