Hungry Ghost

Hungry Ghosts are eternally vexed by hunger and always tormented. Their arms and legs are like skeletons, and their hairs are long and bristly and sharp as knives. Their mouth or throats are as narrow as a needle’s eye, preventing their large round belly from ever being filled. Some hungry ghosts resort to devouring fire or tearing and eating their own flesh or the flesh of a dead body, but they are not able to swallow any of it due to their narrow mouths. These frightful ghosts can be found in the chambers of hell, sometimes in the mountains, valleys, or even some cities - they constantly wander about in search of food.

 

One can become a hungry ghost in a myriad of ways. In Buddhist thought, hungry ghosts are the result of an unhappy life, death by suicide, a life of crime, or immoral judgment. Hungry Ghosts can also be the dead who aren’t cared for.

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Before the arrival of Buddhism, the popular conception of the origin of hungry ghosts was not related to strong moral or ethical values. The belief of hungry ghosts was already in existence as early as the 3rd century BCE; they were listed as common ghosts. Early illustrations of hungry ghosts are the idea of a person who had died of hunger. 

 

In early Chinese thought, hungry ghosts are the reflection of the condition of the ghost at the time of death.