Thai Ghosts and Spirits
ผีไทยและวิญญาณ
pǐi means ghost
win yaan means spirit
Thai attitude to spirits is quite similar to Thai attitude to human being.Some to be trusted and respected and some can’t be trusted and must be feared.
Growing up with with a big brother who often tease me with a haunted bedtime stories and alot to see about ghost on the TV, I admit my fear of ผี pǐi to all of you.
It is one of many tricks adult use to control children.
On a scale of 0-10, 0 being no fear of ghost,
From the age of 2-10 I was at scale 7
Right now, I’m moving down to 5
That being said, let me introduce to my childhood fear.
1.แม่นาคพระโขนง
mâe naâk / the ghost name
phrá ká nhǒng/ a district in Bangkok
Impress your Thai friends with her name if you pronounce its correctly 100% of Thai would be stunned.
The story has been told and retold for several decades.mâe naâk and her unborn child died during delivery while her husband mâak was away for military service.
continue at my blog

mâe naâk phrá ká nhǒng

แม่นาค / mâe naâk  is a ghost story that has been told and retold for several decades.  It was said that the story originated in  พระโขนง/phrá ká nhǒng district of Bangkok. Getting to know her first click here

mâe naâk / the ghost name
phrá ká nhǒng/ a district in Bangkok

คืน/ keun [t/o] return ; restore

ชีพ/ chêep/ [ Noun, of Pali/Sanskrit origin ] living ; existence

วิญญาณ/ win yaan/ spirit

 รัก/râk/love

คะนอง/ká-nong/ recklessly ; impetuously

รัก/rák/love

1970 แม่นาคพระนคร mâe naâk prá ná-kon

พระนคร/prá ná-kon/city;town(referred to Bangkok)

1975 แม่นาค อเมริกา mâe naâk à-may-lí-gaa

อเมริกา / à-may-lí-gaa/ America

1976 แม่นาคบุกโตเกียว mâe naâk bùk dtoh-gieow

บุก/bùk/[to] trespass ; invade ; attack

โตเกียว /dtoh-gieow/Tokyo

1978 แม่นาคพระโขนง mâe naâk phrá ká nhǒng

1990 แม่นาคคืนชีพ mâe naâk keun chêep

คืน / keun /[to] return

ชีพ / chêep /living ; existence

1992 แม่นาคเจอผีปอบ mâe naâk jer pǐi pbòp

เจอ  /jer / to meet, to find

ผีปอบ / pǐi pbòb/another type of Thai ghost

2001 นางนาก naang naâk

นาง  / naang / tittle for Mrs

ย่านาค yâa naâk

ย่า / yâa / grandmother

2005  นาค รักแท้/ วิญญาณ/ ความตาย

naâk  rák táe/ win yaan/ kwaam dtai

รักแท้/rák táe/true love

วิญญาณ/ win yaan / spirit

ความตาย / kwaam dtai / death (noun)

ผีไทยและวิญญาณ

ผี pǐi means ghost
วิญญาณ win yaan means spirit

Thai attitude to spirits is quite similar to Thai attitude to human being.Some to be trusted and respected and some can’t be trusted and must be feared.
Growing up with with a big brother who often tease me with a haunted bedtime stories and a lot to see about ghost on the TV, I admit my fear of  ผี pǐi to all of you.

It is one of many tricks adult use to control children.And it works!

On a scale of 0-10, 0 being no fear of ghost,
From the age of 2-10 I was at scale 8
Right now, I’m moving down to 5

That being said, let me introduce to my childhood bed time stories.

1.แม่นาคพระโขนง

mâe naâk phrá ká nhǒng

mâe naâk / the ghost name
phrá ká nhǒng/ a district in Bangkok

แม่นาค / mâe naâk  is a ghost story that has been told and retold for several decades.  It was said that the story originated in  พระโขนง/phrá ká nhǒng district of Bangkok.  At that time, the district was still undeveloped similar to the present-day rural Thailand.

