Ba Jiao Gui (芭蕉鬼, “banana ghost”)

Region/Culture: East Asia
Mythos: Chinese Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Undead/Cursed Beings
Mythical Attributes: A female ghost bound to a banana tree who weeps beneath it at night and, when tormented into it, surrenders winning lottery numbers in exchange for her release.
Role in Mythos: She is a cautionary spirit of greed and broken promises, rewarding those who bargain with her and killing those who cheat her.
Relation to Humans: Humans seek her out deliberately, tying her to a banana tree to extract luck from her suffering. The exchange is dangerous, because anyone who takes her gift and then refuses to free her dies a terrible death.

The banana grove is the last place anyone wants to be after dark. The broad leaves hang heavy and damp, holding the moonlight in pale streaks, and the air beneath them is close and sweet with the smell of split fruit going soft. Somewhere among the trunks a woman is crying. Follow the sound and you find her standing beneath one particular tree, dressed in white, a baby held against her chest, her hair loose down her back. She does not turn around. People who claim to have seen her say that is the worst of it. She only waits for you to come close enough.

This is the Ba Jiao Gui, the banana ghost, and she has lingered in the wet groves of southern China for a very long time. When Chinese migrants carried their stories south into Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, she traveled with them, settling into the same broad-leaved trees that grow so easily in that heat. She is almost always a woman, and almost always grieving. The white gown she wears is the color of mourning in Chinese tradition, and in some tellings the gown is red instead, the color worn by those who die with a grievance they intend to settle. The infant in her arms is rarely explained. It is simply there, a small weight she will not put down.

No single story accounts for how she came to be. The most common explanation is that she is the spirit of a woman who suffered a great wrong in life and could not rest after death, a suicide or a victim whose anger outlasted her body. One regional tale is more specific and more grim: a woman set upon by bandits, killed, her body cut apart and buried under a banana tree, her ghost rising each night from the roots to drink the blood of the men who murdered her. The banana tree itself matters. Across Chinese, Japanese, and Ryukyuan folklore the plant is thought to draw spirits the way still water draws insects, a soft and shadowed thing that a wandering soul can slip inside and call home.

What she does most nights is nothing dramatic. She stands, she weeps, and she fills the grove with a dread that settles on anyone who wanders in, an unease that has no clear source and only grows the longer a person stays. That is the normal shape of her haunting, the thing she exists to do. The famous part, the part that turns up again and again in the lottery towns of Southeast Asia, is what happens when someone decides her grief can be made profitable.

The ritual is a small act of cruelty. A person who wants to get rich ties a length of red string around the trunk of her tree and drives a nail, or a fistful of sharp needles, into the wood to pin the string fast. The other end runs back to the gambler’s own bed. The nail bites into her. Held by the string and unable to free herself, she is said to come to the sleeper in the night, appearing at the side of the bed and begging for mercy, and the price of her release is a set of winning numbers. She pays. The gambler wins. And here the story always turns the same way. If the winner takes the money and never returns to pull the nail and loosen the string, the Ba Jiao Gui collects what she is owed in full, and the death she brings is neither quick nor kind. The bargain has no version where cheating her ends well.

Her powers are narrow but exact. She can see the numbers a desperate man cannot, and she can reach across a city by a thread of red string to deliver them. In the older, bloodier tales she leaves her tree to take vengeance directly on those who wronged her, draining them in the dark. Yet for all of that she is a captive of her own nature. She is bound to her banana tree and cannot stray far from it. She can be pinned and held by something as ordinary as a nail and a string, made to serve a stranger’s greed against her will. Her gift is real, but it is a debt, and the spirit who hands a fortune to the living keeps a careful account of what was promised in return. She is often compared to the Pontianak of Malay folklore, another beautiful, banana-haunting woman who died with sorrow unfinished, and the comparison holds. Both are women the world failed, waiting in the leaves for the world to come and find them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Ba Jiao Gui?

The Ba Jiao Gui, or “banana ghost,” is a female spirit in Chinese folklore who dwells inside a banana tree and appears wailing beneath it at night. She is usually described as a long-haired woman in a white or red gown, often holding a baby, and she is best known for granting winning lottery numbers to those who torment her into it.

How do people get lottery numbers from the Ba Jiao Gui?

A person ties a red string around the trunk of her banana tree and drives a nail or sharp needles into the wood to hold it fast, then runs the string back to their own bed. The pain and binding force the Ba Jiao Gui to appear at night and beg for release, and she pays for her freedom with winning numbers. The bargain only works if the gambler later returns to free her.

What happens if you cheat the Ba Jiao Gui?

If a person wins money using her numbers and then fails to keep their promise to set her free, the Ba Jiao Gui kills them, and the death is said to be horrible. The legend treats her as a spirit of greed and broken faith, so cheating her is the one sure way to come to a bad end.

Where does the Ba Jiao Gui come from?

She is most often said to be the spirit of a woman who died with an unanswered wrong, such as a suicide or a murder victim, who could not rest afterward. One vivid tale describes a woman killed by bandits and buried in pieces beneath a banana tree, her ghost rising each night to drink her killers’ blood. The banana tree is central, since folklore across East Asia holds that such trees attract and house wandering spirits.

Is the Ba Jiao Gui the same as the Pontianak?

No, but the two are closely related and often compared. The Ba Jiao Gui belongs to Chinese folklore, while the Pontianak comes from Malay tradition, yet both are vengeful female ghosts tied to banana trees who died carrying grief or injustice. Their shared imagery reflects how the banana ghost traveled and mingled with local spirits across Southeast Asia.