Indonesia’s supernatural shape-shifting boar demons – and why a village beheaded a wild pig
- Superstitious belief in the ‘babi ngepet’ is still widespread in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, especially on the island of Java
- Footage showing the supposed slaughter of one of these pig demon went viral recently. The man behind the hoax could now be jailed for 10 years
Superstitious beliefs are still common in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, where nearly 90 per cent of the 270 million population practises Islam and consider pigs unclean – with consumption of their meat haram (forbidden).
In the viral video, which has racked up more than 1.8 million views since it was first shared on April 28, a man later identified by the police as Adam Ibrahim can be seen telling a crowd of onlookers in Bedahan village how he and a group of others had caught the babi ngepet – but not before they all stripped naked, because it “could only be seen by naked people”.
He said the wild boar was a black magic user who had transformed his or her appearance to steal from others, and demanded that the person’s family come forward to answer for the beast’s “crimes”.
When, about a week later, no one had, Ibrahim cut the animal’s head off and buried it separate from its body – both to stop the two body parts magically fusing back together, and because the pig was purportedly shrinking and would soon “vanish”.