There was a young couple , the husband was named มาก/mâak  while the wife was named  นาค /naâk.  One day when  มาก/mâak was notified for military conscription and he would have to be trained in the capital for one year.  So he had to leave his two-month pregnant wife behind with tears and fear.

มาก/mâak then bade farewell to his weeping wife and told her to take good care of the unborn child.  Since that day,  นาค /naâk waited for the return of her husband until several months had passed without any sign of his return.

At the time of the delivery of her child, นาค /naâk suffered acute pain and eventually died during laboring along with her unborn child.

In Thai we call this type of death as “  ตายทั้งกลม/dtai tang klom“  which means to die during pregnancy and her ghost will usually be fierce. มาก/mâak was not informed of the death of his dear wife.

With strong attachment to her husband, the ghost of นาค /naâk refused to go anywhere. She waited for the return of her husband at her own home. Soon after her death, at night anyone walked past her house would either hear the lullabies sung by นาค /naâk from a long distance or see her ghost holding a baby in her arms. In the temple itself, no one had the courage to go near her grave. The macabre horror terrified the people around there especially when dogs howled in chorus. Some people who ventured to challenge her spirit and met her face-to-face were said to be suffering from a high fever and falling hairs. The news of her fierce spirit spread like wildfire. People were scared of her ghost so much so that her name made their hair stand up straight.

Once there was an exorcist who wanted น้ำมันพราย/ náam man prai (an oil extracted from the chin of human corpse)  to be used as a love potion as he thought that if he could get it from a dead pregnant woman, his love potion would become more potent. So he made a ceremony and recited his magic spell to make her corpse sit up so that he could use the candle to heat her chin. Unfortunately, his magic spell was too weak to overpower the spirit of นาค /naâk, so he desperately ran for his own life otherwise he would surely be strangled dead on the spot.

Since that day, the villagers had to live in fear and horror. The disturbance of her spirit was equally make her a fiercer ghost.

Then came the day when มาก/mâak was discharged from military service. The delighted young man hurried to go home to meet his dear wife and a child. At sunset, he reached home and met his wife and a child waiting for him. He was very pleased to be able to reunite with them and hugged both of them. His wife already prepared dinner for him. มาก/mâak was now the most happy man on earth as he could now live with his family.  He lived with them for a few days without seeing anything unusual. He only wondered that why his wife rarely went outside and did not let him accompany her while going out.

Despite her effort to blind her husband from reality, she could not prevent him from knowing the truth of her death. So when มาก/mâak  had some work to do in the village, he met many of his friends who came to greet him.

Suddenly, one of his friends expressed to the loss of his wife and a child. มาก/mâak was deeply puzzled to hear it and insisted that he still lived with his wife and a child happily. His friend tried to convince him that everybody in the village knew about this and he himself helped bury her body with his own hands. Tired of convincing มาก/mâak , his friend finally suggested that in order to prove it มาก/mâak should believe in the old sayings stating that by nature a ghost would not smile and blink the eyes.  Above all, the ghost had no image to reflect in the mirror. A friend suggested him to follow his advice and.

On the way home, มาก/mâak thought of the words of his friend all the time and it seemed unconvincing as he lived with her all the time and he could touch her body as well but, at the same time , there was  no reason for a friend to deceive him either. To find out the truth, he would observe the movement of his wife from now on.

At home, his wife was busy preparing food in the kitchen. He told her a joke and tried to make her laugh, but his wife did not share the mood with him. He thus peeped at her eyes and was surprised to see that his wife did not blink her eyes at all. Now he began to have some doubt on the status of his wife but again consoled himself as it was just a coincidence. To make further proof, he looked for a mirror but could not find a single one in the house.

While stepping into the kitchen again, he saw Nark pounding น้ำพริก/ náam prík (a sauce of shrimp paste and chili eaten with vegetables and fish) and unexpectedly the lime used as ingredient fell to the ground.  นาค /naâk suddenly stretched her arm through the floorboard of their elevated wooden house to pick up the fallen fruit on the ground. มาก/mâak was stunned to see the shocking scene which turned him mad.  The frightening husband could not imagine as to how he could spend his love life with a wife who now turned to be a ghost.

