Tiyanak traditions and modern Philippine retellings

Record summary

Tiyanak is a Philippine childlike or infant spirit often said to imitate a baby’s cries, lure adults, and reveal a monstrous or transformed appearance. Versions connect the figure to unbaptized children, infant death, indigenous spirit categories, and later Catholic reinterpretation. It provides a useful comparison with Southeast Asian child-stealing or deceptive-child beings and with the moral use of uncanny cries. Sources differ sharply according to region and religious framework, so researchers should separate precolonial claims, Christian demonization, literary folklore, and recent horror productions.