Phi tai hong

In Thai belief, phi tai hong is the ghost of a person who died a sudden, violent death, such as by murder or drowning, often without proper funeral rites.

Wikipedia, citing the Royal Institute Dictionary of 1999, the country's official dictionary, gives tai hong as dying an unnatural, violent death, for example by murder or drowning, and phi tai hong as the ghost of someone who died that way. It adds that such deaths often come without the proper funeral rites.

Wikipedia says the word hong joins two ideas, great suffering and suddenness, with suddenness weighing more, since the dead had no chance to prepare. Thai Wikipedia lists the kinds of death that qualify, among them being shot, drowning, road crashes and suicide. A woman who dies while pregnant, with the child unborn, is counted too.

The Bangkok Post (2019) calls the story of Mae Nak, who died giving birth, the country's best-loved ghost tale. Sarakadee Magazine (1999) says the oldest written account of her is an 1899 article that K. S. R. Kularb wrote for the periodical Siam Prapet: a short history, one and a half pages long, answering a reader's letter. Sarakadee adds that many versions have since run through Thai popular culture.

In the Post's telling she lingers in spirit form until her husband returns from war. The film Nang Nak opened on 23 July 1999. Nonzee Nimibutr directed it from a script by Wisit Sasanatieng, and it became the first Thai film to earn more than 100 million baht.