Late at night, มาก/mâak was still haunted by the horror scene in the evening. He stayed awake thinking of how to escape from his ghost wife. Nark herself noticed the strange behavior of her husband and suspected that he probably knew about her death and was prepared to escape from her. So she did not allow him to stay out of her sight. To be able to escape from his ghost wife, มาก/mâak  pretended to go to urinate outside the house but  นาค /naâk wanted to accompany him.

To convince his suspicious wife,  มาก/mâak told her to tie his waist with a string that would enable her to detect his movement. Immediately after his wife agreed with the idea, มาก/mâak walked straight to the water jar downstairs and released the water from the hole which he had punctured during the daytime. The falling water made noise similar to that of his falling urine. มาก/mâak then untied the string from his waist and tied it with the water jar and ran away from home quickly.

After the long disappearance of her husband,  นาค /naâk became suspicious of him so she pulled the string that was still tight and called his name. When there was no answer from him, she went out to meet him only to find that her husband had already disappeared. The sad and furious ghost hurried to follow her husband who now took refuse in the consecrated assembly hall amidst the Buddhist monks who were chanting. Since it was the holy place, the ghost or any evil spirits could not enter the area. N นาค /naâk  just sat crying for มาก/mâak and promised that she would not harm anyone if he agreed to come out and lived with her.  มาก/mâak refused the plea and urged her to leave him alone as they were now living in a separate world. He would make merit for her spirit so that she would be reborn again and not to worry about him.

Unable to persuade her husband to come along,  นาค /naâk then transformed herself into an ugly ghost with a tall body and threatened to strangle to death whoever posted an obstacle to her love life. To calm down her spirit, the abbot then told  มาก/mâak  to accept the truth as she was dead and could no longer live in the human world. She should abandon defilement as death was natural occurrence to all beings on earth.

The furious ghost then told the abbot not to interfere in her personal affairs and warned him to be involved only with his religious duties. Since มาก/mâak did not want the monks to be troubled because of him, he ran away from the consecrated assembly hall and sought protection in a bush of the camphor-plant which is said to be inaccessible to a ghost. Unable to approach her husband, Nark could only cry for him and waited for him to come out till daybreak.

Since then every night a ghost of  mâe naâk would terrorize the villagers so much so that they had to live in horror. No one could suppress her spirit even the capable exorcise had to run for his life.

Sometime later there was a Buddhist monk Somdej Phra Puttajarn from Thonburi who volunteered to put her tormented soul to rest.

Whatever may be, her spirit now lives in peace, people from near and far come to seek spiritual help from her and urged her spirit to help in time of need.

แม่นาคพระโขนง mâe naâk phrá ká nhǒng has been the most well known haunted and love story for decades. There has been many movies created base on her story.

Impress your Thai friends with her name (pronounce its correctly), they would be stunned.

Next post I will show you the list of all แม่นาคพระโขนง mâe naâk phrá ká nhǒng movies which have been created on films. Stay-tuned!

I’m here to tell you it’s not fun!

While there are a number of things that make Thailand a great place to live, the Thai bureaucracy is definitely not one of them!

I’ve known for a quite a while I’d have to deal with the Thai bureaucracy and I was dreading it.

I wanted to get the copyright to translate Maanee books into English and present it on my website.  I was sort of dragging my heels because I knew it was going to be an arduous task.

The process to get copyright can be overwhelming.  The truth is most Thais don’t bother to get copyright at all!

Then, in my first phone conversation with Kruu Sripaiwan, she inspired me to press on with these words,

“Do the right thing and do it well.”

I had always planned to get the copyright but I found new inspiration in her words.  I found new energy to complete my task no matter how much effort it would take!  So I pressed on.

The roadblocks were many.  When I inquired at the Ministry of Education they said they’d have to set up a committee to make sure everything was done legally.  Then they said they’d need another committee to proofread my translations. oh la la

My heart sank.  I was sure it would take a year or more.  But I kept hearing those wise words in my head,

“Do the right thing and do it well.”

