Temple of the Ghost Bride: The Mae Nak Shrine at Wat Mahabut

Way back in 2014, I posted about Thailand's most famous ghost story here on my blog for my first annual Halloween special. The tale is called Mae Nak Phra Khanong, or Lady Nak of Phra Khanong.

I'll repeat it here for you today:

During the reign of King Mongkut (Rama IV) in the late 19th century, there lived a beautiful woman named Nak who lived in Phra Khanong district of Bangkok with her husband Mak, with whom she was very much in love. The young couple was delighted to learn that Nak was pregnant with their child, but their joy was short-lived. Mak was called away to war leaving his wife alone. Sadly, both Nak and the baby died during childbirth.

Mak was seriously wounded in the war and kept away from home for a long time while he was nursed back to health. When he returned to Bangkok, he was overjoyed to be reunited with his wife and daughter, unaware that they were both ghosts.

The family lived together happily for some time. One night while preparing dinner, Nak dropped a lime which rolled under the porch of their wooden house. She carelessly reached out to retrieve it, passing her noncorporeal hand directly through the floorboards. Mak noticed this and became terrified. He fled his home, pursued by the ghost of his wife.

Mak ran to Wat Mahabut temple, where the ghost, being unable to cross over holy ground, could not follow. The distressed Mak consulted the abbot of the temple, a powerful exorcist who agreed to brave Nak who in her grief had begun terrorizing the local people.

The monk trapped the ghost in a clay jar, and threw it into the Chao Phraya River. This didn't hold the angry spirit for long however. The jar was soon discovered by a pair of fishermen who unwittingly release her back into Bangkok. The venerable and wise monk Phra Somdej Toh was called to confront Nak's vengeful ghost. He captured her and bound her spirit to a holy waistband. The monk spoke to Nak and assured her that she and her beloved husband would be together for eternity in the afterlife. Upon hearing this, Nak voluntarily departed the mortal realm.

I've long known of the Mae Nak Shrine at Wat Mahabut, and this year for my blog's annual Halloween Post, I decided to make the trip out to Phra Khanong to visit it and see it for myself.

 

my trip took me to a part of Bangkok I had never been to before

I had to take the Skytrain way farther than I ever had before. After alighting, I set off on foot the rest of the way. My walk took me over a wide canal, and through a small, dark market I had never seen before.

I had to make my way through an old and dark market

It was bright and sunny, with an unseasonably blue sky - not very spooky at all (though if you want to see these places in a more spooky light, check out my recent Infrared photo gallery of some of the places I visited that day).

a sunny day in Onnut - not very spooky!

After a while, I saw the sign for Wat Mahabut, just the temple I was looking for! From the outside it looked perfectly ordinary. There was nothing at all to hint at its legendary history.

eventually, I saw the sign pointing the way towards my destination

I knew that I was in the right place when I saw the shops outside of the temple, where beautiful Rattanalkosin-era silk dresses of various qualities and prices stood on display for sale. Visitors praying for love will make offerings to Mae Nak, generally in the form of beautiful dresses from her own time period.

This isn't an uncommon practice. In fact, you might often see silk dresses hanging from large, ancient trees - gifts to the ghosts which are said to inhabit those trees.

beautiful silk dresses - gifts given as offerings to the ghost

Ghosts and ghost stories are a deeply ingrained and integral aspect of Thai culture. Thai ghosts are so important to Thai culture, that it's nearly impossible to separate the two. This is a country of magic. It's a country where legends are real, where mystic men out in the jungle transform into tigers and float, and where ghosts are very much a part of everyday life.

When I was working at the school, my students would often tell me - very earnestly, I might add - stories of their own encounters with ghosts. There was the ghost who haunted the girl's bathroom, the ghost who lived in the school's banana field...

Even my Thai family swears to have a ghost - albeit a friendly one - who watches over the house and protects the family. I've never been one to believe in ghosts... but I may or may not have had my own experience with the family ghost a time or two...

Buddha statues inside one of the temple's many shrine halls

Wat Mahabut itself is a historical, albeit fairly typical, Thai temple. Founded in 1762 five years before the Fall of Ayutthaya on the outskirts of the little-known fishing village called Bang Kok, a small temple sat along the banks of a canal which fed into the mighty Chaophraya.

Once, a wandering monk visited the temple. The local folk asked him to stay, and in turn, named the temple after him: Mahabut.

The temple itself may be relatively nondescript, but the famous holy man and abbot Luang Por Toh (there's even a statue of him along the riverfront at Wat Rakhang) put it on the map by exorcising the vengeful spirit of Mae Nak and calming her down by encouraging her to wait for her beloved in the afterlife.

from the outside, it looked like a fairly typical Thai-style temple

At first, I had trouble finding the shrine. The main temple was bustling with fairly ordinary Buddhist activity. As I walked towards the river, however, I found a little marketlike area attached to the main temple complex. There, I spotted a statue of the woman whom I immediately recognized as the Lady of Phra Khanong herself: Mae Nak. The woman was cradling her ghostly baby, and before her were set offering of red Fanta. Here in Thailand, red Fanta is often given as offerings at shrines and spirit houses. I've heard that it is a symbolic offering of blood, but I am not 100% sure if that's accurate. I'm not entirely convinced anyone even remembers why folks started giving red Fanta as an offering.

Mae Nak - Thailand's most famous ghost

Nearby, a gnarled sacred bodhi tree - the same type of tree under which the Buddha is said to have meditated to gain enlightenment - stood wrapped in dozens upon dozens of colorful silks. These were a simpler version of the offerings of silk dresses, and another typical sight in the Thai countryside.

at the Shrine of the Ghost Bride

And there was the shrine to Mae Nak.

The shrine looked like a traditional Thai teakwood house... perhaps very much like the home in which Mae Nak lived long, long ago. Above a small golden statue of Mae Nak were hung several portraits of the lady of the house, a beautiful young woman in the traditional garb of the mid-Rattanakosin era.

gifts and offerings for Mae Nak

Visitors had left offerings of flowers, fruit, incense, and silk to the spirit of the now benevolent lady. There was nothing creepy or spooky about the Mae Nak Shrine. In fact, it felt quite peaceful and quiet. 

After all, the story of Mae Nak ends well. It's the story of a woman at peace, awaiting her husband who has now long since gone to join her.

Mae Nak Shrine at Wat Mahabut

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. It's always been a big deal with my family! Growing up, my mom always made us costumes and decorated the house in the most fun sort of way. I'm trying my best to keep the tradition alive here in Bangkok! Halloween still hasn't really made its way over here to Thailand (though you'll find the occasional decoration or party), but I feel that if I want to make Halloween special, I will need to do so myself!

Happy Halloween everyone!