Editing Vampire (section)

== Folk beliefs ==
{{see also|List of vampiric creatures in folklore}}
The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the [[Mesopotamia]]ns, [[Hebrews]], [[Ancient Greeks]], [[Meitei people|Manipuri]] and [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] had tales of [[demon]]s and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. Despite the occurrence of vampiric creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century [[southeastern Europe]],<ref name="SU223">{{cite book|first1=Alain|last1=Silver|first2=James|last2=Ursini|date=1997|title=The Vampire Film: From Nosferatu to Interview with the Vampire|pages=22–23|location=New York City|publisher=[[Limelight Editions]]|isbn=978-0-87910-395-8}}</ref> when [[oral culture|verbal traditions]] of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are [[revenant]]s of evil beings, [[suicide]] victims, or [[witches]], but they can also be created by a [[malevolent spirit]] [[demonic possession|possessing]] a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even [[public execution]]s of people believed to be vampires.{{sfn|Cohen|1989|pp=271–274}}

=== Description and common attributes ===
[[File:Edvard Munch - Vampire (1895) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[Love and Pain (Munch)|Vampire]]'' (1895) by [[Edvard Munch]]|alt=A painting of a woman with red hair.]]
It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to the recent drinking of blood, which was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin, and its left eye was often open.{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=41–42}} It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=2}} Chewing sounds were reported emanating from graves.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Calmet |first=Augustin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wh9wDwAAQBAJ&dq=It+is+an+opinion+widely+spread+in+Germany%2C+that+certain+dead+persons+chew+in+their+graves%2C+and+devour+whatever+may+be+close+to+them%3B+that+they+are+even+heard+to+eat+like+pigs%2C+with+a+certain+low+cry%2C+and+as+if+growling+and+grunting.&pg=PA460 |title=The Phantom World |date=2018 |orig-date=1751 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-3-7340-3275-2 |language=en}}</ref>

==== Creating vampires ====
[[File:Ernst6-thumb.gif|thumb|upright|Illustration of a vampire from [[Max Ernst]]'s ''[[Une Semaine de Bonté]]'' (1934)|alt=An image of a woman kissing a man with wings.]]

The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In [[Slavic folklore|Slavic]] and [[Chinese folklore|Chinese traditions]], any corpse that was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=33}} A body with a wound that had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In [[Russian folklore]], vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] while they were alive.<ref name="Strange & Amazing">{{cite book|author=Reader's Digest Association|title=The Reader's Digest Book of strange stories, amazing facts: stories that are bizarre, unusual, odd, astonishing, incredible&nbsp;... but true|year=1988|publisher=[[Reader's Digest]]|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-949819-89-5|pages=432–433|chapter=Vampires Galore!}}</ref>

In [[Albanian folklore]], the [[dhampir]] is the hybrid child of the {{Transliteration|sq|[[karkanxholl]]}} (a [[lycanthropic]] creature with an iron [[Chain mail|mail]] shirt) or the {{Transliteration|sq|[[lugat]]}} (a water-dwelling [[ghost]] or monster). The dhampir sprung of a ''karkanxholl'' has the unique ability to discern the ''karkanxholl''; from this derives the expression ''the dhampir knows the lugat''. The lugat cannot be seen, he can only be killed by the dhampir, who himself is usually the son of a lugat. In different regions, animals can be revenants as lugats; also, living people during their sleep. {{Transliteration|sq|Dhampiraj}} is also an Albanian surname.<ref>{{cite book |last=Albanologjike |first=Gjurmime |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5biAAAAMAAJ&q=dhampiri |title=Folklor dhe etnologji |date=1985 |volume=15 |pages=58–148 |language=sq |access-date=12 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519060955/https://books.google.com/books?id=O5biAAAAMAAJ&q=dhampiri |archive-date=19 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Prevention ====
Cultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as [[scythe]]s or [[sickle]]s,{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=50–51}} near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] practice of placing an [[Charon's obol|obolus in the corpse's mouth]] to pay the toll to cross the [[River Styx]] in the underworld. The coin may have also been intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the ''[[vrykolakas]]'', in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with the inscription "[[Jesus Christ]] conquers" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lawson|first=John Cuthbert|title=Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion|url=https://archive.org/details/moderngreekfolkl00laws|pages=[https://archive.org/details/moderngreekfolkl00laws/page/405 405]–06|year=1910|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, England|oclc=1465746|isbn=978-0-524-02024-1}}</ref>

Other methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the [[patellar ligament|tendons at the knees]] or placing [[poppy]] seeds, [[millet]], or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains,{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=49}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Abbott |first=George |year=1903 |title=Macedonian Folklore |url=https://archive.org/details/macedonianfolkl01abbogoog/page/n226/mode/2up |page=219|publisher=Cambridge, University press }}</ref> indicating an association of vampires with [[arithmomania]]. Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampiric being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in [[Folklore of India|myths from the Indian subcontinent]], as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.<ref name=Jaramillo>{{cite book|last=Jaramillo Londoño|first=Agustín|title=Testamento del paisa|year=1986|orig-year=1967|edition=7th|publisher=Susaeta Ediciones|location=Medellín|isbn=978-958-95125-0-0|language=es}}</ref>

==== Identifying vampires ====
Many rituals were used to identify a vampire. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on a virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question.<ref name="Strange & Amazing"/> Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white.{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=68–69}} Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=125}}

Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=109}} In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described the corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face.{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=114–115}} Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor [[poltergeist]]-styled activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects,{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=96}} and [[mare (folklore)|pressing]] on people in their sleep.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|pp=168–169}}

