
Vetala
The vetala is a spirit of Indian tradition that animates corpses in the cremation ground. Unlike most walking dead it is highly intelligent: in the famous story cycle the corpse it inhabits outwits a king twenty-four times before warning him of a sorcerer's plot. The underlying idea, a dead body moved by something that is not its original owner, runs from Indian tantra to the Tibetan ro-langs. It gives South Asia a corpse-animating being centuries older than the Caribbean zombi.12
- chanting mantras
- performing its funeral rites, which releases it
Yavela nini okokuqala?
The Vetala tales form part of the Kathasaritsagara, compiled no later than the 11th century
Oko kuthethwa yimithombo
Ungayigqitha ngokubaleka?
Udidi lwesantya ngokwendlela imithombo eyichaza ngayo (iyahluka), asingomlinganiselo.
Imithombo
Yonke inyaniso ekweli phepha ivela kule mithombo, ibhalwe ngamazwi ethu. Ubone impazamo? Sixelele ku-[email protected].