Phi pop

Phi pop is a Thai belief in a spirit that can live inside a person, which Silpa Wattanatham magazine says probably began in the northeast. Accusing someone of harbouring a pop has been used to shut people out.

Pop, or phi pop, is one of the spirits of Thai belief. Silpa Wattanatham magazine wrote in 2024 that the belief probably began in the northeast more than in other parts of the country, though it is known in almost every region. The earliest literary trace, according to Wikipedia, is a single line in Ramphan Philap, a poem Sunthorn Phu wrote around 1842 to 1843.

The Bangkok Post wrote in 2016 that phi phob and krasue, found throughout the region, are said in some cases to pass down by inheritance, and that many societies use the charge of harbouring an evil spirit to shut out people they dislike. Voice TV, in 2017, cited the senior anthropologist Srisakra Vallibhotama, who proposed that accusing someone of being a ghost works as a form of social control, because the charge tends to fall on people whose behaviour sets them apart.

Voice TV described one case from 2017. Unexplained deaths of people and animals in Pathum Ratchawongsa district, Amnat Charoen province, were widely covered, and the media, repeating what local people said, put the blame on an outsider man rumoured to be a pop.