The story is about a beautiful young woman named Nak, who lived on the banks of the Phra Khanong Canal, and her undying love for her husband, Mak. With Nak pregnant, Mak is conscripted and sent to war, where he is seriously wounded. While he is being nursed back to health in central Bangkok, Nak and their child both die during a difficult childbirth. When Mak returns home, however, he finds his loving wife and child waiting for him. Neighbors who try to warn him that he is living with a ghost are all killed. One day, as Nak is preparing nam phrik, she drops a lime off the porch. In her haste to retrieve it, she stretches her arm to pick it up from the ground below. Mak sees it and at last realizes his wife is a ghost. Terrified, he tries to find a way to flee without alarming her. That night, Mak says he has to go downstairs to urinate. He then runs away into the night. Discovering her husband has fled, Nak pursues him. Mak sees her and conceals himself behind a Blumea balsamifera bush. According to folklore, ghosts are afraid of the sticky Blumea leaves. Mak then runs to Wat Mahabut temple, which a ghost cannot enter, as it is holy ground. In her grief, Nak terrorizes the people of Phra Khanong, furious at them for causing Mak to leave her. However, Nak's ghost is captured by a powerful exorcist. Confining her in an earthen jar, he throws it into the canal. There are differing versions of the rest of the story. In one, an old couple new to Phra Khanong finds the jar while fishing; in another two fishermen dredge up the jar. Nak is freed when they opened it. Nak is conquered again by the venerable monk Somdet Phra Phutthachan. The learned monk confines her spirit in the bone of her forehead and binds it in his waistband. Legend says the waistband is currently in the possession of the royal family. Admiral Prince Abhakara Kiartivongse, Prince of Chumphon, also claimed to have had the relic. In an alternative version, the monk assured Nak that in a future life she would be reunited with her beloved husband, and thus she voluntarily departed for the afterlife. A shrine dedicated to Mae Nak is at Wat Mahabut. In 1997, the shrine was relocated to the nearby Suan Luang District of modern Bangkok.
An alternative account
Anek Nawikamul, a Thai historian, researched the story and found an article in the Siam Praphet newspaper written by K.S.R. Kularb, dated March 10, 1899. Kularb claimed the story of Mae Nak was based on the life of Amdaeng Nak, daughter of a Tambon Phra Khanong leader named Khun Si. Amdaeng Nak died while she was pregnant. Her son, worried that his father might remarry and his inheritance shared with his step-mother, invented the ghost story. He dressed in women's clothing and threw rocks at passing boats to make people think Nak's ghost had done it. Kularb also suggested that Nak's husband was named Chum, not Mak.
The Mae Nak Shrine
The shrine of Mae Nak stands next to Klong Phra Khanong, at Wat Mahabut, a large temple on Soi 77 off Sukhumvit Road. The shrine is a low building under large trees with a roof that encompasses the tree trunks. The main shrine has several minor shrines around it.
Offerings
A statue of Mae Nak and her infant form the centerpiece of the shrine. Devotees often make offerings, accompanied by a request for help, generally by women seeking easy childbirth or for their husband to be exempted from military conscription. Offerings are usually lengths of colored cloth, wrapped around the trunk of the Bo tree. Other offerings include fruit, lotuses, and incense sticks. Toys for her child and portraits of the ghost are displayed in the shrine's inner sanctum. A collection of fine dresses offered to her are displayed behind her statue. Offerings are also made at Phra Khanong Canal, where fish purchased live at markets are brought in buckets to the edge of the canal and freed. Stalls at the shrine sell toys, fish, lotus buds, incense sticks, and garlands for those who wish to make an offering.
Mae Nak's story has enjoyed sustained popularity because her undying devotion to her husband inspires people of all ages. Prince Damrong, a son of King Mongkut, revealed that when he was a child, he kept asking Wat Phra Kaeo visitors who was the most popular person in their opinion, and most people answered "Mae Nak". The story of Mae Nak Phra Khanong is also the subject of many films, television series, and printed media. Among these are:
Ghost of Mae Nak, a 2005 Thai film by British director Mark Duffield
Mae Naak, an opera composed by Somtow Sucharitkul. It premiered in 2003 and was revived in 2005 by the Bangkok Opera, with soprano Nancy Yuen performing the title role and baritone Kyu Won Han as Mak in both productions. It was restaged again in 2011 in Bangkok and London.
