Mae Nak Shrine · The Woman Who Waited for Her Husband

The Mae Nak Shrine in Bangkok honours Mae Nak, a woman who died in childbirth, and who after death waited every night for her husband to come back from the front — until the villagers realised that the man who had lived with her for years had been living with a ghost.

The story was made into films, and the incense at the shrine has not stopped since. What people ask for covers everything: business, marriage, and also “make the third person leave”.

The people at the shrine will tell you that a wish has to be repaid. As for how you know she has received it, they have no single answer.

Folklore / Bangkok · Thailand / 19th century