==== Protection ====
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| footer = Garlic, Bibles, crucifixes, rosaries, holy water, and mirrors have all been seen in various folkloric traditions as [[Apotropaic magic|means of warding against]] or identifying vampires.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=6}}<ref name="Burkhardt221"/>
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[[Apotropaic magic|Apotropaics]]—items able to ward off [[revenant]]s—are common in vampire folklore. [[Garlic]] is a common example;{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=63}} a branch of [[rosa acicularis|wild rose]] and [[Crataegus monogyna|hawthorn]] are sometimes associated with causing harm to vampires, and in Europe, [[mustard seed]]s would be sprinkled on the roof of a house to keep them away.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mappin|first=Jenni|title=Didjaknow: Truly Amazing & Crazy Facts About&nbsp;... Everything|year=2003|publisher=Pancake|location=Australia|isbn=978-0-330-40171-5|page=50}}</ref> Other apotropaics include sacred items, such as [[crucifix]], [[rosary]], or [[holy water]]. Some folklore also states that vampires are unable to walk on [[consecration|consecrated ground]], such as that of churches or temples, or cross running water.<ref name="Burkhardt221">{{cite book |last=Burkhardt |first=Dagmar |title=Beiträge zur Südosteuropa-Forschung: Anlässlich des I. Internationalen Balkanologenkongresses in Sofia 26. VIII.-1. IX. 1966 |chapter=Vampirglaube und Vampirsage auf dem Balkan |year=1966 |publisher=Rudolf Trofenik |location=Munich |oclc=1475919 |language=de | page=221}}</ref>

Although not traditionally regarded as an apotropaic, [[mirror]]s have been used to ward off vampires when placed, facing outwards, on a door (in some cultures, vampires do not have a reflection and sometimes do not cast a shadow, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a [[soul]] or their weakness to silver).<ref name=EoOc>{{cite book|last=Spence|first=Lewis|title=An Encyclopaedia of Occultism|year=1960|publisher=University Books|location=New Hyde Parks|oclc=3417655|isbn=978-0-486-42613-6}}</ref> This attribute is not universal (the Greek ''vrykolakas/tympanios'' was capable of both reflection and shadow), but was used by Bram Stoker in ''Dracula'' and has remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers.{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|p=25}}

Some traditions also hold that a vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner; after the first invitation they can come and go as they please.<ref name=EoOc/> Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to [[sunlight]].{{sfn|Silver|Ursini|1997|p=25}}

Reports in 1693 and 1694 concerning citings of vampires in Poland and Russia claimed that when a vampire's grave was recognized, eating bread baked with its blood mixed into the flour,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Calmet |first=Augustin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1GqcY9ow3QC&dq=There+proceeds+from+his+body+a+great+quantity+of+blood%2C+which+some+mix+up+with+flour+to+make+bread+of%3B+and+that+bread+eaten+in+ordinary+protects+them+from+being+tormented+by+the+spirit%2C+which+returns+no+more.&pg=PA273 |title=The Phantom World: The History and Philosophy of Spirits, Apparitions, &c., &c |date=1850 |publisher=A. Hart |page=273}}</ref> or simply drinking it, granted the possibility of protection. Other stories (primarily the [[Arnold Paole]] case) claimed the eating of dirt from the vampire's grave would have the same effect.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Calmet |first=Augustin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z1GqcY9ow3QC&dq=but+that+he+had+found+means+to+cure+himself+by+eating+earth+from+the+grave+of+the+vampire%2C&pg=PA265 |title=The Phantom World: The History and Philosophy of Spirits, Apparitions, &c., &c |date=1850 |publisher=A. Hart |page=265}}</ref>

==== Methods of destruction ====
[[File:Norre naeraa 600px.jpg|thumb|upright|right|A runestone with an inscription to keep the deceased in its grave<ref>{{cite book |last=Mitchell |first=Stephen A. |title=Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2011 |pages=22–23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=shCXJLB6mDAC |isbn=978-0-8122-4290-4 |access-date=5 February 2018 |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307213753/https://books.google.com/books?id=shCXJLB6mDAC |url-status=live }}</ref>|alt=See caption]]
Methods of destroying suspected vampires varied, with [[impalement|staking]] the most commonly cited method, particularly in South Slavic cultures.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=73}} [[Ash tree|Ash]] was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states,<ref>{{cite book|last=Alseikaite-Gimbutiene|first=Marija|author-link=Marija Gimbutas|title=Die Bestattung in Litauen in der vorgeschichtlichen Zeit|year=1946|location=Tübingen|oclc=1059867|language=de}} (thesis).</ref> or [[Crataegus monogyna|hawthorn]] in Serbia,<ref name="Vuk59">{{cite journal|last=Vukanović|first=T.P.|year=1959|title=The Vampire|journal=Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society|volume=38|pages=111–18}}</ref> with a record of [[oak]] in [[Silesia]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Klapper|first=Joseph|title=Die schlesischen Geschichten von den schädingenden Toten|journal=Mitteilungen der Schlesischen Gesellschaft für Volkskunde|volume=11|pages=58–93|year=1909|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Calmet|first1=Augustin|title=Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants: of Hungary, Moravia, et al. The Complete Volumes I & II. 2016|isbn=978-1-5331-4568-0|page=7|date=30 December 2015|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref> [[Populus tremula|Aspen]] was also used for stakes, as it was believed that [[Christ's cross]] was made from aspen (aspen branches on the graves of purported vampires were also believed to prevent their risings at night).<ref>{{cite book|author=Theresa Cheung|title=The Element Encyclopedia of Vampires|publisher=HarperCollins UK|year=2013|page=35|isbn=978-0-00-752473-0}}</ref> Potential vampires were most often staked through the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany<ref>{{cite book|last=Löwenstimm|first=A.|title=Aberglaube und Stafrecht|page=99|year=1897|publisher=Berlin|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bachtold-Staubli|first=H.|title=Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens|year=1934–1935|publisher=Berlin|language=de}}</ref> and the stomach in north-eastern Serbia.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Filipovic|first=Milenko|year=1962|title=Die Leichenverbrennung bei den Südslaven|journal=Wiener Völkerkundliche Mitteilungen|volume=10|pages=61–71|language=de}}</ref> Piercing the skin of the chest was a way of "deflating" the bloated vampire. This is similar to a practice of "[[anti-vampire burial]]": burying sharp objects, such as sickles, with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently while transforming into a revenant.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=158}}

[[Decapitation]] was the preferred method in German and western Slavic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind the [[buttocks]] or away from the body.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=73}} This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, which in some cultures was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body, or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent rising.{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=157}}

