A pocong is an Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n/Malaysian ghost

Ghost

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

 that is said to be the soul of a dead person trapped in their suit. The pocong suit (shroud

Shroud

Shroud usually refers to an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to burial sheets, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the famous Shroud of Turin or Tachrichim that Jews are dressed in for burial...

, in Indonesia/Malaysia also known as kain kafan) is used by Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

s to cover the body of the dead person. They cover the dead body with white fabric and tie the clothing over the head

Head

In anatomy, the head of an animal is the rostral part that usually comprises the brain, eyes, ears, nose and mouth . Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilaterally symmetric forms do....

, under the feet, and on the neck

Neck

The neck is the part of the body, on many terrestrial or secondarily aquatic vertebrates, that distinguishes the head from the torso or trunk. The adjective signifying "of the neck" is cervical .-Boner anatomy: The cervical spine:The cervical portion of the human spine comprises seven boney...

. According to the native beliefs, the soul of a dead person will stay on the earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 for 40 days after the death. When the ties aren't released after 40 days, the body is said to jump out from the grave to warn people that the soul need the bonds to be released. After the ties are released, the soul will leave the earth and never show up anymore. Because of the tie under the feet, the ghost can't walk. This causes the pocong to hop.

Pocong in Modern Culture

Pocongs often appear in religion-based movies or TV serials. In the early 2000s, TV stations in Indonesia purported to capture ghost appearances with their cameras and put the records on a specific show of their own. In these shows, the pocong appearances could be seen very often, along with the kuntilanak. There was also a movie with the title "Pocong", which was banned and disturbed in French and German DVD due to the scary scenes. Not long after it was banned, the director created a sequel less horrible but about the same story, Pocong 2 (2006). Other stories Pocong 3(2007), The Real Pocong (2009), 40 Hari Bangkitnya Pocong (2008) were introduced in the movie series in theaters in Indonesia. But, started with movie " Pocong Jumat Kliwon ", the Pocong movies directed by successful director Nayato Fio Nuala is now horror-comedy, recently, a new horror-comedy with Pocong is been maked by female director Chiska Doppert ( who also Nayato's former partner ), the title was " Poconggg Juga Pocong "