Asian Folklore Creatures

A colossal red octopus lurking in Funka Bay, revered by the Ainu as both healer and destroyer.

Nomadic herders across Mongolia and Central Asia have described encounters with a stocky, hairy humanoid that walks upright and avoids civilization.

The Philippines' most feared shapeshifter hides as your neighbor by day and hunts as a beast by night.

A foul-smelling ape-man reportedly abducts women and kills livestock in the remote mountain passes of northern Pakistan.

The people of Flores Island describe small, hairy cave-dwellers who stole food and children, and the story gained credibility when Homo floresiensis fossils were found.

A towering skeleton formed from the bones of the unburied dead, rattling through the night to bite off heads.

A foul-smelling ape-man stalking the misty slopes of Mount Hiba in rural Japan.

Japan's answer to Nessie lives in a volcanic crater lake on the southern tip of Kyushu.

A tiny, wizened mummy-like figure found across Indonesia, said to be alive and fed with human blood.

A 400-year-old spider that takes the form of a beautiful woman to lure men to their death.

A divine chimera of dragon and deer that only appears to herald greatness or disaster.

A vampire that tears its own torso free and flies through the night on bat-like wings, trailing its entrails below.

A serpent with a woman's head that haunts riverbanks, cradling a phantom baby to paralyze its prey.

A short, bipedal ape covered in golden-brown fur walks the jungles of Sumatra, and credible scientists have spent decades trying to prove it exists.

A blood-drinking creature from the Philippines that walks backward and hides in the shadows of its owner.

A towering horse-headed giant that leads travelers in circles through the Philippine wilderness.

A fat, stumpy snake that supposedly jumps, speaks, and has a taste for alcohol.

China's Bigfoot roams the thick forests of Hubei Province, backed by thousands of reported sightings.