Ma Phae Wah


Ma Phae Wah is a prominent Burmese nat. She is the guardian spirit of the graveyards and cemeteries in Myanmar.
Ma Phae Wah makes her home in the cemetery, but come midnight she hoists a coffin onto her shoulder and shuffles through town with her long hair waving in the spectral breeze. Woe to the household where she stops and puts down her casket on the doorstep, for someone in that family usually a child will soon sicken and die.

Appeared in the dreams

In the late 1990s, Ma Phae Wah appeared in the dreams of Tine Tayar Sayadaw, a prominent Buddhist monk from Kayin State and announced her intention to eat the flesh of babies. The sayadaw suggested that she dine on dogs instead. Subsequently, security-conscious parents sought to protect their infants by posting signs in front of their homes saying, “Baby’s flesh
is bitter, dog’s flesh is sweet”.