Aesop's fables and folktales in Thailand

How should we read folk tales? Below one from ancient Greece and one from Thailand.

The lion and the mouse

Long ago in a faraway land there was a cool cave where a mighty lion took his naps. In that cave also lived a little mouse that scurried around all day looking for food. One day she stumbled and fell right on the lion's head. The lion seized her with his claws, looked at her and said:

'Well, what have we got here? A tasty snack! I'm hungry.'

"Alas, mighty lion, spare my life, please."

"Why should I do that, little mouse?"

"If you let me live, I may be able to help you if you are in need!"

The lion roared with laughter. “You, unsightly thing, help me? But you're really funny, I'll let you go.'

A few days later the mouse heard a painful roar from the forest.

'The lion!' it shot right through her.

She ran into the woods. From afar she saw that the lion was entangled in a poacher's net.

"I'll help you," cried the little mouse, and with her sharp teeth she gnawed the net and freed the lion.

Nang Nak

(นางนาค pronounce naang naak, naang is madam and naak is the mythological snake seen in all temples, also a name. The story takes place around 1840.)

Nak is the loyal and loving wife of a soldier, Mak. He is called up for a campaign against the Burmese (or Vietnamese) when Nak is pregnant. He is seriously injured, but thanks to the good care of a monk, Somdet To, he recovers. Somdet To asks Mak to join monasticism, but Mak refuses because he longs for his wife and child. He returns to his village, Phra Khanoong, where he once again lives happily with Nak and their son.

One day when Mak is cutting wood in the forest to restore his house, an old friend passing by tells him that Nak and their son are ghosts because both died in childbirth. Mak doesn't believe him and they fight. When he comes home he confronts Nak about this but she denies and Mak believes her. The next day the old friend is dead and in the following days Nak kills anyone who wants to warn her husband. A mighty Brahmin, a mǒh phǐe (an exorcist), is also killed.

Mak learns the truth when he has a job under the house-on-stilts. Nak is preparing dinner upstairs but a lemon falls down through a crack in the floor and she stretches her arm ten feet to pick it up. Mak now sees that his wife is indeed a ghost and he flees the house. In the local Mahabhute temple, the monks try to expel the ghost Nak, but they fail. Nang Nak mocks the impotence of the monks and sows death and destruction in the village out of anger.

Then the monk Somdet To reappears. He takes everyone to Nang Nak's tomb and starts muttering Buddhist prayers. Nak rises from the grave with her little son in her arms. Everyone goes into shock but the monk remains calm. He tells Nang Nak to give up her attachment to Mak and this world. Then he asks Mak to come forward to say goodbye to his wife and son. Crying, they hug each other and affirm their love for each other.

Somdet To utters a few more formulas in a lilting tone, after which Nak's body and her spirit disappear.

A novice cuts a piece of bone from Nak's forehead in which Nak's spirit is trapped. Somdet To carries the bone with him for years, after which a Thai prince inherits it, but it has since been lost.

So much for this short summary of one of the most famous legends in Thailand.

Consideration

I used to read stories to my son every night. Also that of the lion and the mouse. He understood the message, but never said, “That can't be true, Dad, because lions and mice can't talk.”

In the 19th century a schism arose in the Protestant church in the Netherlands. One group said the serpent in Paradise could not have spoken, another group said the Bible tells the full truth. One theologian thought that whether or not the serpent had spoken was not so important, what mattered was what he had said.

Almost every Thai knows the story of Mae Nak Phra Khanoong and she is worshiped and honored in many places as if she were a Goddess.

Questions

And that is my question to the dear readers: Why do the Thai women worship Mae Nak ('Mother Nak' as she is usually respectfully called)? What's behind it? Why do many women feel related to Mae Nak? What is the underlying message of this very popular story?

And something I always wonder: is the message as you see it universal or only Thai/Asian? It might be a good idea to watch the movie below first.

Nuts

The spirit that is released when a woman dies together with her unborn child is called phǐe: tháng climbed ' 'the spirit of the total extent'. Female ghosts are more dangerous than male ones anyway, but this ghost is the strongest and most dangerous of them all.

During the time of the Ayutthaya Empire (about 1350-1780), a living pregnant woman was sometimes thrown into a pit and a pile of the foundation for a new palace was driven through her. The aforementioned spirit that was then released protected the court. Human sacrifices were part of the good old days.

Mae Nak Phra Khanoong (Phra Khanoog is now located in Sukhumvit 77, Soi 7), is venerated in many places, but especially at the shrine next to the Mahabhute temple there.