Ma (Vietnamese ghost)

There is no single cosmogonic origin for ma in the available sources; rather ma arise socially and morally from particular death circumstances and ritual failures. The literature and ethnographic summaries indicate that people who die away from home, violently or unnaturally, or who do not receive proper burial rites and offerings may become restless ma. Proper funerary rites and ongoing offerings transform such souls into venerated ancestors, while lack of ritual produces wandering 'hungry ghosts' that continue to seek what they lack.

Source material does not provide a single standardized visual description for ma; instead, ma are described as a lexical and cultural category encompassing diverse forms. The terms ma, hồn, vong, and bóng ma occupy overlapping semantic space for spirits and ghosts, and in folk stories, poetry, and diasporic literature ma appear variously rather than as a consistent corporeal archetype. In practice they are more importantly characterized by relational and ritual status than by fixed physical traits.

Ma are credited with agency in everyday life rather than cosmic powers. According to the surveyed sources, they can influence household prosperity and individual luck, interfere with families and dwellings, and be invoked in the activity of fortune-tellers and spirit mediums. Souls neglected by ritual become 'hungry ghosts,' described as supernatural thieves wandering the countryside. Families consult mediums to locate missing persons (for example missing soldiers), indicating ma can convey information about the dead. Ritual specialists are called upon to 'make ghosts leave,' showing ma can be negotiated with or expelled through ritual intervention.