Why you MUST NOT daw eyes on paper puppets

[skeletoncrew]

Hello fellow paranormal seekers, we are here to share with you paranormal stories from across Southeast Asia, and certain parts of Asia.

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Zhizha (纸扎| Zhǐ Zhā), or Taoist paper art, is used during Chinese funerals as part of a ritual to pay respect to the dead, by burning them as offerings. It serves as a medium of communication between the living and the dead.

Zhizha is also used to pay respect to the ghosts of the deceased.

The Chinese believe that the dead carry their wants and needs with them into the afterlife.

Such as the need for a house, food, cars, luxury items, just to name a few.

It is “delivered” to the underworld by incinerating physical possessions as offerings to the dead.

Along with the wants and needs of physical items and goods, human servants were not spared.

The offering of human sacrifice, by burning the servants who once served the deceased alive, was also part of the offering ritual. Servants would often perish along with their masters as human sacrifices. It is believed that the servants continue to serve their master in the underworld.

The act of offering human sacrifice and the burning of physical possessions was then replaced by its paper counterparts, such as Zhizha paper puppets, paper houses, paper cars, and even paper luxury items, that would serve as offerings to the dead.

Zhizha makers believed that eyes must not be drawn on the paper puppets. This is because they believe that the paper puppet would come to life if the eyes are drawn on them. They also believe that giving the paper puppets eyes attracts ghosts and spirits that would possess the paper doll.

Legend has it that a Zhizha maker’s grandson had playfully drawn eyes on the paper puppets. It was believed that an evil spirit had possessed the paper puppet, and many supernatural occurrences soon followed. Fortunately, nothing seriously bad had happened, as the Zhizha maker decided to enshrine the paper puppet for three days, and three nights, followed by burning the paper puppet along with Hell Notes as offerings in order to exorcise the spirit that possessed the paper puppet.