Phi Tai Hong

Any person who dies a sudden and violent death (murder, accident, drowning, suicide or childbirth) before exhausting their allotted lifespan becomes trapped as a phi tai hong at the exact place of death. The name alludes to a death marked by intense suffering and the unexpected: one who dies this way has been unable to prepare karmically or fulfil their earthly desires, so that their unspent vital energy turns into rancour. For this reason Thai folklore counts it among the most feared and powerful spirits. Deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, and those caused by revenge, engender the most violent phi tai hong; a woman who dies pregnant with the child still inside (the phi tai thang klom variant) gathers the force of two spirits.

The phi tai hong remains bound to the exact place of its death and rarely moves more than a few hundred metres away. Its fury reaches its peak during the first seven days after death, when it haunts the house or the site of the event. It manifests the visible signs of its death, briefly possesses the living nearby (above all children and women), causes accidents to those around it and sends terrifying visions in dreams. Its greatest danger is the urge to drag others into dying in the same way it perished: it seeks a substitute to take its place so that it may at last be reborn and continue the cycle. Its voice is perceived only by mediums and shamans, and it resists exorcisms owing to the rancour of its nature.

The phi tai hong appears as a semi-translucent humanoid figure of dense presence that bears the marks of its death: the rope around the hanged one's neck, bleeding wounds, the swollen bluish skin of the drowned or a white dress stained with blood. Its sunken eyes, ringed by deep shadows, reflect a frozen rage or sadness, and it wanders tirelessly through the precise territory of its demise.

Faced with these spirits, Thai Theravada Buddhism, interwoven with animist beliefs, developed precise rites of appeasement. The monks recite the phra paritra (pirit), protective texts in Pali, and receive offerings and donations (bun) made in the name of the deceased to transfer merit and lighten their karma. At the place of death a spirit house (san phra phum) is raised or honoured with food, flowers and incense, and blessed amulets are used to contain the spirit. The famous case of Mae Nak Phra Khanong, the woman who died in childbirth and returned to her husband, embodies this figure and the need for a monk to soothe her at last and set her on the way to rebirth.