Once Upon a Time in Thailand: Folklore or Religion?

By Esther Chung

In most societies, the distinction between local folklore and religious teachings remains unclear. The line is usually blurred. It is difficult to tell when folk legends end and religious myths begin. Such a situation is no stranger in Thai society: one could tell that some are obviously local lore, whereby others remain indistinguishable. Two popular folklores will serve to illustrate this dilemma.

The legend of Nang Nak revolves around the tragic tale of a loving and loyal wife – Nak. Both Nak and Mak were expecting their firstborn when Mak was called to serve in the king’s army. Mak won the approval of the king due to his bravery and combat skills, and was thus awarded with riches. He returned to Nak and their newborn boy, a happy man. As he was expressing his contentment of being blessed with success and a loving family, his neighbours grew wary and suspicious. They said that Nak died during childbirth along with their newborn son. Mak did not believe them and laughed it off. The next day, the village was horrified by the brutal deaths of the neighbours whom warned Mak about his family. Mak still did not believe the villagers’ warnings until one by one they were found cruelly murdered. He then spied on Nak to see if the rumours were true. It was found that Nak had ghostly abilities. Mak fled from his ghost wife and Nak began to terrorise the villagers as she thought they were the ones who separated her husband from her. The village shaman interceded and exorcised her and her son’s spirit so they could find peace. 

A shrine to Nang Nak can be found near Phra Khanong in memory of her devotion and undying love to her husband. According to our local tour guide, Wang, the legend of Nang Nak is doubtlessly a Thai folklore. It is a widely known folklore and people still present offerings to Nang Nak’s shrine. The two known variations of the legend have no elements of Buddhism in it. 

Another household name would be Nang Kwak, whose original name was Nang Supawadee. Supawadee was the only child of two travelling traders. She was described as filial, compassionate and wise for her age. She would accompany her parents to town and help with the trading. One day, Supawadee overheard the sermon of a travelling monk and asked permission from her parents to go to a nearby temple where he was going to preach. Entranced by his teachings, Supawadee then took refuge in the Triple Gems (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha). Her devotion moved the gods, who then bestowed blessings upon her and her parents.

Supawadee, widely known as Nang Kwak, is now worshipped as a major deity, especially in service-based business establishments like restaurants and hotels. She sits cross-legged in a red dress and golden crown with her hand posed in an inviting manner, as if to invite guests into the hotel or restaurant. Nang Kwak is an equivalent of the Chinese deity of prosperity, believed to bring profits and good luck to corporate agencies.

An altar to Nang Kwak in our accommodation, Golden Palace Hotel, Bangkok.

In this case, Wang could not clearly tell whether Nang Kwak is a Thai or Buddhist myth. While the human figure of Nang Kwak is clearly known as Thai, the process of her apotheosis remains hazy. A variation of the legend purports Nang Kwak to be the daughter of a mountain spirit. On one hand the legend has strong relations with Buddhism, on the other it sounds like a shamanistic belief. 

Be it related to religion or local beliefs, one can spot the similarities found in most folklores of different countries: the jilted lover, the devoted believer and a vengeful spirit, to name a few. Having said that, it cannot be denied that Thai legends have their own unique flavor to it.

P/S: The two tales were told to me by our Buri Ram tour guide, Wang.

Esther Chung, 21, is a Communications and Writing major student. Married to chocolate. Last seen swooning over the poems of Edgar Allan Poe.

Diary Entry - Day 6

By Shanaz Mohamed 
Photos by Amanda Sangeetha Thomas

Having almost the entire evening free the previous day, we were all quite refreshed when we headed for breakfast. After we energized ourselves with toast, porridge, and omelettes, we left to check out the M.B.R. Sporting Goods Co., Ltd. 

M.B.R Sporting Goods Co., Ltd. is a textile and shoe manufacturing factory. Amusingly, we were allowed to take pictures of the inside as long as it was taken from the outside. The manager gave us a tour around the different blocks of the factory which made different products. Although we did not get to enter the factory, we were shown samples of their products such as children’s bed sheets, shoes, lingerie, and even Calvin Klein shirts. We were curious enough to ask whether they sold the reject shirts there, only to discover they sold them at the mini mart a few minutes away.  

By the time we were done there, our vans were waiting to take us to the Bata factory. This particular factory was not owned by Bata, but by the locals. However Bata is their biggest buyer and their products are labelled Bata.  There are 150 workers in the factory. As most of the population in Buriram were women, many workers were female as well. They used division of labour for production; while some were stitching up the soles, others were attaching them to the shoe.  

