Ambirak - Associated with initiation and funerary rituals (known as the Emak Cem) performed by the Asmat people of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, these pterosaur-like shapeshifters are depicted in sculptures of the spirit canoes (or Wuramon) used in said rituals. Adolescent boys must endure several months of seclusion before crawling along these bottomless canoes, after which they will have sacred patterns carved into their bodies. They are thought to be the ghosts of ancient ancestors.
Advertisement