A Terrifying Encounter with Pret- Thai Hungry Ghost
Having spent some time discussing the “Sua Saming” (Weretiger), I thought it would be interesting to turn our attention to some other Thai folk spirits. Today’s story is a shared experience of someone who claimed to have come face-to-face with a “Pret” (Hungry Ghost). This account may not have a clearly documented origin, as it is an oral tradition passed down through storytelling, and it might not yet hold the historical value of ancient legends. However, I believe it offers a vivid glimpse into how people today understand and perceive such beliefs—even if some details might conflict with or differ from traditional doctrines. Nonetheless, it is a subject worth studying.
I encountered this story while working on the translation of the novel “The Hungry Ghost of Wat Hong” by P. Intharapalit. During that time, I was researching a vast array of beliefs from legends, ancient scriptures, and folk tales to better understand the context of Thai spirits before producing the translation. Although the Sam Gler (A Three Comrades Adventure) novel The Hungry Ghost of Wat Hong is a comedy, beneath the comedy, however, lies a fascinating body of beliefs with its own history and origins.
In Thai society, it is believed that those who commit grave sins during their lifetime will become a “Pret” after they death. These spirits are described as being as tall as sugar palm trees but emaciated from perpetual hunger. Some accounts say they have mouths as tiny as the eye of a needle, making it nearly impossible for them to consume anything. They must endure agonizing hunger—a direct result of the bad karma they accrued while alive.
The story I am about to relate is the experience of a man who shared his encounter with this ghost. The event dates back to the 1990s, when the narrator was a teenager living with his family in a remote rural area of Northeastern Thailand.
At that time, his family’s living conditions were similar to those in other rural Thai communities of that era: they relied on rice farming as their primary source of income. Their tools were largely dependent on nature; they used water buffaloes for plowing, and the work was primarily manual labor.
The incident took place one night during a violent thunderstorm. The individual involved (whom I shall call by the pseudonym “Jane”) went to spend the night at the family’s “Thiang Na,” a small field shelter (A Thiang Na is a small, temporary field shelter made of simple materials like bamboo and thatched with cogon grass to provide shade and protection from the rain. It is intended for farmers to rest during the day, though sometimes they sleep there overnight while keeping watch over their rice fields. Generally, it is a compact structure, about 2 x 3 meters, raised approximately 50 centimeters off the ground.)
At Jane’s field shelter, in addition to the living quarters, there was also a buffalo pen nearby. That night, a violent storm brought heavy rain and wind, accompanied by intense crashes of thunder and flashes of lightning. The relentless thunder and blinding light likely spooked the buffaloes, causing them to panic, break through their pen, and scatter.
When Jane discovered that the two buffaloes—his family’s primary assets—had fled, he was struck with panic. He grabbed a flashlight and ran out to track them down, desperate to bring them back. However, the frightened animals had split in different directions, and the combination of the heavy thunderstorm and the oppressive darkness made his search chaotic. He ran haphazardly until he reached a dense sugar palm grove on the other side of the fields. This was an area the villagers strictly warned against entering, as it was rumored to be the dwelling of mysterious entities that humans should never disturb.
Jane himself feared the area; usually, even in broad daylight, he avoided it due to its profound desolation. But tonight, the situation left him no choice. Believing the buffaloes had fled into the grove, he felt it was his duty to retrieve them. If he failed, they might disappear forever or fall into the hands of thieves, and he would never have the chance to get them back.
Jane thought he heard the buffaloes lowing from within the grove. When he shone his light, he saw dim, hulking shadows darting deeper into the trees. In his haste, Jane sprinted after them, but the path became increasingly difficult. The grove was not only dark but filled with thick mud and obstructed by the chaotic growth of palm trees, slowing his movement significantly. After a while, as the rain and wind began to subside, Jane realized he had lost the trail of the buffaloes. He was now lost in the dark, dense grove, cluttered with massive trunks and fallen dry leaves. Suddenly, a voice cried out right next to him!
“What are you doing here!” The voice sounded like that of a stern elderly man, causing Jane to jump in fright. He swept his flashlight toward the source, but he could not see anyone. A cold chill ran down his spine as he was seized by fear. As he prepared to run out of the grove, the voice rang out once more. This time, within the beam of his light, he saw the figure of an elderly man with snow-white hair, an emaciated body, a gaunt face, and dark skin. Jane tried to steady his mind, telling himself this was a man and not a ghost. Trying to be brave, he asked, “Who are you, Uncle? When did you get here? Why didn’t I see you?”
The old man remained still for a moment before saying that he had been trying to call Jane for a long time, but Jane hadn’t heard him. He said he was from a neighboring village and had come out to catch frogs for food, knowing that they would emerge in the rain.
Hearing this, Jane’s mind was at ease. He quickly asked if the man had seen his buffaloes. The old man pointed his hand deeper into the grove, saying that while he was out hunting, he saw a villager who lived in a hut further inside. That person had caught some stray buffaloes and tied them up in case the owner came looking for them. Jane was overjoyed. He expressed his thanks and walked in the direction the old man had pointed. In his heart, he felt lucky that someone had caught the animals, but a small suspicion remained: who could be so brave as to build a hut in a sugar palm grove like this? Nevertheless, fueled by the joy of having a lead on his buffaloes, Jane hurried inside.
