<P> The Malaysian Penanggalan is a woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklore to be dark or demonic in nature . She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women . Malaysians hung jeruju (thistles) around the doors and windows of houses, hoping the Penanggalan would not enter for fear of catching its intestines on the thorns . The Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore of Indonesia . A Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia, or Pontianak or Langsuir in Malaysia, is a woman who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorising villages . She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered a hole in the back of her neck, with which she sucked the blood of children . Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off . Corpses had their mouths filled with glass beads, eggs under each armpit, and needles in their palms to prevent them from becoming langsuir . This description would also fit the Sundel Bolongs . </P> <P> Jiangshi, sometimes called "Chinese vampires" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence (qì) from their victims . They are said to be created when a person's soul (魄 pò) fails to leave the deceased's body . Jiang shi are usually represented as mindless creatures with no independent thought . This monster has greenish - white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses . Jiangshi legends have inspired a genre of jiangshi films and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia . Films like Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Mr. Vampire were released during the jiangshi cinematic boom of the 1980s and 1990s . </P> <P> In modern fiction, the vampire tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic villain . Despite the general disbelief in vampiric entities, occasional sightings of vampires are reported . Vampire hunting societies still exist, but they are largely formed for social reasons . Allegations of vampire attacks swept through Malawi during late 2002 and early 2003, with mobs stoning one person to death and attacking at least four others, including Governor Eric Chiwaya, based on the belief that the government was colluding with vampires . </P> <P> In early 1970 local press spread rumours that a vampire haunted Highgate Cemetery in London . Amateur vampire hunters flocked in large numbers to the cemetery . Several books have been written about the case, notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who was among the first to suggest the existence of the "Highgate Vampire" and who later claimed to have exorcised and destroyed a whole nest of vampires in the area . In January 2005, rumours circulated that an attacker had bitten a number of people in Birmingham, England, fuelling concerns about a vampire roaming the streets . Local police stated that no such crime had been reported and that the case appears to be an urban legend . </P>

How do they become vampires in true blood