[[File:Vampire skeleton of Sozopol in Sofia PD 2012 06.JPG|thumb|left|800-year-old skeleton found in Bulgaria stabbed through the chest with an iron rod<ref name="bulg"/>|alt=See caption]]
[[Romani people]] drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between the fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. In a 16th-century burial near [[Venice]], a brick forced into the mouth of a female corpse has been interpreted as a vampire-slaying ritual by the archaeologists who discovered it in 2006.<ref>Reported by Ariel David, "Italy dig unearths female 'vampire' in Venice", 13 March 2009, [[Associated Press]] via [[Yahoo! News]], [https://archive.today/20211014180118/https://www.webcitation.org/5fFdDvCQQ?url=http://fe8.story.media.ac4.yahoo.com/news/us/story/ap/20090313/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_vampire_of_venice/print archived]; also by Reuters, published under the headline "Researchers find remains that support medieval 'vampire'" in ''The Australian'', 13 March 2009, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090317093300/http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25180518-30417,00.html archived] with photo (scroll down).</ref> In [[Bulgaria]], over 100 skeletons with metal objects, such as [[plough]] bits, embedded in the torso have been discovered.<ref name="bulg">{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18334106 | title='Vampire' skeletons found in Bulgaria near Black Sea | work=BBC News | date=6 June 2012 | access-date=22 October 2019 | archive-date=24 April 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424154013/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18334106 | url-status=live }}</ref>

Further measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In Southeastern Europe, a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, by repeating the funeral service, by sprinkling [[holy water]] on the body, or by [[exorcism]]. In Romania, garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting a bullet through the [[coffin]] was taken. For resistant cases, the body was [[dismembered]] and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. In [[Old Saxony|Saxon regions]] of Germany, a [[lemon]] was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=154}}

=== Ancient beliefs ===
[[File:Lilith (John Collier painting).jpg|thumb|left|upright=.6|''[[Lilith (painting)|Lilith]]'', 1887 by [[John Collier (painter)|John Collier]]. Stories of Lilith depict her as a demon drinking blood.|alt=A painting of a naked woman with a snake wrapped around her.]]
Tales of supernatural beings consuming the blood or flesh of the living have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McNally|first1=Raymond T.|last2=Florescu|first2=Radu|title=In Search of Dracula|year=1994|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]]|location=Boston, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0-395-65783-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/insearchofdracul00mcna/page/117 117]|url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofdracul00mcna/page/117}}</ref> The term ''vampire'' did not exist in ancient times. [[Blood drinking]] and similar activities were attributed to [[demon]]s or spirits who would eat flesh and drink blood; even the [[devil]] was considered synonymous with the vampire.{{sfn|Marigny|1994|pp=24–25}} Almost every culture associates blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. In India tales of [[vetala|vetālas]], ghoulish beings that inhabit corpses, have been compiled in the ''[[Baital Pachisi|Baitāl Pacīsī]]''; a prominent story in the ''[[Kathāsaritsāgara]]'' tells of King [[Vikramāditya]] and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one.<ref>{{cite book|last=Burton|first=Sir Richard R.|author-link=Richard Francis Burton|title=Vikram and The Vampire: Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance|orig-year=1870|year=1893|publisher=Tylston and Edwards|location=London|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/goth/vav/vav00.htm|access-date=28 September 2007|isbn=978-0-89281-475-6|archive-date=7 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111107164840/http://sacred-texts.com/goth/vav/vav00.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[Piśāca]]'', the returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=200}}

The [[Persian Empire|Persians]] were one of the first civilizations to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated [[pottery]] shards.{{sfn|Marigny|1994|p=14}} Ancient [[Babylonia]] and [[Assyria]] had tales of the mythical [[Lilith#Mesopotamian religions|Lilitu]],<ref name="Hurwitz"/> synonymous with and giving rise to [[Lilith]] ([[Hebrew]] לילית) and her daughters the [[Lilu (mythology)|Lilu]] from [[Demonology|Hebrew demonology]]. Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies,<ref name="Hurwitz">{{cite book |last=Hurwitz |first=Siegmund |others=Gela Jacobson (trans.) |pages=39–51 |year=1992 |orig-year=1980 |title=Lilith, the First Eve: Historical and Psychological Aspects of the Dark Feminine |location=Einsiedeln, Switzerland |isbn=978-3-85630-522-2 |publisher=Daimon Verlag}}</ref> and [[estries]], female shapeshifting, blood-drinking demons, were said to roam the night among the population, seeking victims. According to ''[[Sefer Hasidim]]'', estries were creatures created in the twilight hours before [[Genesis creation narrative#Seventh day: divine rest|God rested]]. An injured estrie could be healed by eating bread and salt given to her by her attacker.<ref>{{cite web|last=Shael|first=Rabbi|url=http://shaelsiegel.blogspot.com/2009/06/vampires-einstein-and-jewish-folklore.html|title=Rabbi Shael Speaks&nbsp;... Tachles: Vampires, Einstein and Jewish Folklore|website=Shaelsiegel.blogspot.com|date=1 June 2009|access-date=5 December 2010|archive-date=5 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005071949/http://shaelsiegel.blogspot.com/2009/06/vampires-einstein-and-jewish-folklore.html|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- covers previous two sentences -->

[[Greco-Roman mythology]] described the [[Empusa]]e,{{sfn|Graves|1990|pp=189–190}} the [[Lamia]],{{sfn|Graves|1990|pp=205–206}} the [[Mormo]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theoi.com/Phasma/Empousai.html |title=Philostr Vit. Apoll. iv. 25; Suid. s. v. |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-date=27 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027063134/https://www.theoi.com/Phasma/Empousai.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and the [[striges]]. Over time the first two terms became general words to describe witches and demons respectively. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess [[Hecate]] and was described as a demonic, [[bronze]]-footed creature. She feasted on blood by transforming into a young woman and seduced men as they slept before drinking their blood.{{sfn|Graves|1990|pp=189–190}} The Lamia preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood, as did the ''gelloudes'' or [[Gello]].{{sfn|Graves|1990|pp=205–206}} Like the Lamia, the ''striges'' feasted on children, but also preyed on adults. They were described as having the bodies of crows or birds in general, and were later incorporated into Roman mythology as ''strix'', a kind of nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Oliphant|first=Samuel Grant|date= 1913|title=The Story of the Strix: Ancient|journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association|volume=44|pages=133–49|doi=10.2307/282549|issn=0065-9711|jstor=282549}}</ref>

