A nocturnal being seen as a woman's head drifting through the dark with luminous organs suspended beneath it. Names and origins vary across borders ? krasue in Thailand, ahp in Cambodia, kasu in Laos ? and no single national version owns the tradition.
By day the being may appear as an ordinary person; by night the head separates and searches near houses, livestock, and places associated with birth or blood. Film and television have made the floating anatomy visually fixed, but oral accounts remain more flexible. The archive cross-references the krasue with the Malaysian penanggalan and Philippine manananggal while preserving them as distinct traditions.