Ghosts in different cultures

In many societies, the spirit world is accepted as fact, and people's daily lives are connected with rituals and beliefs, which means the needs of their ghostly companions. Objects and places may be associated with particular spirits, and people will call on spirits to help on their behalf to deal with life's problems.

In the East, such as China, many people believe in reincarnation. Ghosts are those souls that refused to be 'recycled' because they have unfinished business similar to those in western belief. Exorcists can either help a ghost to be reincarnated or blow it out of existence. In Chinese belief, besides reincarnation, a ghost can also become immortal and become demigod, or it can go to hell and suffer till eternality, or it can die again and become "ghost of ghost".

Here are a few ghosts from other cultures:

The Duppy is a West Indian ghost who will appear if coins and a glass of rum are thrown on its grave. Duppies (plural of Duppy) are pure evil. If they breathe on someone that person will become very sick, and anyone touched by a duppy will have a fit. If they don't get back to the grave by dawn they can no longer do anyone any harm.

Toyol is a very famous ghost among Malay societies. The Toyol is believed to be a dead baby that has been revived through some demonic ritual. This small creature, which serves the person who has revived it, is said to be green in colour with red eyes and feeds on small amounts of blood.  The Toyol is also believed to be somewhat mischievous and will suck on the big toes of a sleeping person. If commanded to steal, it will only take half of the victim’s treasure. 

Chinese culture has many types of ghosts, many of whom have a history so long that the influenced other Asian cultures and their beliefs. Jiang shi is not a ghost in the traditional sense because it’s actually vampire, but not in the traditional sense of the word “vampire” because it’s actually a zombie, but not in the traditional sense of being a zombie. It is, however, just a traditional piece of folktale.