In [[Turkic mythology]], an ''ubır'' is a vampiric creature characterized by various regional depictions. According to legends, individuals heavily steeped in sin and practitioners of [[black magic]] transform into ubırs upon their death, taking on a bestial form within their graves. Ubırs possess the ability to shape-shift, assuming the forms of both humans and various animals. Furthermore, they can seize the soul of a living being and exert control over its body. Someone inhabited by a vampire constantly experiences hunger, becoming increasingly aggressive when unable to find sustenance, ultimately resorting to drinking human blood.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2023-08-25 |title=Ubır: A Vampire-Like Creature in Turkic Mythology and Folk Beliefs |url=https://ulukayin.org/ubir-english/ |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=ULUKAYIN English |language=en-US |archive-date=26 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240126093031/https://ulukayin.org/ubir-english/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Medieval and later European folklore ===
{{main|Vampire folklore by region}}
[[File:Execution of the Vampire by René de Moraine.png|alt=See caption|thumb|Lithograph showing townsfolk burning the exhumed skeleton of an alleged vampire]]
Many myths surrounding vampires originated during the [[medieval period]]. With the arrival of [[Christianity]] in [[Greece]], and other parts of [[Europe]], the vampire "began to take on decidedly Christian characteristics."<ref name="Hansen2011">{{cite book|author=Regina Hansen|title=Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film: Essays on Belief, Spectacle, Ritual and Imagery|date=3 May 2011|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|language=English|isbn=978-0786464746|quote=After the arrival of Christianity in Greece, however, the vampire began to take on decidedly Christian characteristics. The vampire was now no longer a demon from a supernatural realm but a reanimated corpse, a dead person who retained a semblance of life and could leave its grave-much in the same way that Jesus had arisen after His death and burial and appeared before His followers. The transformation of vampire myths to include Christian elements happened throughout Europe; as various regions converted to Christianity, their vampires also became "Christianized" (Beresford 42, 44–51).}}</ref> As various regions of the continent [[converted to Christianity]], the vampire was viewed as "a dead person who retained a semblance of life and could leave its grave-much in the same way that Jesus had risen after His death and burial and appeared before His followers."<ref name="Hansen2011"/> In the [[Middle Ages]], the [[Christian Church]]es reinterpreted vampires from their previous folk existence into minions of [[Satan]], and used an [[allegory]] to communicate a doctrine to [[Christians]]: "Just as a vampire takes a sinner's very spirit into itself by drinking his blood, so also can a righteous Christian by drinking Christ's blood take the divine spirit into himself."<ref name="Joshi2010">{{cite book|author= S. T. Joshi=|title=Encyclopædia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture|date=4 November 2010|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|language=English|isbn=978-0313378331|quote=The church had by this time co-opted vampires from their previous folk existence and reinterpreted them as minions of the Christian devil, so it was an easy enough analogy to draw: Just as a vampire takes a sinner's very spirit into itself by drinking his blood, so also can a righteous Christian by drinking Christ's blood take the divine spirit into himself.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author= Regina Hansen|title=Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film: Essays on Belief, Spectacle, Ritual and Imagery|date=3 May 2011|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|language=English|isbn=978-0786464746|quote=Perhaps the strongest link between vampires and Christianity is the importance of blood in the Christian, especially the Roman Catholic, tradition. Just as the vampire must consume blood in order to continue its unnaturally eternal life, so Christians must consume the blood of Jesus to be granted salvation and life after death.}}</ref> The interpretation of vampires under the Christian Churches established connotations that are still associated in the vampire genre today.<ref name="LarssonSteiner2011">{{cite book|author= Mariah Larsson, Ann Steiner|title=Interdisciplinary Approaches to Twilight: Studies in Fiction, Media and a Contemporary Cultural Experience|date=1 December 2011|publisher=Nordic Academic Press|language=English|isbn=978-9185509638|quote=The fear of vampirism embodied in these early conceptions was used by the Church in order to impose its fundamental values on soviety. The Church therefore changed some of the typical vampire traits and gave them more religious connotations that are still very much in evidence in the vampire genre today. For example, the destruction of the vampire became a religious rite; crucifixes and holy water bestowed protection; and drinking the blood of a sinner strengthened the power of the Devil, while taking Communion afforded the communicant protection. Besides their roots in folklore and the influence of Christianity, vampire traits were shaped in the development of vampire literature.}}</ref> For example, the "ability of the cross to hurt and ward off vampires is distinctly due to its Christian association."<ref name="Stevenson2003">{{cite book|author= Gregory Stevenson|title=Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer|year=2003|publisher=[[University Press of America]]|language=English|isbn=0761828338|quote=If so, then the ability of the cross to hurt and ward off vampires is distinctly due to its Christian association.}}</ref><ref name="Holte1997">{{cite book|author= James Craig Holte|title=Dracula in the Dark: The Dracula Film Adaptations|year=1997|publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]]|language=English|isbn=0313292159|quote=Christian belief played an important part in the development of vampire lore. According to Montague Summers, who describes the Christian position in detail in ''The Vampire: His Kith and Kin'', Christianity accepts the existence of vampires and sees the power of the devil behind their creation. Since vampires are servants of Satan, the Church has power over them. Thus vampires flee from and can be destroyed by the crucifix, relics of saints, the sign of the cross, holy water, and above all, a consecrated host.}}</ref>

The 12th-century British historians and chroniclers [[Walter Map]] and [[William of Newburgh]] recorded accounts of revenants,{{sfn|Cohen|1989|pp=271–274}}<ref>{{cite web|author=William of Newburgh|author2=Paul Halsall|author-link=William of Newburgh|title=Book 5, Chapter 22–24|website=Historia rerum Anglicarum|publisher=Fordham University|year=2000|access-date=16 October 2007|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/williamofnewburgh-five.html|archive-date=19 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219150159/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/williamofnewburgh-five.html|url-status=live}}</ref> though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant.{{sfn|Jones|1931|p=121}} The [[Scandinavian folklore|Old Norse]] ''[[draugr]]'' is another medieval example of an undead creature with similarities to vampires.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Ármann | last=Jakobsson |year=2009 | title=The Fearless Vampire Killers: A Note about the Icelandic ''Draugr'' and Demonic Contamination in ''Grettis Saga'' | journal=Folklore | issue=120 | page=309}}</ref> Vampiric beings were rarely written about in Jewish literature; the 16th-century rabbi [[David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra]] (Radbaz) wrote of an uncharitable old woman whose body was unguarded and unburied for three days after she died and rose as a vampiric entity, killing hundreds of people. He linked this event to the lack of a ''[[shemira|shmirah]]'' (guarding) after death as the corpse could be a vessel for evil spirits.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Soul, Evil Spirits, and the Undead: Vampires, Death, and Burial in Jewish Folklore and Law|last1=Epstein|first1=Saul|last2=Robinson|first2=Sara Libby|journal=Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural|year=2012|volume=1|issue=2|pages=232–51|doi=10.5325/preternature.1.2.0232|issn=2161-2188}}</ref>

