The story
According to tradition, the events happened during the reign of King Mongkut. The story is about a beautiful young woman named Nak, who lived by the Phra Khanong canal in Bangkok, and her husband, Mak.
With Nak pregnant, Mak is called off to war (in some versions of the story the war is against the Shan tribe, while others are not specific), and is severely injured. While he is being nursed in central Bangkok, both Nak and the child she is carrying die during childbirth. When Mak eventually returns home, however, he is cast under a spell and finds his loving wife and his new child waiting for him and nothing wrong. Neighbors, who try to tell Mak of the death of his wife and to warn him that he is living with ghost, meet with grisly ends.
One day, while Nak is preparing nam phrik, she drops a lime down to the cellar. In her haste, she extends her arm to pick the lemon from the upper floor through the floor's hole, not knowing that Mak saw the whole event. Terrified, he realizes she is a ghost, and tries to find a way to flee without her becoming aware.
At night, Mak lies to Nak by saying that he wants to get out to the lower floor of the house to urinate. He then breaks a little hole in an earthen jar which is filled with water, so that Nak will think that he is urinating, and runs away into the night.
After discovering her husband's leaving, Nak pursues him. Mak sees his wife's ghost and conceals himself behind a Blumea balsamifera (Nat; หนาด) bush. According to Thai folklore, ghosts are afraid of the sticky Blumea leaves. Mak then runs from there to the temple of Wat Mahabut, where Nak cannot enter the holy area.
In grief and despair Nak terrorizes the people of Phra Khanong, venting her anger towards them for helping Mak to leave her. Eventually, Nak's ghost is bound by a powerful exorcist. After confining her within an earthen jar, he throws it into the canal.
There are several versions of the story at this point. In one, an old couple who are new residents to Phra Khanong find the pot containing Nak's ghost while fishing, while in another it is two fishermen of unknown age and origin who dredge up the pot. Nak is then unwittingly freed by the people who found the jar.
Following her release, Nak is suppressed again, in a more thorough manner, by the venerable monk, Somdet Phra Phutthachan (To Phrommarangsi). Again there are several versions of the story at this point. In one of them, the monk confines her within the bone of her corpse's forehead, and binds that piece of her skull within his waistband; legend tells that this waistband has passed through the hands of various persons and is currently in the possession of the royal family. In another version the monk foretells that in a future life Nak will be reunited with her husband, and so the ghost voluntarily leaves this world for the afterlife.
Mae Nak's story is popular because her true love and devotion for Mak inspires many people.
There is a shrine dedicated to Mae Nak at Wat Mahabut. In 1997 the shrine relocated to nearby Suan Luang district.
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