Mae Nak is a spirit of Thai tradition.
The faithful dead woman who becomes a deadly danger out of love.
Mae Nak is Thailand’s most famous spirit: the young woman who died in childbirth together with her newborn while her husband Mak was away at war. Out of love she returns, apparently continuing to run the household unchanged, and greets him on his return as though nothing had happened.
Her story bears the name Mae Nak Phra Khanong, named after the district on the canal of the same name in Bangkok, where it is set in the mid-19th century. Nak died in childbirth, together with her child, and thus belongs to the Phi Tai Hong, the spirits of violent or premature death.
What sets her apart from an ordinary vengeful spirit is the relentlessness of her love: she tolerates no separation from Mak and kills anyone who tries to reveal to him the truth of her death.
Type: Vengeful spirit and faithful dead woman, the most famous representative of the Phi Tai Hong
Origin: Thai ghost story about a woman who died in childbirth in the district of Phra Khanong
Texts: oral and literary versions of the legend, together with the studies of Anuman Rajadhon and McDaniel
Period: story set in the mid-19th century, still alive today
Appearance: a beautiful young woman with her infant, deceptively lifelike to her husband
The legend is regarded as Thailand’s best-known ghost story; its core is set in the 19th century and continues to be carried on today through oral tradition, cult practice and cinema.
Thailand, centred on Bangkok: the story is closely tied to the district of Phra Khanong on the canal of the same name, where her shrine still stands today.
Good: a living cult at Wat Mahabut and a wide reception in film support the tradition, together with the studies of McDaniel and Anuman Rajadhon.
Thai: Mae is a respectful title for a woman or mother, Nak is her given name: Mae Nak roughly means Mother Nak. The full title of the story, Mae Nak Phra Khanong, adds the name of the district in which it is set.
Appearance
Mae Nak appears as a beautiful young woman with her infant in her arms, deceptively lifelike to her husband. Only a supernatural sign exposes her: in the most famous scene of the legend, her arm stretches unnaturally to reach a lime that has fallen beneath the house.
Effect
As a spirit, Mae Nak keeps her household running and wards off any separation from her husband. She kills neighbours and others who try to reveal the truth of her death to him. Her love is thus both protective and deadly.
The key aspects of the faithful dead woman at a glance.
The most famous representative of the Phi Tai Hong, the Thai spirits of violent or premature death.
Her husband Mak and anyone who tries to reveal to him the truth of her death.
A beautiful young woman with her child, outwardly alive, until a supernatural sign such as the stretched arm gives her away.
Domestic protection and deadly jealousy at once: she keeps the household running and kills to preserve her secret.
Monastic rites and consecrated water are said to bind the spirit; her shrine at Wat Mahabut is still asked for aid today.
As a Phi Tai Hong, she shares her origin in violent death with the Malay Pontianak.
The name Mae Nak, meaning Mother Nak, belongs to the story of Mae Nak Phra Khanong, named after the district of Phra Khanong on the canal of the same name in Bangkok, where the story is set in the 19th century. Nak died giving birth while her husband Mak was away at war; when he returns home, he finds her and the child apparently alive, without suspecting that both are spirits.
As a type, Mae Nak belongs to the Phi Tai Hong, the spirits of violent or premature death, here in the particular form of the woman who died in childbirth. In Thailand her story is regarded as a paradigm of this bad, unredeemed death and, at the same time, as a paradigm of marital fidelity beyond the grave.
Mae Nak is the core material of Thai horror cinema. The film Nang Nak of 1999, directed by Nonzee Nimibutr, was the first Thai film to gross over a hundred million baht and is regarded as a milestone of the Thai New Wave. Her shrine in Bangkok remains a living place of pilgrimage today.
From the perspective of religious studies, Mae Nak links belief in the bad, violent and premature death in childbirth with the Buddhist path of redemption through monastic rites. She also shows how a feared spirit can become a venerated protective figure with her own shrine.
In Buddhist tradition, Mae Nak is finally exorcised by a powerful monk who binds her spirit; according to one tradition, a piece of her forehead bone is set into an amulet to control her power. Her shrine at Wat Mahabut still stands today, where believers ask for aid; incense burning and offerings are part of her veneration there. Generally, monastic rites, holy water and amulets are regarded as ways of dealing with a person who died a violent death.
Mae Nak is the most famous representative of the Phi Tai Hong, the Thai spirits of violent death. As a woman who died in childbirth, she is related to the Malay Pontianak and Langsuir as well as the Indian Churel, all of whom arise from death in childbirth.
Why does Mae Nak kill, even though she returns out of love?
She tolerates no separation from her husband and kills those who try to reveal to him the truth of her death.
How does her husband realise she is a spirit?
Through a supernatural sign: her arm stretches unnaturally to pick up a lime that has fallen beneath the house.
How is Mae Nak exorcised?
By a powerful monk; her venerated shrine at Wat Mahabut still stands today.
Recommended internal links:
Further standard works in the bibliography.
As the woman who died in childbirth of Mae Nak Phra Khanong, Mae Nak remains the model of marital fidelity beyond death: loving and deadly at once, until a monk finally brings her to rest.
Against its influence, cross-cultural tradition names these protective means:
Compare in the Protection Compass →Recommended protective means
The simplest protective means in this collection: 41 layers of fine gold 999, platinum, silver and silicon, manufactured in Ruhla, Thuringia. It requires no activation, is bound to no person, and is effective within a radius of around 50 meters, even without being worn.
Umm al-Duwais, the seductive djinniya of Gulf folklore. Origin, the fragrance motif and the class...
Caipora, the mistress of the forest and of the animals of the Tupi. Origin, riding the peccary, t...
Lurking devourer of hope, protective amulet formulas against Rabisu and its role in Mesopotamian ...
Gwishin, spirits of the dead in Korean tradition. Return from unfinished business: classes, rites...
Bael in the Goetia: Phoenician background, three-headed iconography, the Lemegeton tradition and ...
Aranyani, the Vedic goddess of the forest and forest animals. Origin in the Rigveda, the ankle be...
