Some material on this page also appears in, and is taken from, Chapter 648 of the Orange Book of the Kristang people.
In Kristang, the personification of death equivalent to the Grim Reaper in the West is called Sinyorang Morti in Kristang or Death Themselves in English, and appears in the form of a cowboy or gunslinger, usually with a techno-organic, Creole-Indigenous or cyberpunk skull for a face and/or a hybridised techno-organic or cyberpunk skeleton for a body, not unlike Ghost Rider from the Marvel comics universe, General Grievous from Star Wars and the Terminator units from the Terminator franchise.
Death Themselves is a four-dimensional entity or eleidi, so in Kristang the fourth-person pronouns ela or eletu are used to talk about Death, while in English the first-letter-capitalised forms of the third-person pronouns They and Them are used to talk about Death. Sinyorang Morti is traditionally kadmang, androgynous or non-binary in Kristang.
One of the primary aspirational elements in Kristang culture, identity and individuation is to build a strong positive relationship with Sinyorang Morti such that one is able to gradually reduce one’s fear of death, and to be able to process the death of other loved ones as well as part of one’s individuation.
Sinyorang Morti therefore is not inherently a threatening figure in Kristang, and is also seen as a symbol of symbolic or ego-death and of personal transformation. Kabesa of the Kristang and/or other very individuated people in the community also often adopt the role and/or attire of Sinyorang Morti as a cowboy, cowgirl or cowhand as a means of helping others process ego-death and/or individuate.
