Phi Phong, also called Phi Pong (Thai: ผีโพง,^[1] ผีโป่ง^[2]), is a Thai ghost of Northern folk beliefs. It is also known as Phi Phao (ผีเป้า) in Isan region.^[1]

Believed that those who are Phi Phong caused by the black magic power of a plant in the genus Alocasia, which they potted is called "Wan Phi Phong" (ว่านผีโพง, "ghost herb"). According to the description in the Royal Institute Dictionary (RTD), the plant has a fiery taste and can glow at night like luminous woodlouse.^[1][2]

In the daytime Phi Phong is shaped as a normal person, but at night it transforms into a phantom. The distinctive feature of Phi Phong is that there is a glow from the nostrils like a torch, it will foraging at night. Its food includes frogs, fish, dung, carcasses or placenta, just like other similar ghosts, such as Krasue, Krahang or Pop.

Typically, Phi Phong don't harm humans unless threatened, whereby it will throw banana stalks cut from the widow's water shoulder pole over the roof of the victim's house. Which will cause the family of the house to suffer many adversities.

Phi Phong may die. When a person who is possessed by a Phi Phong is said to be a ghost.

Phi Phong can be transmitted to another person, from being spit by Phi Phong or ingest its saliva accidentally.^[1]

At Phlapphla Subdistrict, Chok Chai District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province. There's a village named "Ban Nong Phi Lok" (บ้านหนองผีหลอก, " Spooky Marsh Village"). It is about 5 km (3.1 mi) away from the district centre. Most of the condition is cassava and paddy fields. This is due to the rumors that have been around for hundreds of years. In the past there were about 100 rais (about 1/3 acres) of wetland adjacent to the dirt road. In the evening, Phi Phong often foraging, therefore no one dares to pass by at night. Until now, this village hasn't been officially promoted as a village.^[3]

Early morning around 5:00 am on Sunday, October 29, 2023, falls on the end of Buddhist Lent. In front of a house in Thep Sathit District, Chaiyaphum Province, a 17-year-old girl, daughter of a homeowner, was able to record motion picture of strange lights floating in front of her house. It just floated into the area of the house. Then it separated into two lights, before rising up to the top of the tree and went through the fields and into the wild. When she checked the CCTV, she also saw strange lights. The locals believed that it was the light of Phi Phong.^[4]

See also

• Thai ghosts

References