Unfortunately for them, they face the issue of younger generations leaving to work in factories in Bangkok where their wages are higher than theirs. But they intend to raise their wage rates by the January.

Here’s a fun fact for you, if you look for the number on the Bata shoes, and if it says 455, then they were made in Buriram. 

Our last stop was the Baan Paeeng Puay School. We gathered in the library, where two of their students showed us around the school. The kids told us that they were allowed to borrow books from the library for 7 days per book. 

They also had a ‘tree of good deeds’ in the library where if the students did community service, they wrote what they did on a piece of paper and their parents would sign for verification purposes. Then, these papers were hung from a make shift tree.

The school ran a programme called ‘school bird programme’. This programme is funded by Skoll, Population and Community Development Association, and The Mechai Vravaiya Foundation. Under this programmme, students grew vegetables like mushroom, chilli, eggplant, lime, and mints. They also raised frogs and cat fish. When they were ripe enough to eat, the students gave them to the school and sold the leftovers. The students who grew the mushrooms managed to earn  about 13000 baht. Parents helped to design the program and since the students sold it, the whole community benefited from it. It also goes well with the rice plantations that the rest of the community does. 

Interestingly, the school had decided that they would re-use the old toilet bowls as pots for their plantations.

We came back to C&C to have lunch. And we were packed up and ready to go back to Bangkok by 1:30pm. It was then the realisation, that it was our last day in Buriram, sunk in. I’d say it was bitter sweet, but really, I was really looking forward to bathrooms which weren’t ant infested, or clogged. But we would all definitely miss the greenery, and the carefree life style that the people in the village displayed.


Before everyone went their separate ways for dinner, we had a cultural night practise session. I’d tell you what the dances are, but you’ll just have to wait for the big night to see our dances! But let me tell you this, our dances truly are awesome.

So here we are, back in Bangkok, looking forward to another exciting day

Shanaz Mohamed, 19 is a Psychology and International studies major, a dedicated doodler, collector of quotes, and a comic book geek, among other things. 

Tennis in Thailand: A View from the Stands

By Helen Sneha

As I was walking down the stairs of the Phloen Chit train station two nights ago, I spotted, in the shadows, a lone lady holding an oversized tennis racquet. I ran up to her and asked, “Do you play? You play?” while trying to mimic a service motion. She said that she didn’t play, but she worked for a company that made tennis racquets. If she was used to tennis-mad tourists interrogating her on the sidewalk at night, she didn’t show it. 

Some tennis-mad tourists (okay, fine, I have to admit I’m one of the many) might have fretted that having great adventures in Bangkok would have to come at the expense of that most hallowed of tournaments, Wimbledon. Even before it had started, Wimbledon 2012 was promising to be particularly remarkable, especially with Olympic tennis due to be played there at the end of July. It was to my great delight – you can ask my roommates, they saw a legitimate outpouring of it – in which I discovered that the hotel provided StarSports as one of its channels.

I was then reminded of the numerous advertisements that run during the course of the Australian Open, the first major of the year, stating that the live broadcast on StarSports is presented by Thai Airways. I’ve never flown with Thai Airways, but I know that for once I’m glad for a big corporation. This way I could spend my days and nights in Bangkok and the wee hours of the morning on the lawns of the All England Lawn Tennis Club – in spirit, of course. 

I would go so far as to say that on the whole Asian continent, Thai tennis is only behind that of those two regional heavyweights, India (which has produced the Amritraj brothers, countless outstanding doubles teams, and Sania Mirza) and China (who boasts Li Na, the first female Asian grand slam champion). Thailand is certainly the most successfully country in South East Asia in terms of producing tennis players, and arguably even in terms of hosting tournaments. While Laos can lay some claim to Anne Keothavong, who will represent Great Britain in the Olympics this summer, and her brother, James a top-tier umpire who regularly makes the trip down to South East Asia over the yearly indoor swing to umpire in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, Thailand has produced top-tier players such as Paradorn Srichaphan and Tamarine Tanasugarn over the years. 

Srichaphan, to the best of my memory, attained the highest ranking ever achieved by an Asian man in the Association of Tennis Players (ATP), a record which he still holds today. He appears periodically on StarSports’ tennis program ‘Ace’, offering views on upcoming tennis matches and sometimes even playing little quiz games with the hostess. Broad-shouldered, tanned, grinning, and good-natured, he still cuts an impressive figure in his post-retirement. 

