~ BGAW: Kuntilanak ~

21 October 2005

halloween is coming. and this is one of my pretty ghosts, a part of Beautiful Ghosts Around the World series.

Kuntilanak/Sundel Bolong is a woman ghost from Indonesian folklore. in Malaysia, they call it Pontianak. there are various stories about why they turn into Kuntilanak, and how they look like. but the one i go by is:

she wears white clothing with a beautiful jet black long hair. she hangs around ponds with bamboo trees. she lures men with her beauty. and when the man gets closer, she turns around so that her back is facing the man, her hair swings to her front, revealing the big gaping hole with rotten flesh on her back.

that supposed to scare the man away…

one story tells that she died during childbirth. and the hole was where the baby was taken out from. but that doesn’t make sense… how do you get a baby out from the back? there is spine getting in a way…

but ghost stories never make sense anyway.

ps: i’m thinking of making this a monthly thing… a monthly BGAW. hee.

the other BGAW are: Yuki Onna, Huli Jing, Lamia, Glaistig, Manananggal
and La Llorona.

~ comment (8) ~

wow, amazing piece.
btw, denger2 juga tentang sundel bolong yang katanya kejatuhan kelapa, jadinya di punggungnya ada lobang gedhe.

feli | 22 October 2005 - 06:07 | reply

haaa… serius? hahahaha… versi yang itu gue blum pernah denger. tapi kocak banget!

thalia | 22 October 2005 - 12:38 | reply

arghh.. wkt kecil pernah liat film-nya di indo.. *traumatized* huhuhu..

pas ngelahirin, dianya pake dukun, terus ngga tau dikasi jampi2 apa, jadinya the baby bursted out from the back.. >.<

hilda | 23 October 2005 - 11:28 | reply

ooh, pantesan bisa lewat punggung! pake jampi2 toh…

thalia | 25 October 2005 - 11:14 | reply

lovely! Beautiful Ghosts Around the World series? wow, i’d like to see more. is it a book or what?

you’re the master of illustrator:) i’ve been wanting to draw more, but i don’t have a tablet. is it worth to buy thal? it’s expensive! there’s a cheaper version of wacom: http://www.adesso.com/tablet_drivers.asp have u heard of it?

novs | 26 October 2005 - 12:39 | reply

naah, it’s not a book. it’s just a series of illustration i made up so that i would actually draw something at least once a month… hee hee.

actually, nov, these kinds of illustrations don’t really need a tablet. as a matter of fact, i made her (at that time) using mouse. there is another ghost that i made using that damn touchpad on laptop. honestly, it doesn’t make a difference if you’re using vector-based program. but if you want to do digital painting, then, yeah… you probably want to invest on a tablet.

thalia | 26 October 2005 - 12:21 | reply

mba kalau kuntilanaknya seperti di gambar ini seh rada kurang seram he3x kalau versinya film susana (indo) dia jadi sundel bolong karena paku dikepalanya dicabut en dia ketika itu lagi mengandung, kenapa tiba2 bolong dibelakang yah sutradaranya aja yg pingin bolong dibelakang :P

Fenny | 26 October 2005 - 08:01 | reply

oh, jadi yang versi susana, bolong yang dipunggung itu juga ngga ada alesannya ya?

thalia | 26 October 2005 - 12:23 | reply