Vampires?

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MatthewAngby
Posts: 313
Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2017 9:51 am

Vampires?

Post by MatthewAngby »

    are there any vampires in Buddhism. The ones that we see in movies like fright night , the Victorian themed vampires with their royal masquerades . Do they belong to any of the 8 classes of non human beings or are they something else?
    Sentient Light
    Posts: 374
    Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2016 8:40 pm
    Location: San Francisco, California

    Re: Vampires?

    Post by Sentient Light »

    Most historians, I believe, posit that western vampire lore manifested from observations of a particular kind (or multiple different kinds) of disease/infection that simulates some of the mythic symptoms.

    There are "Chinese vampires", but this is just a weird English translation for the folklore entity described, which is far closer to being like a western revenant than a western vampire. In general, Asia does have its fair share of "undead" creatures in its various folklores, but nothing that really resembles western vampires by any stretch of imagination, and I don't think that the undead--assuming for the moment these things might actually exist in some form--actually qualify as sentient beings in samsara. Most of the creatures I'm aware of are more like automated re-animations of bodies, typically under the control of a sorcerer/witch doctor/whatever you wanna call it.
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