Mae Nak Phra Khanong (Thai: แม่นาคพระโขนง, meaning "Lady Nak of Phra Khanong"), or simply Mae Nak (Thai: แม่นาค, "Lady Nak") or Nang Nak (Thai: นางนาค, "Miss Nak"), is a well known and popular Thai ghost. Local folklore claims that this story is based on actual events that took place during the 19th century.
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According to tradition, the events happened during the reign of King Mongkut. The story is about a beautiful young woman named Nak, who lived by the Phra Khanong canal in Bangkok, and her husband, Mak.
With Nak pregnant, Mak is called off to war (in some versions of the story the war is against the Shan tribe, while others are not specific), and is severely injured. While he is being nursed in central Bangkok, both Nak and the child she is carrying die during childbirth. When Mak eventually returns home, however, he is cast under a spell and finds his loving wife and his new child waiting for him and nothing wrong. Neighbors, who try to tell Mak of the death of his wife and to warn him that he is living with ghost, meet with grisly ends.
One day, while Nak is preparing nam phrik, she drops a lime down to the cellar. In her haste, she extends her arm to pick the lemon from the upper floor through the floor's hole, not knowing that Mak saw the whole event. Terrified, he realizes she is a ghost, and tries to find a way to flee without her becoming aware.
At night, Mak lies to Nak by saying that he wants to get out to the lower floor of the house to urinate. He then breaks a little hole in an earthen jar which is filled with water, so that Nak will think that he is urinating, and runs away into the night.
After discovering her husband's leaving, Nak pursues him. Mak sees his wife's ghost and conceals himself behind a Blumea balsamifera (Nat; หนาด) bush.[1] According to Thai folklore, ghosts are afraid of the sticky Blumea leaves. Mak then runs from there to the temple of Wat Mahabut, where Nak cannot enter the holy area.
In grief and despair Nak terrorizes the people of Phra Khanong, venting her anger towards them for helping Mak to leave her. Eventually, Nak's ghost is bound by a powerful exorcist. After confining her within an earthen jar, he throws it into the canal.
There are several versions of the story at this point. In one, an old couple who are new residents to Phra Khanong find the pot containing Nak's ghost while fishing, while in another it is two fishermen of unknown age and origin who dredge up the pot. Nak is then unwittingly freed by the people who found the jar.
Following her release, Nak is suppressed again, in a more thorough manner, by the venerable monk, Somdet Phra Phutthachan (To Phrommarangsi). Again there are several versions of the story at this point. In one of them, the monk confines her within the bone of her corpse's forehead, and binds that piece of her skull within his waistband; legend tells that this waistband has passed through the hands of various persons and is currently in the possession of the royal family. In another version the monk foretells that in a future life Nak will be reunited with her husband, and so the ghost voluntarily leaves this world for the afterlife.
Mae Nak's story is popular because her true love and devotion for Mak inspires many people.
There is a shrine dedicated to Mae Nak at Wat Mahabut. In 1997 the shrine relocated to nearby Suan Luang district.
Anek Nawikamul, a Thai historian, did a research on this story, and found a newspaper article from Siam Praphet written by K.S.R. Kularb dated March 10, 1899. The article claimed that the story of Mae Nak was based on a story of Amdaeng Nak (อำแดงนาก, "Miss Nak"), the daughter of Tambon Phra Khanong leader named Khun Si. Nak died when she was pregnant. Her children worried that their father (Nak's husband) will remarry and their inheritance will be shared with their step-mother, so they made up the ghost story and threw rocks to passing boats, etc. to make people believe that Nak's ghost was there. The article also suggested that Nak's husband was not named "Mak," but rather "Chum."
The shrine of Mae Nak is located by the Phra Khanong canal, at Wat Mahabut, a large temple down a small soi (side road) off Sukhumvit soi 77, also known as On nut Road.
The easiest way to get there is to take the Sukhumvit line of the BTS Skytrain to On Nut, then backtrack a short way until reaching On nut Road, intersecting with Sukhumvit on the north side of the road.
About 1 km down On nut road, on the left, there is a small lane signposted as soi 7. Wat Mahabut and the Mae Nak shrine are at the end of the lane, with the shrine at the far side of the larger temple compound near the canal known as Klong Phra Khanong. It is also possible to reach the temple by boat via the canal.
The shrine consists of a low building under large trees with a roofing that encompasses the tree trunks. The main shrine has a number of minor shrines surrounding it. There is a wide fenced area around the shrine with a gate towards the Wat Mahabut temple compound and another more elaborate roofed gate facing the canal.
In addition to adorning the statue of Mae Nak and her baby, which forms the centerpiece of the shrine, with gold leaf, the faithful also make offerings.
Usual offerings are lengths of colored cloth that are wrapped around the trunk of the Bo tree inside the shrine compound. Other offerings are fruits, lotuses and incense sticks left in different locations.
Among the most characteristic offerings are clothing, toys for her child and portraits of her ghost that are displayed in the shrine's inner sanctum. A collection of fine dresses offered to Mae Nak are displayed behind her statue
Offerings are also made outside at the Phra Khanong canal itself by the shrine, where living fishes are brought in buckets to the edge of the canal and released. There are stalls at the shrine selling toys, living fishes, lotus buds, incense sticks and garlands for people who wish to make an offering.
The story of Mae Nak Pra Kanong has been the subject of numerous films, television series and printed media in Thailand. Among the works are: