Mae Naak - The Ghost of A Loyal Wife

One of the well-known ghost-tale from Thailand is Mae Naak. Nobody in Thai does not know Mae Naak or Nang Nak. Some people believe, Mae Naak was really exist and she was born and lived in Phra Khanong, area of Bangkok about 130 years ago, during the period of King Rama IV (1851 - 1868) and died of childbirth complications when she was eighteen years old, which is in the early part of King Rama V's regime (1868 - 1910).

According the legend, Mae Naak (literally "Miss Naak") was a beautiful young woman lived with her husband Nie Mak. When Naak was pregnant, Mak is called off to war. Sadly, when Mak is going for war, Nak and the child she is carrying die during childbirth. When Mak returns home, he finds his loving wife and child waiting for him and nothing wrong with them. What he did not know, her wife and child had turned into spirits. One day, when Naak is preparing phrik nam (fish sauce with lemon, garlic, and chilli), she drops a lime down to the cellar. In her haste, she extends her arm to pick the lemon from the uppon floor through the floor's hole, not knowing Mark saw the whole event. Realized his wife is a ghost, Mak runs away into the night.

Discovering his husband is leaving, Naak pursues him. But Mak conceals himself behind blumea bush (according to Thai folklore, ghosts are afraid of the sticky blumea leaves). After that, Mak runs to Wat Mahabut Temple, where Naak can't enter the holy area.

Angrily, Naak terrorizes the people of Phra Khanong. Eventually, Naak's spirit is bound by a powerful exorcist. After confining her within a earthen jar, he throws it into the canal.

Mae Naak's story is popular and inspires many people to her true love and devotion for Mak. In the Phra Khanong canal , at Wat Mahabut Temple, there is a shrine dedicated to Mae Naak. In the present, the temple can be found in a small side road off Sukhumvit soi 77 (also known as On Nut Road). The shrine consists of a low building under large tress whith a roofing tha encompasses the tree trunks. The main shrine has a number of minor shrines surrounding it. There is a wide fences area around the shrine witha gate towards the Wat Mahabut Temple compound and another more elaborate roofed gate facing the canal.


The legend of Mae Naak has been been the subject of numerous films and television series in Thailand. So far there are three movies (Mae Nak Phra Khanong (1958), Nang Nak (1999), and Ghost of Mae Nak (2005)), 1 animated movie (Nak, 2008), and 1 opera (Mae Naak, 2003 and 2005, composed by Somtow Sucharitkul), and 1 musical show (Maenak Prakanong the Musical, 2009, directed by Takonkiet Viravan and starring Myria Benedetti) have been produced to tell the tales of this scary but romantic legend.