Rolang- Tibetan CreatureCreature · Monster"The Risen Corpse"

How They Rise

A ro-lang comes into being when an evil spirit enters a corpse before the consciousness has fully departed. A violent death or an unattended body, any gap in the protections that surround a Tibetan corpse, can let a spirit in. The original person is gone. What stands up is the spirit's puppet.

The body moves rigid and unbending. It cannot bend at the waist or knees. Its arms extend forward. Its tongue protrudes, swollen and blackened. The eyes roll back to show the whites. It does not speak, though it may produce moans. It feels no pain and possesses strength the body never had in life.

This is why monks attend every corpse and recite prayers without stopping until cremation. The phowa practice transfers the dying person's consciousness cleanly at the moment of death, leaving no opening for possession. Cremation destroys the vessel entirely. Every step of a Tibetan funeral is designed, in part, to prevent what is lying on the ground from standing back up.

The Touch

The ro-lang's danger is contagion. A living person touched by one may die and rise as another walking corpse. The touch must land on the crown of the head, where the consciousness exits the body at death. One ro-lang left unchecked can fill a village.

The defense is simple and strange: lie flat on the ground. Because the ro-lang cannot bend, it cannot reach a person pressed against the earth. Thresholds stop it. Stairs defeat it. The recitation of Guru Rinpoche's mantras can drive it back.

In Tibetan folktales, a traveler takes shelter in a house where a corpse is being kept overnight. The monks have gone. The body stirs. The traveler remembers what everyone knows: do not let it touch you. Lie flat. Do not move. Wait for dawn.