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Illustration of Kinoly
Original AI-made illustration based on the descriptions in the sources. Not an official design.
File No. 427 of 446

Kinoly

Also called: angatra
Folklore and mythUndeadA bad death or burial

The kinoly is a predatory form of the dead in Madagascar. Malagasy religion centres on keeping ancestors content, and the kinoly is what an ancestor can become when that duty fails. The famous famadihana ceremony, in which families take out their dead and wrap them in new cloth, is understood by some as protection against it. It is a rare example of an undead belief tied to a rite in which corpses are handled by their kin.1

Battle it
Origin
Malagasy
Madagascar
What causes it
A bad death or burial
Ancestors who are neglected or mistreated by their descendants may turn into hostile dead.
How you become one
A dead person whose remains or memory have been ignored or abused by the living.
Weak spots
  • the famadihana, the periodic rewrapping of the dead in fresh shrouds, which some believe prevents it
field notes

What the sources say

1

They look like people but have red eyes and long fingernails1

2

They are said to disembowel the living1

3

Classed as a kind of angatra, the offended dead who haunt their graves and send disease1

4

The burial cloth (lamba) is associated with hasina, a sacred life force1

5

Beliefs about the dead vary widely from one Malagasy community to another1

Sources

  1. Malagasy mythology - Wikipedia

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, written in our own words. Spotted a mistake? Tell us at [email protected].

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