In 1645, the Greek librarian of the Vatican, [[Leo Allatius]], produced the first methodological description of the Balkan beliefs in vampires (Greek: vrykolakas) in his work ''De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinationibus'' ("On certain modern opinions among the Greeks").<ref>{{cite book| last = Melton| first= J. Gordon | title= The Vampire Book: The encyclopedia of the Undead | pages=9–10 | isbn=978-1-57859-350-7| publisher= Visible Ink Press | year= 2010}}</ref> Vampires properly originating in folklore were widely reported from Eastern Europe in the late 17th and 18th centuries. These tales formed the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularized.{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=5–9}} An early recording of the time came from the region of [[Istria]] in modern [[Croatia]], in 1672; Local reports described a panic among the villagers inspired by the belief that [[Jure Grando]] had become a vampire after dying in 1656, drinking blood from victims and sexually harassing his widow. The village leader ordered a stake to be driven through his heart. Later, his corpse was also beheaded.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bohn |first1=Thomas M. |title=The Vampire: Origins of a European Myth |date=2019 |publisher=Berghahn Books |location=Cologne |isbn=978-1-78920-293-9 |pages=47–49}}</ref><!-- cites previous 3 sentences -->

[[File:Tractat von dem Kauen und Schmatzen der Todten in Gräbern 002.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Première page du ''Tractat von dem Kauen und Schmatzen der Todten in Gräbern'' (1734), ouvrage de vampirologie de Michael Ranft|Title page of ''treatise on the chewing and smacking of the dead in graves'' (1734), a book on vampirology by [[Michael Ranft]]]]
From 1679, Philippe Rohr devotes an essay to the dead who chew their shrouds in their graves, a subject resumed by Otto in 1732, and then by [[Michael Ranft]] in 1734. The subject was based on the observation that when digging up graves, it was discovered that some corpses had at some point either devoured the interior fabric of their coffin or their own limbs.<ref name=marigny93>{{cite book|last1=Marigny|first1=Jean|title=Sang pour Sang, Le Réveil des Vampires, Gallimard, coll|date=1993|isbn=978-2-07-053203-2|pages=50–52|publisher=Gallimard }}</ref> Ranft described in his treatise of a tradition in some parts of Germany, that to prevent the dead from masticating they placed a mound of dirt under their chin in the coffin, placed a piece of money and a stone in the mouth, or tied a handkerchief tightly around the throat.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Calmet|first1=Augustin|title=Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants: of Hungary, Moravia, et al. The Complete Volumes I & II. 2015|date=1751|isbn=978-1-5331-4568-0|pages=442–443|title-link=Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref> In 1732 an anonymous writer writing as "the doctor Weimar" discusses the non-putrefaction of these creatures, from a theological point of view.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lecouteux|first1=Claude|title=Historie des vampires: Autopsie d'un mythe|date=1993|publisher=Imago|location=Paris|isbn=978-2-911416-29-3|pages=9–10}}</ref> In 1733, Johann Christoph Harenberg wrote a general treatise on vampirism and the [[Marquis d'Argens]] cites local cases. Theologians and clergymen also address the topic.<ref name=marigny93/>

Some theological disputes arose. The non-decay of vampires' bodies could recall the incorruption of the bodies of the saints of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Indeed, vampires were traditionally considered highly problematic within Christianity, as their apparent immortal existence ran against the Christian belief that all true believers may look forward to an eternal existence with body and soul as they were [[resurrection|resurrected]], but only at the end of time when Jesus [[Last Judgment|returns to judge the living and the dead]]. Those who are resurrected as immortal before this are thus in no way part of the divine plan of salvation. The imperfect state of the vampire body and how they, in spite of their immortal nature, still needed to feed of the blood of the living, further reflected the problematic aspect of the vampires. Contrary to how the incorruptible saints foreshadowed the immortality promised all true Christians at the end of time, the immortality of the undead vampires was thus not a sign of salvation, but of perdition.<ref name=Endsjø>{{cite book|last=Endsjø|first=Dag Øistein|title=Flesh and Bones Forever: A History of Immortality|year=2023|publisher=Apocryphile Press|location=Hannacroix|isbn=978-1-958061-36-7|pages=178–179}}</ref> The unholy dimension of vampirism may also be reflected in how, in parts of Russia, the very word [[heretic]], ''eretik'', was synonymous with a vampire. Whoever denied God or his commandments became an ''eretik'' after his death, the improperly immortal figure that wandered the night in search of people to feed on.<ref>Felix J. Oinas 1978. "Heretics as vampires and demons in Russia" in The Slavic and East European Journal 22:4 (1978):433</ref> A paragraph on vampires was included in the second edition (1749) of ''De servorum Dei beatificatione et sanctorum canonizatione'', On the [[beatification]] of the servants of God and on [[canonization]] of the blessed, written by Prospero Lambertini ([[Pope Benedict XIV]]).<ref>{{cite book|author=Lambertini, P.|year=1749|title=De servorum Dei beatificatione et sanctorum canonizatione|volume=Pars prima|chapter= XXXI|pages=323–24}}</ref> In his opinion, while the [[incorruptibility|incorruption]] of the bodies of saints was the effect of a divine intervention, all the phenomena attributed to vampires were purely natural or the fruit of "imagination, terror and fear". In other words, vampires did not exist.<ref>{{cite journal|author=de Ceglia F.P.|title=The Archbishop's Vampires. Giuseppe Davanzati's Dissertation and the Reaction of Scientific Italian Catholicism to the Moravian Events|journal= Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences|volume=61|issue=166/167|year=2011|pages=487–510|doi=10.1484/J.ARIHS.5.101493}}</ref>

