The Yellow Ribbon Lady

Legends

A harbinger of death, rather like the Black Dog of England or the Banshee of Ireland, Ma Phae Wah is a spirit known in Myanmar as a Nat. These spirits are an ancient mix of Hindu and local animist beliefs that are also became associated with Buddhism. There are basically (actually nothing is ever basic in the spiritual world) two orders of Nats, the 37 Great Nats that are spirits of people that died a violent death, and then all the other Nats which are probably from the older animist beliefs and are natural elemental spirits, the guardian spirits of place and nature. Ma Phae Wah, is just such a spirit, just such a Nat. Known as the guardian spirit of cemeteries and graveyards in Myanmar, Ma Phae Wah has made her home in these lonely places of death. As with all Nats, she takes a human form, and appears as a woman with long flowing black hair. In the dark of night, at midnight (well like 4pm is time for tea, midnight is time for ‘Pee’…and no I am not referring to the trials of a troubled prostate, ‘Pee’ is the Thai name for supernatural spirit, and conveniently rhymes with tea) she hoists a coffin on to her shoulder and leaves the cemetery and heads into the nearby village or town. In her role as a harbinger of death, her long hair flowing in the spectral breeze that accompanies her shuffling gait, she seeks out the home of the soon to die. On arriving at the home of the doomed, she places the coffin on their doorstep, and before long someone in that household, and sadly usually a child, will sicken and die. In the late 1990s Ma Phae Wah appeared in the dreams of a monk in Kayin State and through these visions Ma Phae Wah announced her intention to eat the flesh of babies. After much deliberation the Abbot suggested that people should encourage her to dine on dogs instead. Subsequently, security-conscious parents sought to protect their newborn babies by posting signs in front of their homes saying, “Our baby’s flesh is bitter, but the dog’s flesh is sweet”. Man’s best friend saves the day yet again, this time though as dish of the day for the Yellow Ribbon Lady…