Jawnomicon

Preta

Also called Hungry Ghost, Yidag, Yi Dag, Gaki, E Gui.

In Buddhist cosmology, the Preta ("hungry ghost") is a tormented spirit reborn into one of the six realms of existence, driven by insatiable craving into a body that can never be satisfied.

At a glance

Tradition
Buddhist mythologyHimalayan (Nepali/Tibetan) folklore
Region
India (place of origin)Desolate Barren Landscapes (unspecified) (habitat)
Symbols
Ghost

Symbols

Judged against the description by a model. Meanings are our own paraphrase.

Traits

Read from the figure's description, which a model wrote. Open "why" for the sentence a trait came from.

Form

  • Distended belly narrow throat
    why

    Pretas are most often described as grotesquely disproportionate: a huge, distended belly signaling enormous, unrelieved hunger, set atop a thin, needle-like throat too narrow to pass more than a trace of food or drink.

  • Emaciated skeletal hunger spirit
    why

    grotesquely disproportionate: a huge, distended belly signaling enormous, unrelieved hunger, set atop a thin, needle-like throat too narrow to pass more than a trace of food or drink

Behaviour

  • Food turns to ash in mouth
    why

    In some tellings the affliction is more specific still, with whatever food or water a Preta manages to obtain turning to fire, pus, or ash the moment it nears the mouth, so that satisfaction is structurally impossible rather than merely difficult.

  • Can be placated by specific ritual or trick
    why

    In East Asian Buddhist practice, particularly in China and Japan, the plight of hungry ghosts is addressed communally through dedicated ritual observance: the Ghost Festival, also known as the Ullambana or Yulanpen festival, involves making food offerings intended to reach Pretas and other suffering spirits, a practice tied to the story of the monk Mokuren (Maudgalyayana in Sanskrit sources) attempting to relieve his mother's suffering in the hungry ghost realm.

Utility powers

  • Invisibility
    why

    Accounts describe Pretas as invisible to ordinary human sight, wandering through deserts, wastelands, and the margins of the human world, or hovering unseen near the living in search of scraps, discarded offerings, and funerary food.

Roles

Judged from the works' own entries, not from the description. Carries: the figure holds the role. Meets: the role is in its stories, held by something it meets.