There are many things in this world that people haven't been able to explain, and for generations, they looked toward fetishes and totems for protection from outside forces, maintaining connections to ancestors, and, in some cases, trapping vengeful spirits to keep them from coming in the night. The faith humanity has in fetishes provides a fascinating view into our beliefs, fears, and thoughts on the unexplainable world around us.
10. Kuman Thong
In 2012, a British man was arrested after he was found with what was possibly one of the most grisly finds that anyone in a security uniform has ever made. He was in possession of six human fetuses, which he'd bought in Thailand. He was taking the fetuses to Taiwan with hopes of selling them for far more than their purchase price.
The demand—and high purchase price—for the fetuses is due the belief in the kuman thong. Meaning "golden child," kuman thong are effigies, charms, or fetishes that are thought to contain the spirit of a child, which will protect the home from evil. Some of the oldest manuscripts detailing the procedure for creating one of these totems involves rituals that need to be performed in a predawn cemetery and end with covering the roasted remains of a baby in gold leaf. (The kuman thong pictured above isn't real.)
Strangely, it's a tradition that we know got its start in a work of fiction. The 19th-century story of Khun Phaen tells of a man who marries the daughter of a sorcerer. Khun Phaen and his father-in-law have a falling out, and he learns that his pregnant wife has taken the side of her father and plans to poison him. Overcome with rage, he cuts the baby out of his wife's womb, roasts it over a temple fire, and finds that he can talk to the spirit of the baby.
Today, most kuman thong are wooden children, but even they have a dark side. Because the kuman thong relies on violence for its power, the preferred wood from which to carve one comes from a demolished Buddhist temple. Less frequently, but more horribly, they're made from real babies. In 2010, a Buddhist monastery was found to be in possession of 348 fetuses sourced from abortion clinics. While some prayed for the souls of the dead, others wanted to know if they were going to be made into kuman thong—roasted, lacquered, and covered in gold leaf.
9. Dogu
No one is quite sure what the purpose of the dogus was, but with many of them being found in graves or apparently broken on purpose, they clearly had a strong, ritualistic importance for those who made them. While they're said to be proof of an ancient alien race by a certain portion of the population, their more earthly explanations are no less fascinating.
The oldest dogu date back to the Jomon period of Japanese history, from 12,500—300 BC. The clay figures are abstract depictions of humans or animals, but there's often no doubt as to just who or what they're supposed to represent. Three of them are designated as National Treasures of Japan, and thousands—somewhere around 18,000, to be precise—have been found. The clay figures come in all shapes and sizes, from 1-meter-tall (3 ft) statues to figures that can fit in the palm of your hand. Some are thought to depict a woman in childbirth, some have distinct, heart-shaped faces, and some wear masks. This diversity is part of the problem when it comes to figuring out what they were used for. According to the British Museum, it's likely that each one had its own particular use.
They were likely clay forms of spirits that were worshiped by the Jomon. They were protectors of pregnant women and children or guides that were buried with the dead to see them on their way to the afterlife. A huge number of them have been recovered broken into pieces, thought to have been done on purpose as part of some kind of ritual. While it's unlikely that we'll ever really know what they meant to the people that created them, we can still appreciate them for their beauty.