====18th-century vampire controversy====
[[File:Dom Augustin Calmet.jpeg|thumb|upright|right|[[Dom Augustine Calmet]] (1750)]]
In the early 18th century, despite the decline of many popular folkloric beliefs during the [[Age of Enlightenment]], there was a dramatic increase in the popular belief in vampires, resulting in a mass hysteria throughout much of Europe.{{sfn|Cohen|1989|pp=271–274}} The panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in [[East Prussia]] in 1721 and in the [[Habsburg monarchy]] from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. The first infamous vampire case involved the corpses of [[Petar Blagojević]] from Serbia. Blagojević was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When the son refused, he was found dead the following day. Blagojević supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood.{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=5–9}}

In the second case, [[Miloš Čečar]], an ex-soldier-turned-farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while [[hay]]ing. After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area; it was widely believed that Miloš had returned to prey on the neighbours.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283318599|title=Vampire Evolution|last=Jøn|first=A. Asbjørn|date=2003|journal=METAphor|access-date=20 November 2015|issue=3|page=20|archive-date=12 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112222202/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283318599_Vampire_Evolution|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=15–21}}

The Blagojević and Čečar incidents were well-documented. Government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe.{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=15–21}} The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-called vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them.{{sfn|Hoyt|1984|p=101-106}} Even government officials engaged in the hunting and staking of vampires.{{sfn|Barber|1988|pp=5–9}}

The hysteria, commonly referred to as the "vampire controversy,"<ref name="Melton1994">{{cite encyclopedia |entry=Vampire |title=The Vampire Book |author=J. Gordon Melton |publisher=Visible Ink Press |year=1994 |page=630 |url=https://archive.org/details/vampirebookencyc0000melt/page/630 |quote=the vampire controversy of the 1730s [p.467] ... the eighteenth-century vampire controversy [p. 630]}}</ref> continued for a generation. At least sixteen contemporary treatises discussed the theological and philosophical implications of the vampire epidemic.<ref name="Frayling1978">{{cite book |chapter=From the orang-utan to the vampire: towards an anthropology of Rousseau |title=Rousseau after two hundred years (Proceedings of the Cambridge Bicentennial Colloqium) |author1=Christopher Frayling |author2=Robert Wokler |editor=R. A. Leigh |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Bristol |year=1982 |page=122 |quote=For details of the sixteen formal treatises and dissertations that discussed the implications of the 1731–32 'epidemic' (most of them written by German doctors and theologians), see Tony Faivre, ''Les Vampires'' (Paris, 1962), pp. 154–9; Dieter Sturm and Klaus Völker, ''Von denen Vampiren oder Menschensaugern'' (München, 1973), pp. 519–23; and Frayling's introduction to ''The Vampyre'' (London, 1978), pp. 31–4.}}</ref>
[[Dom Augustine Calmet]], a French theologian and scholar, published a comprehensive treatise in 1751 titled ''[[Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants]]'' which investigated and analysed the evidence for vampirism.{{sfn|Hoyt|1984|p=101-106}}{{efn|1=Calmet conducted extensive research and amassed judicial reports of vampiric incidents and extensively researched theological and mythological accounts as well, using the scientific method in his analysis to come up with methods for determining the validity for cases of this nature. As he stated in his treatise:<ref>{{cite book|last1=Calmet|first1=Augustin|title=Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants: of Hungary, Moravia, et al. The Complete Volumes I & II. Translated by Rev Henry Christmas & Brett Warren. 2015|date=1751|isbn=978-1-5331-4568-0|pages=303–304|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref>

<blockquote>They see, it is said, men who have been dead for several months, come back to earth, talk, walk, infest villages, ill use both men and beasts, suck the blood of their near relations, make them ill, and finally cause their death; so that people can only save themselves from their dangerous visits and their hauntings by exhuming them, impaling them, cutting off their heads, tearing out the heart, or burning them. These revenants are called by the name of oupires or vampires, that is to say, [[leech]]es; and such particulars are related of them, so singular, so detailed, and invested with such probable circumstances and such judicial information, that one can hardly refuse to credit the belief which is held in those countries, that these revenants come out of their tombs and produce those effects which are proclaimed of them.</blockquote>}} Numerous readers, including both [[Voltaire]] (critical) and numerous [[demonologist]]s (supportive), interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed.{{sfn|Hoyt|1984|p=101-106}}{{efn|1=In the ''[[Philosophical Dictionary]],'' Voltaire wrote:<ref>{{cite book|title=Philosophical Dictionary|author=Voltaire|year=1984|orig-year=1764|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-14-044257-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/philosophicaldic0000volt}}</ref>

{{blockquote|These vampires were corpses, who went out of their graves at night to suck the blood of the living, either at their throats or stomachs, after which they returned to their cemeteries. The persons so sucked waned, grew pale, and fell into [[tuberculosis|consumption]]; while the sucking corpses grew fat, got rosy, and enjoyed an excellent appetite. It was in Poland, Hungary, [[Silesia]], [[Moravia]], Austria, and [[Alsace-Lorraine|Lorraine]], that the dead made this good cheer.}} }}

The controversy in Austria ceased when Empress [[Maria Theresa]] sent her personal physician, [[Gerard van Swieten]], to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. Van Swieten concluded that vampires did not exist and the Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and the desecration of bodies, thus ending the vampire epidemic. Other European countries followed suit. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local folklore.{{sfn|Hoyt|1984|p=101-106}}

=== Non-European beliefs ===
Beings having many of the attributes of European vampires appear in the folklore of Africa, Asia, North and South America, and India. Classified as vampires, all share the thirst for blood.<ref name=attwater>{{cite journal|author=Atwater, Cheryl|year=2000|title=Living in Death: The Evolution of Modern Vampirism|journal=Anthropology of Consciousness|volume=11|issue=1–2|pages=70–77|doi=10.1525/ac.2000.11.1-2.70}}</ref>