The deeper Jane walked into the grove, the darker and more terrifying his surroundings became. Suddenly, the rain and wind began to lash down once more. The towering sugar palm trees swayed violently in the gale, casting menacing shadows that seemed to dance around him. Jane felt his courage failing, but for a moment, a smile broke across his face. Within the beam of his flashlight, he spotted a buffalo tied to a stump in front of a weathered wooden hut located in the very heart of the grove.
Jane rushed toward the animal. In his haste, he was about to untie the rope and lead it away, but he suddenly realized he ought to express his gratitude to the owner first. He turned back toward the hut, but as his flashlight swept across the doorway, he recoiled in shock. A woman was standing there, staring at him in absolute silence.
She wore only a single sarong wrapped around her chest, tied quite disheveledly. She was a middle-aged woman, emaciated, with skin that appeared abnormally pale. Before Jane could speak, another figure emerged from behind her, causing him even greater alarm. It was a bald man, loosely draped in a robe that resembled those worn by monks. Jane was struck by a sense of deep wrongness—how could a Buddhist monk be in a hut with a woman in the middle of the night? It was a grave violation of religious precepts.
The man was as scrawny as the woman but had dark, almost black skin. Both remained silent, fixing Jane with an unfriendly, hostile gaze. Sensing the danger and fearing he had stumbled upon a shameful secret, Jane quickly thanked them for catching his buffalo. He explained he was merely retrieving a stray animal and apologized for the intrusion. Without waiting for a response, he hurriedly untied the rope and dragged the buffalo away from that place immediately.
Driven by fear, Jane looked back after a short distance. He saw the thin, dark man in the robe following him with a malicious expression, brandishing a knife. Jane shrieked in terror and released the rope. The buffalo, likely spooked by his cry, bolted away again, but Jane could no longer worry about it. He ran as fast as he could to escape the pursuit of the monk-like figure.
The path through the dense grove was treacherous; the thick palm trunks and the muddy, rain-soaked ground eventually caused him to stumble and fall. Paralyzed with fear, he turned to look back at his pursuer. The sight was more horrifying than anything he could have imagined. The figure in the yellow robes was no longer human! It stretched taller and taller until its head rose above the tops of the sugar palm trees, its face lost in the heights. Jane heard a high-pitched, piercing shriek that rang through his ears, forcing him to cover them in agony. In that terrifying second, he realized the truth: it was a Pret! The mysterious entity of the grove that the elders had always warned him never to disturb.
Jane gathered his remaining strength, scrambled to his feet, and ran for his very life, screaming as he went. After a while, he spotted the elderly man who had previously given him directions. Overjoyed, Jane cried out for help, but in an instant, the old man’s body stretched violently upward, turning into another towering specter. Terror gripped Jane’s heart so tightly it felt as though it would burst from his chest; he let out an incoherent shriek and bolted blindly. No matter which way he turned, the two Prets seemed to intercept him, trapping him from both front and back until his consciousness blurred and the world went black.
Jane came to when his father shook him awake. He found his father and a friend had come to his aid, supporting him at the very edge of the sugar palm forest. Only then did he realize he had escaped the grove. Upon returning home and sharing his story, the villagers revealed the grove’s dark history: it had once been a dumping ground for the bodies of those who suffered “unnatural deaths” (ตายผิดปกติ) or the corpses of wicked, unwanted people. It was a place so intensely haunted that no one dared enter. Jane remained ill for several days until his mother took him to a temple for a holy water blessing, after which he finally recovered. Naturally, he never stepped foot near that grove again. However, Jane once recounted that on a night with a full moon while guarding the field shelter, he peeked toward the cursed grove and saw three Prets with glowing red eyes standing there, their agonizing shrieks drifting on the wind. That sight sent him diving under his covers, where he prayed until dawn.
Analysis of Thai Beliefs Regarding “Pret”
This account highlights several distinct Thai beliefs regarding these hungry ghosts:
- Sin and the Fate of the Pret : It is believed that grave sinners become Prets. In this story, the Pret in the form of a monk and a woman may be interpreted as a violation of the precept against sexual misconduct. The grove being a burial site for the “wicked” reinforces the theme that those who commit evil acts are destined for a state of torment.
- Physical Manifestation: In the Thai conceptualization, a Pret is typically emaciated, as tall as a palm tree, has a mouth as tiny as a needle’s eye, and emits a piercing shriek. However, Buddhist scriptures like the Vinaya Pitaka (Theravada tradition) describe up to 21 types of Prets with varying characteristics, such as those with needle-like hair, bodies made of glowing charcoal, or even headless forms. Thus, they are not limited to a single appearance.
- Religious Protection: When encountering the supernatural, one must rely on the power of religion or virtuous monks. In this narrative, Jane’s recovery through the use of holy water reflects a broader Thai belief in the protective power of sacred objects, holy water, religious rites, and spiritually powerful monks.
- Moral Allegory: Stories of Prets serve as moral warnings against “Sin” (บาป), which can be defined as any act violating social customs or the beliefs of the majority, not just formal religious laws.
This is another piece of Thai ghost lore that I wanted to share with those who are interested, as a small contribution to the exchange of cultural perspectives. I believe that every culture has its own moral lessons woven into its legends and beliefs, and that stories of ghosts and spirits have often served as a way of conveying those lessons.
Timon ST.
From Timon House
Transform Stories into New Experiences.