It certainly took time!  I started with the first four Maanee books and translated them.  That was two months.  It took another month to do all the paperwork required by the Ministry and another five weeks of waiting to hear back from the Ministry.

Of course, none of this includes the time and effort it took to create and upload the contents on to the web.  I had to try the Thai text, write the transliteration and record the audio.

Whew!
I was exhausted but at the end of it all I finally had the copyright in my hands.  I’m not sure I would have been successful without Kruu Sripaiwan’s wise words.  I certainly owe her a debt of gratitude.

So what do you think of the Maanee books on this site?

So far I’ve only posted the first four books.  I really want to see if people find them useful and beneficial for learning Thai.

Ultimately, if I have good feedback, I’d like to make it the best resource on the web for the Maanee books.

On the one hand it should be a place where foreigners can learn Thai.  On the other hand, I’m hoping young Thais can use it to improve their English and learn about Maanee.

Please feel free to leave a comment.  I can use your help and suggestions to improve my site.

I know it takes a lot of effort to have a successful website but I want Maanee to live again.

Interview with Kruu Sripaiwan

I will heed the wise words of my Mentor,  Kruu Sripaiwan,

“Do the right thing and do it well.”

By Vikrom Kromadit http://board.postjung.com/486306.html

Translated by Mia Rongsiaw Lemoign

It may not be a good beginning of the Tiger Year for Thailand when the President of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO, Bangkok) mentioned that Thailand might no longer offer interesting investment opportunities to Japanese investors. This reminds us of the remarks that Vikrom Kromadit, the godfather of Amata City Company Limited, has made about “10 weaknesses” of Thai people as follows:

1.  Thai people have a very low sense of duty, especially duty towards society. They do for their own benefits. This later results in many kinds of business – political, government service, and education – and keeps holding back the country.

2.  Thailand is falling behind in education. Thai people are only proficient in their own language; this deprives them of opportunity to put up a fight against other countries. Moreover, we are obviously shy and lack self-confidence. It is the reason why we are lagging behind other nations. Thus, the well-off usually send their kids to study abroad for better opportunities.

3.  More than 70 percent of Thai people do not have the foresight. They work on a daily basis and solve unpredictable problems day after day. Very few perform their work systematically and set definite goals.

4. Their job responsibilities are not seriously taken into account; they are good at window dressing or do things because of their being considerate. This is different from Japanese or European people who strictly place importance on a contract or an agreement as it means long-term credibility. At present, Thai people’s credibility regarding this aspect is constantly decreasing.

5.  Development is not completely decentralized. Sixty to seventy percent of the population in remote areas are lacking in opportunities to better the quality of life of themselves as well as the community, which needs to be promoted by the government.

6. Thai law enforcement is not strong and continuous. Authorities are prevented from taking action as it involves their friends. Unlike in developed countries, prosecution against those who has authority as well as their supporters will be conducted negligently to save face, based on none of the standards. This is one of the drawbacks that Thai justice process needs to improve.

7.  Being jealous, Thailand is not quite a gentlemanly society. Thai people are as cunning as a fox. Regardless of their background, they admire those who have the power and the money. Moreover, those who do not want to pay off their debts will turn to the powerful people in order to get by. Gumming up the works, they are even worse than the terrorists. Hence, good people are afraid that getting involved could be injurious to them.

8. NGOs are always resistant and some groups are engrossed with benefits. There are a few good NGOs but they are quite rare in Thailand. Therefore, we have been losing a huge number of opportunities because of the obstinate resistance without reasoning things out.

9.  Thailand is not yet ready for the world stage. We lack skills and good teamwork in building credibility in the international trade. Accordingly, we are easily beaten by a small country like Singapore.

10. Thai children are raised in a wrong way. They are short of patience and immunity to mental illnesses. They are fragile because their parents unusually wrap them up in cotton wool and do not teach them to depend on themselves. It is different from the developed countries where people are keen to depend on themselves and find themselves. Moreover, they are taught to have responsibility towards the society.