==== Africa ====
Various regions of Africa have folktales featuring beings with vampiric abilities: in [[West Africa]] the [[Ashanti people]] tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling ''[[asanbosam]]'',{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=11}} and the [[Ewe people]] of the ''[[adze (folklore)|adze]],'' which can take the form of a [[firefly]] and hunts children.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=2}} The eastern [[Cape Peninsula|Cape]] region has the ''[[impundulu]],'' which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and the [[Betsileo]] people of [[Madagascar]] tell of the ''ramanga'', an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=219}} In colonial East Africa, rumors circulated to the effect that employees of the state such as firemen and nurses were vampires, known in Swahili as ''wazimamoto''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=White|first=Luise|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/9780520922297|title=Speaking with Vampires|date=31 December 2000|publisher=University of California Press|doi=10.1525/9780520922297|isbn=978-0-520-92229-7|s2cid=258526552 |access-date=15 December 2020|archive-date=15 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715155012/https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520922297/html|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Americas ====
The ''[[Rougarou]]'' is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, here a mixture of French and African Vodu or [[West African Vodun|voodoo]]. The term ''Rougarou'' possibly comes from the French {{lang|fr|[[loup-garou]]}} (meaning "werewolf") and is common in the [[culture of Mauritius]]. The stories of the ''Rougarou'' are widespread through the [[Caribbean Islands]] and [[Louisiana]] in the United States.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|pp=162–163}} Similar female monsters are the ''[[Soucouyant]]'' of [[Trinidad]], and the ''[[Tunda]]'' and ''[[Patasola]]'' of [[Colombian folklore]], while the [[Mapuche]] of southern [[Chile]] have the bloodsucking snake known as the ''[[Peuchen]]''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Martinez Vilches, Oscar|title=Chiloe Misterioso: Turismo, Mitologia Chilota, leyendas|year=1992|page=179|publisher=Ediciones de la Voz de Chiloe|location=Chile|oclc=33852127|language=es}}</ref> ''[[Aloe vera]]'' hung backwards behind or near a door was thought to ward off vampiric beings in South American folklore.<ref name=Jaramillo/> [[Aztec mythology]] described tales of the [[Cihuateteo]], skull-faced spirits of those who died in childbirth who stole children and entered into sexual liaisons with the living, driving them mad.<ref name="Strange & Amazing"/>

During the late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was [[New England vampire panic|widespread in parts of New England]], particularly in [[Rhode Island]] and eastern [[Connecticut]]. There are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family, although the term "vampire" was never used to describe the dead. The deadly disease [[tuberculosis]], or "consumption" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member who had died of consumption themselves.<ref name=sledzik>{{cite journal|last=Sledzik|first=Paul S.|author2=Nicholas Bellantoni|year=1994|title=Bioarcheological and biocultural evidence for the New England vampire folk belief|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=94|issue=2|pages=269–274|doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330940210 |pmid=8085617}}</ref> The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism is that of nineteen-year-old [[Mercy Brown]], who died in [[Exeter, Rhode Island]], in 1892. Her father, assisted by the family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death, cut out her heart and burned it to ashes.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Vampires and Death in New England, 1784 to 1892|author=Bell, Michael E.|journal=Anthropology and Humanism|year=2006|volume=31|issue=2|pages=124–40|doi=10.1525/ahu.2006.31.2.124}}</ref>

[[Sarah Roberts (subject of vampire legend)|Sarah Roberts]] (1872–1913) was an Englishwoman who died and was buried in [[Pisco, Peru]]. After her death, a legend evolved that she was a vampire and bride of Dracula. On June 9, 1993, the 80th anniversary of her death, locals in Pisco feared she would come back to life and take her revenge.<ref name="lanc">{{cite news |last1=Henfield |first1=Sally |title=The 'Peruvian vampire' – from East Lancashire |url=https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/4385196.peruvian-vampire---east-lancashire/ |access-date=3 October 2024 |work=Lancashire Telegraph |date=21 May 2009}}</ref>

==== Asia ====
Vampires have appeared in [[Japanese cinema]] since the late 1950s; the folklore behind it is western in origin.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|pp=137–138}} The [[Rokurokubi#Nukekubi|Nukekubi]] is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night.<ref>{{cite book|title=Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things|url=https://archive.org/details/kwaidanstories00hearrich|last=Hearn|first=Lafcadio|author-link=Lafcadio Hearn|year=1903|publisher=Houghton, Mifflin and Company|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-585-15043-7}}</ref> Legends of female vampiric beings who can detach parts of their upper body also occur in the [[Philippine mythology|Philippines]], [[Malay folklore|Malaysia]], and [[Folklore of Indonesia|Indonesia]]. There are two main vampiric creatures in the Philippines: the [[Tagalog people|Tagalog]] ''[[Mandurugo]]'' ("blood-sucker") and the [[Visayan]] ''[[Manananggal]]'' ("self-segmenter"). The mandurugo is a variety of the [[aswang]] that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, threadlike tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim.<ref name="ramos"/> The ''manananggal'' is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge batlike wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck [[fetus]]es from these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically the [[heart]] and the [[liver]]) and the phlegm of sick people.<ref name="ramos">{{cite book|last=Ramos|first=Maximo D.|title=Creatures of Philippine Lower Mythology|orig-year=1971|year=1990|publisher=Phoenix Publishing|location=Quezon|isbn=978-971-06-0691-7}}</ref>

The Malaysian ''[[Penanggalan]]'' is a woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of [[black magic]] or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklore to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women.{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=197}} Malaysians hung ''jeruju'' (thistles) around the doors and windows of houses, hoping the ''Penanggalan'' would not enter for fear of catching its intestines on the thorns.{{sfn|Hoyt|1984|p=34}} The [[Leyak]] is a similar being from [[Balinese mythology|Balinese folklore]] of Indonesia.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Witchcraft, Grief, and the Ambivalence of Emotions|journal=American Ethnologist|volume=26|issue=3|year=1999|pages=711–737|doi=10.1525/ae.1999.26.3.711|first=Michele|last=Stephen}}</ref> A ''[[Kuntilanak]]'' or ''Matianak'' in Indonesia,{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=208}} or ''[[Pontianak (folklore)|Pontianak]]'' or ''[[Langsuir]]'' in Malaysia,{{sfn|Bunson|1993|p=150}} is a woman who [[Maternal mortality in fiction|died during childbirth]] and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorising villages. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, with which she sucked the blood of children. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off. Corpses had their mouths filled with glass beads, eggs under each armpit, and needles in their palms to prevent them from becoming ''langsuir.'' This description would also fit the [[Sundel bolong|Sundel Bolongs]].{{sfn|Hoyt|1984|p=35}}

