Tiyanak

The tiyanak arises from three main traditions in Filipino folklore. The first describes the soul of a baby who died without Catholic baptism returning tormented due to colonial syncretism between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The second tradition recounts an involuntary abortion or unborn child whose spirit seeks to be born again. The third presents a deformed offspring of an aswang or manananggal abandoned in the forest by the vampiric mother. These narratives reflect colonial fears and indigenous beliefs about infant death and supernatural revenge.

The tiyanak possesses a seductive form of a perfect human infant six to twelve months old with copper skin dark eyes and inconsolable crying wrapped in a dirty sheet. When picked up it reveals its true form with bright red eyes a full set of disproportionately sharp fangs yellowish claws grayish cadaverous skin and a malicious expression. Its powers include a mimetic voice of baby crying indistinguishable from real disproportionate strength to tear throats superhuman speed in attack and infant camouflage that deceives travelers in forests of Bicol Visayas and Luzon.

The tiyanak inhabits forests of Bicol Visayas and remote rural paths of Luzon as well as village cemeteries. It is associated with the earth-cemetery element and the color cadaverous gray with red eyes. It maintains cultural variant relations with the recently deceased jiangshi and the Japanese kosodate-yurei both linked to failed childbirth tragedies. Its weaknesses include crosses holy water and turning clothes inside out. Filipino sources document these entities in oral traditions of Eugenio and Demetrio.