The story of "Mae Nak" (แม่นาค) is perhaps the most famous of all Thai ghosts.
A famous shrine in Bangkok (ศาลแม่นาคพระโขนง) is located near Sukhumvit Road, Soi 101, inside Wat Mahabut. It is containing the grave of the dreadful ghost "PHI PHRA KHANONG" (ผีพระโขนง). This ghost has frightened Thai people since almost a century.
Last century, during the reign of King Mongkut (1851-1868), when Bangkok was still called the "Venice of the Far East", a woman called "NAK" was married to a man called "MAK". They moved into a house in Bangkok's Phra Khanong district, near Wat Mahabut. After a while her husband was called off to war. Alas she was already pregnant.
Her husband didn't know anything about his wife's death. So when he came back home, his wife was waiting for him. Many persons did warn him that his wife was dead and that he was living with a ghost but he did not believe them.
One day when "MAE NAK" was preparing the dinner and her husband bathing himself in the bathroom, a lemon fell from her hand. As the house was a Thai traditional house, it was built on piles and so the lemon fell on the ground 2 meters lower than the house's floor. So the ghost "MAE NAK" made her arm longer in order to get it.
But her husband saw that, he understood that his wife was now a ghost. He managed to flee from the house and took refuge inside Wat Mahabut. "MAE NAK" terrorised the local population as an expression of her anger with them for helping her husband.
Thanks to a monk, the spirit was imprisoned in an earthen pot and thrown in the river. The monk covered the bottle with a cloth. On this cloth was written Pali language in order to disable the spirit from going outside the bottle. But the legend is not over. Two fishermen trying to catch some fish got the bottle and freed "MAE NAK".
But the husband of "MAE NAK" was living with another woman. The ghost of "MAE NAK" managed to find them and killed her husband's new girlfriend. Finally "MAE NAK" accepted to stop killing because a monk promised her that in a next life she would live again with her husband. Nowadays Thai people still believe in the story of "MAE NAK PHRA KHANONG". Thai people don't like to speak about ghosts, they are afraid to meet them in their dreams while sleeping.
The spirit "MAE NAK" is said to love listening "Mon Rak Luuk Tung" songs.
Most of those coming to Wat Mahabut go with the intention of worshiping at the ghost shrine of "MAE NAK", asking her spirit to bless their lives with good fortune. They also make a stop at the "TON TAKIEN" (ต้นตะเคียน) shrine for a lucky lottery number.
