Чурель: Мифы и легенды о женских духах Южной и Юго-Восточной Азии

Female spirit in South and South East Asia
The Churel, also spelled as Charail, Churreyl, Chudail, Chudel, Chuṛail, Cuḍail or Cuḍel (, ), is a mythical or legendary creature resembling a woman, which may be a demoniacal revenant said to occur in South Asia and Southeast Asia, particularly popular in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. The churel is typically described as "the ghost of an unpurified living thing", but because she is often said to latch on to trees, she is also called a tree spirit. According to some legends, a woman who dies very cruely will come back as a revenant churel for revenge, particularly targeting the males in her family. The churel is mostly described as extremely ugly and hideous but is able to shape shift and disguise herself as a beautiful woman to lure men into the woods or mountains where she either kills them or sucks up their life force or virility, turning them into old men. Their feet are believed to be turned the other way around, so the toes face the direction of their back. There are many folk remedies and folkloric sayings that elaborate on how to get rid of revenant and ghostly churels, and a number of measures that supposedly prevent churels from coming to life. The family of a woman who dies a traumatic, tragic, or unnatural death might perform special rituals fearing that the victimised woman might return as a churel. The corpses of suspected churels are also buried in a particular method and posture so as to prevent her from returning. The churel is known as the Pichal Peri in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan, Petni/Shakchunni in the Bengal region, and Pontianak in Malaysia and Indonesia. The word "churel" is also often used colloquially or mistakenly for a witch in India and Pakistan. Churel have remained prevalent in modern day literature, cinema, television, and radio, with many references to their activities. There may still be reports of sightings in rural regions in South East Asia.

The Legend of Churel supposedly originated from Persia where they were described as being the spirits of women who died with "grossly unsatisfied desires". In South East Asia, the Churel is the ghost of a woman who either died during childbirth, while she was pregnant, or during the prescribed "period of impurity". The period of impurity is a common superstition in India where a woman is said to be impure during her period and the twelve days after she has given birth. According to some sources, in India, if a woman dies an unnatural death or during childbirth, especially during Diwali, she will become a Churel. The Kharwars think that when the soul leaves the body, it becomes air but if it comes in contact with a person, the soul becomes troublesome. In western India especially Gujarat, any woman who dies an unnatural death is believed to turn into a Churel, also known as , , , and Originally, it was believed that only a low caste woman turns to a churel.

The true form of a Churel is described as extremely ugly with saggy breasts, a black tongue, and thick rough lips although sometimes she is reported to have no mouth at all. She may have a pot belly, claw like hands, and scruffy, long pubic like hair. They are also described to have pig faces with large fangs or human like faces with sharp tusks and long, wild hair. She is sometimes described as having a fair front and a black back, but she invariably has her feet turned backward. A Churel may also be a shape shifter. She can assume the form of a beautiful young woman, carrying a lantern with her head covered to charm any man she comes upon. The Petni/Shakchunni of West Bengal and Bangladesh wears traditional bangles made of shell (a sign of married women) and red and white sari. If the Churel was one who died due to ill treatment by family members, she avenges her early death by going for the males of her family, starting with the youngest. She would drain him of blood until he is shriveled up into an old man and then go for the next male. When all the males in her family are done, she moves on to other people. Any person who has seen a Churel can also be attacked by a deadly disease and those who answer to her night calls can end up dead. In the poem Lalla Radha and the Churel, a priest warns the protagonist to not go near the Peepul trees because that is where the Churel lives and she might take him away and kill him. He still went to the Peepul tree and she called out to him in a sweet tone and seduced him until he went to her. Blinded by his desire, he did not notice that while he lay with her, his body seemed to get frailer until he died in a state of ecstasy. In the guise of the enchantress, this femme fatale hunts for young men on highways and seduces the lone traveller to accompany her. Another tale narrates that a young man who is seduced by the churel and eats the food given to him, returns at dawn to the village, turned into an aged man. However, if a woman dies, the creation of a Churel can be still prevented and precautionary measures exist and are taken if a woman becomes one. In Tamil culture human priests gather and collectively propitiate her with offerings. In some villages, a Stonehenge like structure is used to ward off the Churel. The Churel also figures into children's literature (such as Thakurmar Jhuli [Bengali children literature]) and television series. In the Indian Bengali horror film Putuler Protishod (1998), a girl who is murdered by her in laws returns as a Churel to exact revenge. Netflix original film Bulbbul (2020) is a retelling of this legend which gives a fictional origin of Churel. But without depicting her as an antagonist, this film takes a more feminist approach by narrating the story in a different perspective. Bhoot FM, a live radio program aired by Bangladeshi radio channel Radio Foorti 88.0 FM was famous for sharing allegedly true paranormal stories. In that show, people from all over the country often called in to share their own stories of supernatural creatures and there have been several accounts of Churels