Tamarine Tanasugarn, sadly, made an early exit at this year’s Wimbledon a few days ago, but has a powerful forehand and is usually a tricky opponent on the grass. She, along with Mirza, Li Na, and Japan’s Kimiko Date Krumm has done much the image of Asian women’s tennis over the past few years. 

Thailand also hosts an ATP tournament right here in Bangkok. It has been successful over the years in pulling in big names like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray. In a region where tennis tournaments struggle to find funding, the Bangkok Open has done remarkably well for itself, pulling visitors from all over its neighboring countries and offering the players full stadiums and healthy sums of prize money. 

As I write this from my hotel room, I’m half-watching last year’s defending champion, Andy Murray, play in front of his home crowd at Wimbledon. I must say, I really enjoy the Thai commentary. 

Helen Sneha, 20, is a second-year Bachelor of Arts student, double-majoring in Writing and International Studies. She is hopelessly interested in tennis, funky rings, dinosaurs, and the human hand.

Galleria of the Macabre: a journey to the Siriraj Medical Museum of Death

By Arman Attarzadeh

Many countries around the world have their fair share of bizarre and surreal attractions that almost seem to be ripped out of the confines of an overly imaginative mind, yet none have I seen that are as peculiarly morbid and at the same time amazingly jaw-dropping as the Museum of Death located within Siriraj Medical Centre in Bangkok, Thailand. When I first discovered this place of macabre exhibits, I immediately knew that I had to prepare myself for a smorgasbord of formaldehyde-preserved fetuses, human body parts, organs and other gut-wrenching things that I could not fathom at the time.

At first, I thought that I would be the only one who would have been interested in seeing something as ghastly as the ‘Museum of Death’ and that the others would be too terrified to even consider the thought of visiting it. Boy was I wrong in thinking that as, lo and behold, once I explained the place to the group I immediately had eager volunteers who would accompany me to see this gruesome attraction – with the tiniest of females in our group being the most enthusiastic of all of us.

The museum is split into 6 different sections, with each section dedicated to disgust you in its own way: 

1. The Ellis Pathological Museum dedicated to fetal development and abnormalities, different types of cancers, explaining the functions of the heart and heart disease, and brain abnormalities and tumors.

2. The Songkran Niyomsane Forensic Medicine Museum dedicated to forensic investigation and the displaying of forensic evidence in crimes such as rape, murder and involuntary man-slaughter.

3. The Ouay Ketusingh Museum of History of Thai Medicine dedicated to the development of Thai medicine and herbology.

4. The Parasitology Museam dedicated to parasitical infections and causes of infectious diseases.

5. The Congdon Anatomical Museum dedicated to displaying anatomical and osteological specimens of both normal and abnormal features.

6. Finally, the Sood Sangvichien Prehistoric Museum and Laboratory, dedicated to archeological exhibits and findings within Thailand and the explanation of the development of humans and their communities.

We only managed to see the Ellis Pathological Museum, the Songkran Niyomsane Forensic Medicine Museum, the Parasitology Museam, and the Sangvichien Prehistoric Museum and Laboratory but let me tell you, it was still definitely worth it. My favorite section was the forensic medicine museum that displayed real-life human bones and body parts related to crimes along with other criminal evidence such as murder weapons and extracted bullets. It was an unexplainable experience to be so close to actual dead bodies; drawn in to this world where the exhibits are not merely for show but rather, those bodies behind the glass panels were all at one point living, breathing, sentient human beings with a family and a job – hopes, dreams and aspirations that were all taken away from them. You could actually close your eyes and see what the skulls would look like with skin and flesh on them, or hear the cries of a new-born baby who was drowned in water. It definitely sent shivers down my spine yet I didn’t want to leave the museum, wanting to take in all of it and burn the image in my mind no matter how twisted that sounds.

With our schedule so packed and our time so short, our visit to the museum had to end a bit sooner than expected. As we all began to make our way out of the hospital, we were all still trying to wrap our heads around what we had just witnessed. It was an experience no one would ever seem to forget and many would go on to take something from it as I know I did. So with one last look at the Museum of Death, I bade adieu to all the exhibits and made my way to the exit all while still thinking about the wondrous things I had seen in there. Thailand, you definitely stepped up the game this time!

Arman Attarzadeh, 21 is a dedicated Linux & Android user. Also a passionate guitar player and computer-generated techie. Overall, a jolly fat man pursuing a Bachelor's Degree at Monash University Sunway Campus majoring in Communications and International Studies