Mitos Nusantara

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Mitos Nusantara
A series of mythical beasts I created, inspired by Malay folklore and candi temples from Bujang Valley, Malaysia. These were published on O For Other, a blog affiliated with Malaysia Design Archive, and featured on JUICE Malaysia.

The weretiger Sang Bagas is powerful, proud and haughty. It was once a human who could transform into a tiger at will. Sang Bagas used his power to defend his village from real tigers, and was thus much celebrated. However, this magic caused its wielded to lose their humanity if they stayed in their tiger form for too long. After an extended battle with a true, monstrously large tiger, it found itself unable to fully turn human again.

The weretiger despairs at its embarrassing appearance: wide-chested, fanged and clawed, but attached at the waist to the slim rump of a human. It roams the Malay archipelago, a wandering feline without a master.

Yani is a celestial pangolin with a gift of finding everything and anything. With a keen sense of smell and strong claws that can dig through anything, it can unearth treasure at the bottom of the sea, and even find a missing loved one. Its scales are impenetrable and its tips glow in the dark.

This pangolin-fish makara is harmless and has a timid nature, but can be coaxed out of the sea with offerings of candied ants. Fill to the brim three bowls of ants. Add one cup of sugar and a quarter cup of water. Cook until a layer of crystallised sugar forms around the ants. Bring it to the coast and describe that which you seek. Those who harm it are said to never be able to find what they lost ever again.

The weredeer is quick and bright, with a needly smile. She is extremely knowledgeable and is an excellent strategist in all manner of things: from tomorrow’s exam to business deals, from where best to place your auspicious item to how to attract the eye of a love interest.

The weredeer cannot resist a book she has not read before, so to invoke it you must procure such book. Go to the spine of the peninsula; lay the book open with an image of her, in the dead of the night. She will appear, and ask to look at the book, and you must delay her with questions until you are satisfied. The weredeer delights in both absorbing and imparting knowledge, but exhaust her patience and she may answer untruthfully.

This creature takes on the form of a young Malayan tapir, and can hide itself away in an instant by dissolving into the jungle floor. Ilang is the protector of lost children, and appears only to the innocent and sinless. It is playful, with a ringing laugh, and will seek out lost children in the jungle to play with them. It is fearful of adults and hides away from their eyes, but if they do manage to catch a glimpse of it they will only see a strange shimmering in the air.

Ilang seeks out the lost and frightened, tending to their bruises and cuts and cheer them up by tickling their faces with its funny nose. When night falls, Ilang curls up around them, and brings them the solace their homes could not. When day breaks, Ilang casts a spell over them and grants them the invisibility it has: to be hidden from the eyes of those who would harm them, and adults. The jungle will be their home, and Ilang their immortal playmate.

Engaging is half snake and half hornbill. When it is not flying, it curls its tail around tree trunks and sleeps with its beak under its wings. Its appearance is the same as a common hornbill, but where clawed feet should be, there is a snake’s tail. Its beak is lined with pointed teeth, but it only sinks its teeth in fruits, not flesh. The fruits are what gives its horn colour.

Accounts about its size vary greatly: some say it is small, preening its feathers in the company of a flock of common hornbills; some claim that its wings are large enough to blot out the sun and darken the skies, and makes a great show of baring its teeth, but this account almost always come from loggers.

The locals regard it as the jungle’s chimeric guide of the lost. It is known to appear before explorers and hikers, leading them through the dense vegetation to open, well-worn trails. Its partially sinuous appearance unnerves many, especially the visitors. It doesn’t shy away from humans, and is easily mistaken for a normal hornbill unless you spot the muscular tail gripping the tree branch it is perching on.