The Aswang: A Guide to the Ancient Filipino Monster

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Explore this creature's variations, powers, abilities & weaknesses

Co-authored by Elaine Heredia, BA

Last Updated: November 18, 2025 Fact Checked

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What is an aswang?

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Types

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Powers & Abilities

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Weaknesses

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History

People who grew up with Filipino culture may remember being told scary tales of an evil creature called an aswang when they were kids. The aswang is a myth, meant to scare children into obeying their parents and staying out of trouble. But what exactly is it, and what makes it so frightening? Come with us to find the answer, as well as to learn about the types of aswang, their powers and abilities, and their fatal weaknesses.

Aswang Meaning

Aswang (ahs-wahng) is a Filipino catchall term for blood-sucking, flesh-eating demons. The 5 main types of aswang are the vampire, the viscera sucker, the shapeshifter, the sorcerer, and the ghoul. They all feed on either humans or animals, and some of them disguise themselves as people to gain access to their prey.

Section 1 of 5:

What is an aswang?

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It can appear in many different forms, depending on the story and the person telling it. Its 5 main forms are the vampire, the shapeshifter, the viscera sucker, the sorcerer, and the ghoul. The one thing they all have in common is a taste for human blood and flesh, dead or alive. According to some sources, they tend to prey on pregnant women and children the most. But there are also tales of them sucking blood from men, too.^{[1]
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Section 2 of 5:

Different Types of Aswang

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The vampire aswang sucks the blood out of victims' bodies with a proboscis-like tongue, similar to how some insects eat nectar. It's known for disguising itself as a beautiful woman and living in human communities. In some cases, the vampire even marries a man and then slowly sucks the lifeblood out of him over time.^{[2]
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The shapeshifter aswang can turn itself into any kind of beast. Also sometimes called a werebeast, it can turn into a dog, a cat, or another innocent-looking animal. This allows it to infiltrate human villages, where it attacks, kills, and eats unsuspecting folk.^{[3]
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Viscera sucker Like the vampire, the viscera sucker aswang disguises itself as a beautiful woman by day. But by night, it separates the upper half of its body from its lower half, sprouts wings, and flies off in search of victims. It enjoys eating internal organs, which it sucks from human bodies with its proboscis-like tongue. When it takes on its monstrous form, it hides the lower half of its body. If a human finds it and can prevent the aswang from rejoining its halves before sunrise, some sources say, it will die.^{[4]
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- Did you know? Another name for the viscera sucker variant of the aswang is manananggal. This is a word in Tagalog (the official native language of the Philippines) meaning "remover" or "separator."
Some aswang do black magic to further their evil ends. Some sources say they can cast curses, turn invisible, and create duplicates of their victims. This way, their fellow villagers won't suspect that an aswang stole them away.
Ghoul aswang enjoy feeding on humans and beasts that are already dead. Some sources say they dig corpses out of graves to try to satisfy their ravenous appetite. They tend not to prey on the living or shapeshift, like the other aswang variants do. They also tend to resemble corpses themselves. Their bodies are gray and lifeless-looking, with long fangs and fingernails.

Section 3 of 5:

Aswang Powers & Abilities

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Aswang are best known for their ability to shapeshift, which is essential for their survival. By making themselves look like humans or animals, they can settle into a community and gain access to a nearly endless supply of blood or internal organs.
According to some sources, an aswang can enter and possess human bodies. This makes it easier for them to harm or kill another person (or people) without revealing what they really are.
As supernatural beings, aswang have extraordinary strength and agility. They're much stronger and faster than normal humans, which better equips them to hunt and subdue their prey.

Section 4 of 5:

Aswang Weaknesses

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Aswang don't die from sun exposure like Western European vampires do (think Count Dracula). But they're still more vulnerable during the day. The sun is also key to defeating a viscera sucker, which will die if it's unable to reunite with its lower half before dawn.
One characteristic the aswang shares with Western European vampires is an aversion to garlic and salt. These are great ingredients to scatter around your home to repel aswang. Legend says you can also sprinkle garlic and salt on a viscera sucker's lower half. This prevents them from fusing their top half with it again.
Like most evil creatures, aswang hate anything to do with God or symbols of Christianity. This means they can't set foot on religious grounds, like a church, or touch holy objects, like the cross. If they do, they'll die.

Section 5 of 5:

History of the Aswang

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The aswang has been a terrifying icon in Filipino folklore for centuries. In the 1500s, the Spanish arrived in the Philippines to colonize the islands. Their writings about their time there contain the first literary description of the aswang. They noted that the native Filipinos feared the aswang more than all the other monsters in their mythology.
- The word aswang may come from the Sanskrit word for "demon." Some sources speculate that the Sanskrit word asura, meaning "demon," came to the Philippines through traders from India. Aswang could also be a variation of the Tagalog word asu-asuan, meaning "likeness of a dog."
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The Spanish used the aswang to erode the Filipinos' trust in their religion. As part of their efforts to conquer the Philippines in the 1500s, the Spaniards purposely associated the aswang with the local babaylans. The babaylans were mostly female shamans, healers, and spiritual guides for their communities. The Spaniards did this to demonize the natives' religion and increase conversions to Christianity.^{[5]
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CIA agents used the aswang myth to fight communism. During the Cold War, members of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) killed communist rebels in the Philippines and pierced their necks. The neck wounds were meant to imply that an aswang had murdered them. The purpose of this fantasy was to scare the rebels into giving up their territory. It was also designed to convince the locals not to support the rebels, since they were always the alleged aswang's targets.^{[6]
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The aswang has evolved into a cautionary tale for children. As time went on, the aswang became more of a folk tale than something adults actually believed in. Eventually, parents and grandparents began using it to scare children into behaving properly. They would warn them that the aswang would come take them away if they didn't obey!
- Do people still believe in the aswang? Most people no longer think that the aswang is real. However, some older Filipino communities still believe that it's a real and legitimate threat.