What is the sundel bolong? The ghost with a hole in her back
The long-haired ghost in white, told apart by the hole in her back — a woman who died in childbirth or was wronged, sometimes pictured carrying a baby.
5 min read · Published 28 August 2026
The short answer
The sundel bolong is a female ghost of Indonesian folklore, pictured as a woman with long black hair and a white dress and distinguished by a bolong, a hole, in her back. In most tellings she is the spirit of a woman who died in childbirth or who was wronged in life, and she is sometimes depicted carrying a baby. She is closely related to the kuntilanak and often confused with her, the hole in the back being her clearest distinguishing mark. Like the other female ghosts of the region, her story turns on a death felt to be unjust or incomplete. Details and origin vary by telling.
What the sundel bolong is
The sundel bolong is one of the female ghosts at the centre of Indonesian folklore, and her name points to her signature. She appears, in most tellings, as a woman with long black hair and a flowing white dress — an image she shares with the kuntilanak — but she carries one unmistakable mark: a bolong, a hole, in her back.
In popular depiction the hole is often hidden by her long hair, which falls down her back and conceals it until it is seen. That reveal — the beautiful woman from the front, the wound from behind — is the core of how she is imagined, and it is what sets her apart in a folklore crowded with pale, long-haired women in white.
The hole in her back
The hole is the sundel bolong's defining feature and the source of her name. Exactly what it is, and how she came by it, differs across tellings — accounts vary, and it is more honest to say so than to fix a single explanation. What is consistent is its function in the stories: it is the sign that marks her as sundel bolong rather than as any other white-clad ghost, and the shock of it is central to her appearances.
Because the hair conceals the hole, the sundel bolong plays on a particular kind of dread — the ordinary that turns wrong when you see it from the other side. This is folklore's economy at work: a single, specific, physical detail that carries the whole weight of the figure and makes her instantly recognisable.
A woman wronged, and the baby
Like the kuntilanak, the sundel bolong is bound up with a death felt to be unjust or incomplete. In many tellings she is the spirit of a woman who died in childbirth; in others, of a woman who was wronged in life — betrayed, abused, or driven to a bad end — and who returns unsettled. The two threads often braid together, and which one a given telling emphasises varies by region and by storyteller.
From the childbirth origin comes another common image: the sundel bolong carrying a baby. In some stories she is seen cradling an infant, a detail that ties her directly to the loss of a mother and child and deepens the pathos beneath the fright. As with all of this, the versions differ, and the figure is richer for being told many ways rather than one.
The sundel bolong at a glance
- Appearance. A woman with long black hair and a white dress.
- Signature mark. A hole (bolong) in her back, often hidden by her hair.
- Origin. Commonly a woman who died in childbirth or was wronged in life.
- Sometimes. Pictured carrying a baby.
- Nearest relative. The kuntilanak, with whom she is often confused.
Sundel bolong and the kuntilanak
The sundel bolong and the kuntilanak are the two great female ghosts of Indonesian folklore, and they are so alike — long hair, white dress, a death tied to childbirth or wrong — that popular retellings routinely blur them. The clearest way to tell them apart is the hole: the sundel bolong has it, and it is her defining mark, while the kuntilanak's identity turns instead on her banana tree, her frangipani scent and her deceptive cry.
The overlap is not a mistake to be corrected so much as a feature of a living folklore, where figures share traits, cross over, and shift names from region to region. Both belong to a wider cast that includes the pocong and the genderuwo, and the family resemblances among them are part of what makes the tradition feel whole rather than a list of separate monsters.
Her place in Indonesian folklore
The sundel bolong is a familiar presence in Indonesian popular culture, especially horror cinema, where her reveal — the hair drawn aside, the hole shown — is a set piece audiences know well. That visibility keeps her current, a shared reference as much as a scare.
Beneath the imagery she carries the same humane weight as her sister-ghosts: an old grief over women lost to childbirth and over lives ended by injustice, given a form that refuses to be forgotten. Held at that level, she is less a monster than a memory that will not settle — which is the spirit in which this tradition is best understood.
Common questions
- What is a sundel bolong?
- A sundel bolong is a female ghost of Indonesian folklore, pictured as a woman with long black hair and a white dress and distinguished by a hole, or bolong, in her back. In most tellings she is the spirit of a woman who died in childbirth or was wronged in life, and she is sometimes shown carrying a baby.
- What is the difference between a sundel bolong and a kuntilanak?
- Both are female ghosts with long hair and white dresses tied to deaths in childbirth, and they are often confused. The clearest difference is the hole in the sundel bolong's back, her defining mark, whereas the kuntilanak is identified instead by her banana tree, her frangipani scent and her deceptive cry. Accounts vary and the two figures overlap.
- Why does the sundel bolong have a hole in her back?
- The hole, the bolong, is her defining feature and the source of her name, usually hidden by her long hair until it is revealed. Exactly what it is and how she came by it differs across tellings, and accounts vary, but its role is consistent: it marks her out from the other white-clad ghosts of the same folklore.
- Is the sundel bolong the same as a ghost that carries a baby?
- In some tellings, yes. Because she is often the spirit of a woman who died in childbirth, the sundel bolong is sometimes pictured cradling an infant, a detail that ties her to the loss of both mother and child. This is one common version among several, and depictions differ by region and storyteller.