The Ghost of Mae Nak Phra Khanong

No ghost is more beloved in Thailand than Mae Nak, whose tragic love is honoured at a shrine beside the Phra Khanong canal in Bangkok. As the story goes, a devoted young wife named Nak is pregnant when her husband Mak is conscripted to war. She dies in agonising childbirth while he is away, yet her love is so fierce that her spirit refuses to depart. When Mak returns he finds Nak and their baby waiting, unaware that both are ghosts, and the couple resume their household as though nothing has changed. Neighbours who try to warn him meet grisly ends, and one chilling detail betrays the truth: reaching for a fallen lime through the floorboards, Nak stretches her arm to an impossible length. Realising his wife is dead, Mak flees to a temple for sanctuary. In popular versions a revered monk finally subdues her restless spirit, binding it so she can rest. Far from feared, Mae Nak is cherished as a symbol of undying love, and devotees still bring offerings and lottery numbers to her shrine at Wat Mahabut.