[[File:Stilt house, Black Thai - Vietnam Museum of Ethnology - Hanoi, Vietnam - DSC02781.JPG|thumb|right|A stilt house typical of the [[Tai Dam]] ethnic minority of Vietnam, whose communities were said to be terrorized by the blood-sucking ''ma cà rồng''|alt=See caption]]
In [[Vietnam]], the word used to translate Western vampires, "ma cà rồng", originally referred to a type of demon that haunts modern-day [[Phú Thọ Province]], within the communities of the [[Tai Dam]] [[Ethnic minorities of Vietnam|ethnic minority]]. The word was first mentioned in the chronicles of 18th-century [[Confucian]] scholar [[Lê Quý Đôn]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lê Quý Đôn |title=Kiến văn tiểu lục |date=2007 |publisher=NXB Văn hóa-Thông tin |page=353}}</ref> who spoke of a creature that lives among humans, but stuffs its toes into its [[nostrils]] at night and flies by its ears into houses with pregnant women to suck their blood. Having fed on these women, the ''ma cà rồng'' then returns to its house and cleans itself by dipping its toes into barrels of [[sappanwood]] water. This allows the ''ma cà rồng'' to live undetected among humans during the day, before heading out to attack again by night.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trương Quốc Dụng |title=Thoái thực ký văn |date=2020 |publisher=Writers' Association Publishing House}}</ref>

[[Jiangshi]], sometimes called "Chinese vampires" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence ([[qì]]) from their victims. They are said to be created when a person's soul (魄 [[Hun and po|''pò'']]) fails to leave the deceased's body.<ref>{{cite book|last=Suckling|first=Nigel|title=Vampires|year=2006|publisher=Facts, Figures & Fun|location=London|isbn=978-1-904332-48-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/vampires0000suck/page/31 31]|url=https://archive.org/details/vampires0000suck/page/31}}</ref> ''Jiangshi'' are usually represented as mindless creatures with no independent thought.<ref>{{cite book|last=劉|first=天賜|title=僵屍與吸血鬼|year=2008|publisher=Joint Publishing (H.K.)|location=Hong Kong|isbn=978-962-04-2735-0|page=196}}</ref> This monster has greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or [[mould]] growing on corpses.<ref>{{cite book|last=de Groot|first=J.J.M.|title=The Religious System of China|year=1910|publisher=[[E.J. Brill]]|oclc=7022203}}<!--many recent editions for this--></ref> Jiangshi legends have inspired a [[Jiangshi fiction|genre of jiangshi films]] and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia. Films like ''[[Encounters of the Spooky Kind]]'' and ''[[Mr. Vampire]]'' were released during the jiangshi cinematic boom of the 1980s and 1990s.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lam|first=Stephanie|year=2009|title=Hop on Pop: Jiangshi Films in a Transnational Context|journal=CineAction|issue=78|pages=46–51}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hudson|first=Dave|title=Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms|year=2009|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8108-6923-3|page=215}}</ref>

=== Modern beliefs ===
In modern fiction, the vampire tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic [[villain]].{{sfn|Barber|1988|p=2}} Vampire hunting societies still exist, but they are largely formed for social reasons.{{sfn|Cohen|1989|pp=271–274}} Allegations of vampire attacks swept through [[Malawi]] during late 2002 and early 2003, with mobs stoning one person to death and attacking at least four others, including Governor [[Eric Chiwaya]], based on the belief that the government was colluding with vampires.<ref>{{cite news|first=Raphael|last=Tenthani|title='Vampires' strike Malawi villages|work=BBC News|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2602461.stm|date=23 December 2002|access-date=29 December 2007|archive-date=18 August 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100818193930/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2602461.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Fears and violence recurred in late 2017, with 6 people accused of being vampires killed.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/mobs-in-malawi-have-killed-six-people-for-being-vampires/|title=Mobs in Malawi have killed six people for being "vampires"|date=19 October 2017|work=VICE News|access-date=2 January 2018|language=en|archive-date=2 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102020221/https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/j5jxnx/mobs-in-malawi-have-killed-six-people-for-being-vampires|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:VampireE3.jpg|thumb|upright|A vampire costume|alt=A woman showing teeth with fangs.]]
In early 1970, local press spread rumours that a vampire haunted [[Highgate Cemetery]] in London. Amateur [[vampire hunter]]s flocked in large numbers to the cemetery. Several books have been written about the case, notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who was among the first to suggest the existence of the "[[Highgate Vampire]]" and who later claimed to have [[exorcised]] and destroyed a whole nest of vampires in the area.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Highgate Vampire: The Infernal World of the Undead Unearthed at London's Highgate Cemetery and Environs|last=Manchester|first=Sean|year=1991|location=London|publisher=Gothic Press|isbn=978-1-872486-01-7}}</ref> In January 2005, rumours circulated that an attacker had bitten a number of people in [[Birmingham]], England, fuelling concerns about a vampire roaming the streets. Local police stated that no such crime had been reported and that the case appears to be an [[urban legend]].<ref name=guardian1>{{cite news|title=Reality Bites|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,3604,1392607,00.html|date=18 January 2005|access-date=29 December 2007|location=London|first=Stuart|last=Jeffries|archive-date=15 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715154949/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jan/18/britishidentity.stuartjeffries|url-status=live}}</ref>

The ''[[chupacabra]]'' ("goat-sucker") of [[Puerto Rico]] and [[Mexico]] is said to be a creature that feeds upon the flesh or drinks the blood of [[domesticated animal]]s, leading some to consider it a kind of vampire. The "chupacabra hysteria" was frequently associated with deep economic and political crises, particularly during the mid-1990s.<ref name="trail">{{cite web|author=Stephen Wagner|url=http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa051898.htm|title=On the trail of the Chupacabras|access-date=5 October 2007|archive-date=19 September 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050919215215/http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa051898.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In Europe, where much of the vampire folklore originates, the vampire is usually considered a fictitious being; many communities may have embraced the revenant for economic purposes. In some cases, especially in small localities, beliefs are still rampant and sightings or claims of vampire attacks occur frequently. In Romania during February 2004, several relatives of Toma Petre feared that he had become a vampire. They dug up his corpse, tore out his heart, burned it, and mixed the ashes with water in order to drink it.<ref>{{cite news|last=Taylor | first= T.|date=28 October 2007|title=The real vampire slayers|work=The Independent|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3096920.ece|access-date=14 December 2007|location=London|archive-date=19 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219095645/http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3096920.ece|url-status=dead}}</ref>