Wat Suthat

Bangkok · Thailand · Monastery

A towering hungry ghost — a preta — is said to have stalked the grounds of Wat Suthat at dusk.

Wat Suthat is one of Bangkok's oldest royal temples, famous for its Giant Swing — and for the saying 'the preta of Wat Suthat'. In Thai Buddhist belief a preta is a hungry ghost, tall as a palm tree and thin as a skeleton, condemned to starve for its sins. Generations of Bangkokians have told of such a giant appearing on the temple grounds at nightfall, perhaps an echo of the mass deaths of the city's nineteenth-century epidemics. The expression survives in the Thai language to this day, making the temple one of the most classic addresses in the capital's ghost lore.

FAQ

Where is Wat Suthat located?

Wat Suthat is in Bangkok, Thailand.

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Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: PEAK99 / CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons