THAI GHOST 30/50 "MAE-NAK"

The story is about a beautiful young woman named Mae Nak, who lived on the banks of the Phra Khanong Canal, and her undying love for her husband, Mak.

With Mae Nak pregnant, Mak is conscripted and sent to war (in some versions of the story the war is against the Shan tribe, while others are not specific), where he is seriously wounded. While he is being nursed back to health in central Bangkok, Mae Nak and their child both die during a difficult childbirth. When Mak returns home, however, he finds his loving wife and child waiting for him. Neighbors who try to warn him that he is living with a ghost are all killed.

One day, as Mae Nak is preparing nam phrik, she drops a lime off the porch. In her haste to retrieve it, she stretches her arm to pick it up from the ground below. Mak sees it and at last realizes his wife is a ghost. Terrified, he tries to find a way to flee without alarming her.

That night, Mak says he has to go downstairs to urinate. He then runs away into the night.

Discovering her husband has fled, Mae Nak pursues him. Mak sees her and conceals himself behind a Blumea balsamifera (Thai: หนาด; pronounced Nat) bush. According to folklore, ghosts are afraid of the sticky Blumea leaves. Mak then runs to Wat Mahabut temple, which a ghost cannot enter, as it is holy ground.

In her grief, Mae Nak terrorizes the people of Phra Khanong, furious at them for causing Mak to leave her. However, Mae Nak's ghost is captured by a powerful exorcist. Confining her in an earthen jar, he throws it into the canal.

There are differing versions of the rest of the story. In one, an old couple new to Phra Khanong finds the jar while fishing; in another two fishermen dredge up the jar. Nak is freed when they opened it.

Mae Nak is conquered again by the venerable monk Somdet Phra Phutthachan (To Phrommarangsi). The learned monk confines her spirit in the bone of her forehead and binds it in his waistband. Legend says the waistband is currently in the possession of the royal family. Admiral Prince Abhakara Kiartivongse, Prince of Chumphon, also claimed to have had the relic. In an alternative version, the monk assured Mae Nak that in a future life she would be reunited with her beloved husband, and thus she voluntarily departed for the afterlife.

A shrine dedicated to Mae Nak is at Wat Mahabut. In 1997, the shrine was relocated to the nearby Suan Luang District of modern Bangkok.