Nang Tani: The Banana Tree Spirit in Thai Folklore

Nang Tani (นางตานี) is a female spirit of Thai folklore said to haunt clumps of wild banana trees known in Thai as kluai tani (กล้วยตานี) [1], [2]. She is popularly shown as a beautiful young woman in a green traditional Thai costume and is mostly considered benevolent, although tradition says she may harm men who have wronged women [1]. She belongs to the Thai category of female tree spirits called nang mai [7], [11].

Key facts

Who is Nang Tani in Thai folklore?

The English Wikipedia article on Nang Tani describes her as a female spirit of Thai folklore, also known as Phi Tani ("ghost of Tani") and Phrai Tani ("nymph of Tani") [1]. It adds that a similar spirit exists in Cambodian folklore and in Lao popular tradition [1].

The Thai Wikipedia article calls her an ancient female spirit (phi, ผี), like Nang Ta-khian, who dwells in the kluai tani banana [2]. It cites the Royal Institute's Thai encyclopedia, volume 13, for its description [2]. The same article stresses that not every kluai tani plant is said to hold such a spirit [2].

Folklore of this kind was passed on by word of mouth. English Wikipedia's article on Thai folklore notes that most spirits were traditionally not represented in paintings or drawings, so they rest on oral tradition [8]. The article on the ethnographer Phraya Anuman Rajadhon says he concluded that Thai village spirits were based on popular oral stories, and it lists Nang Tani among ghosts whose iconography has origins in classic Thai films [9].

What does Nang Tani look like?

The sources agree on the broad picture and differ in detail, so each is reported separately.

• English Wikipedia: a beautiful young woman in a green traditional Thai costume, with a greenish complexion that blends with the tree and lips the red of the ripe ivy gourd. Her hair is black, abundant and untied, and her feet hover slightly above the ground [1].
• Thai Wikipedia: she is dressed in the manner of an ancient Thai woman, with a light sage-green sash (sabai, สไบ) and a darker sage-green hip wrapper (pha nung chong, ผ้านุ่งโจง), and she carries a scent of banana blossom [2]. The article also says that if the banana trunk is stout, the spirit's form is plump, and if the trunk is slender, her form is slender [2].
• The Nation (via Asia News Network, 2022): a beautiful young woman usually portrayed in a green traditional Thai costume, whose feet do not touch the ground [18].

The Nation's piece also repeats the general statement that she can harm men who have wronged women but is mostly regarded as benevolent [18].

When is Nang Tani said to appear?

English Wikipedia says she comes out of the tree and becomes visible especially on full-moon nights [1]. English Wikipedia's article on ghosts in Thai culture lists her as a young woman haunting certain banana clumps who appears on full-moon nights [7]. These are the only sources we found for the full-moon detail, and both are encyclopedia entries rather than village testimony.

What is the kluai tani banana?

The tree that Nang Tani is said to inhabit is a real plant, and the sources describe it in ordinary botanical terms.

• Identity: English Wikipedia's Musa balbisiana article calls this a wild-type banana and one of the ancestors of modern cultivated bananas, along with Musa acuminata. It was first scientifically described in 1820 by the Italian botanist Luigi Aloysius Colla, and in Thailand it is called kluai tani [5].
• Species naming: The English Nang Tani article names the host as Musa acuminata [1], whereas the Musa balbisiana article, Thai Wikipedia's kluai tani article and a Thai Department of Agriculture research report use Musa balbisiana for kluai tani or the 'Tanee' banana [5], [12], [13]. Sources therefore differ, and this article follows the three that use Musa balbisiana when speaking about the plant itself.
• Size and fruit: Thai Wikipedia gives a height of about 3.5 to 4 metres, a bunch of roughly eight hands with 10 to 14 fruits per hand, and many black, thick-walled, hard seeds [12]. English Wikipedia says the fruit is considered inedible because of its seeds [5], while Thai Wikipedia describes ripe fruit as yellow with sweet flesh [12].
• Other Thai names: Thai Wikipedia lists kluai pa, kluai phong la, kluai tani nai, kluai chani nai, kluai met and kluai ngu [12].

How is the kluai tani leaf used?

English Wikipedia says the leaves are used for packaging and crafts in Thailand [5]. A research report by Thailand's Department of Agriculture (published in B.E. 2562, which is 2019) describes banana leaves as widely used for wrapping and serving food, as packing material, and for decorative and symbolic purposes both in Thailand and overseas; it studied the storage life of fresh 'Tanee' leaves and leaf production in Sukhothai province [13]. Sanook reported in 2021 that the plant is used in bai si (บายศรี) crafts, and that a brand in Ratchaburi province, Tanee Siam, turns its leaf sheaths into a leather-like material for bags and hats [16].

Why is it called a "ghost banana"?

Posttoday reported in 2021 that households traditionally avoided planting kluai tani at home because it was regarded as a "ghost banana" (กล้วยผี) and thought unlucky [15]. The same article gives a practical explanation: when kluai tani was planted together with other bananas, all the plants would become seeded and mutate, so planting it at home was forbidden [15]. Thai Wikipedia likewise says villagers did not dare plant it near the house [2].

Customs and taboos reported around Nang Tani

All of the following are reported customs and attributed belief, not statements of fact about the spirit.

Offerings and cloth

English Wikipedia says offerings to her are sweets, incense sticks and flowers, and that some people tie lengths of coloured silk or satin around the trunks of banana trees reputed to be haunted by her [1]. Thai Wikipedia describes a fuller rite when the plant produces its banana flower: it lists a pig's head, a bai si offering, savoury and sweet dishes, red and white boiled sweet dumplings, flowers, incense and candles, perfumes and sandalwood powder, with a gold ring and chain hung on the flower stalk, cloth wrapped around the plant, and sometimes monks invited to chant [2].

Cutting and leaves

English Wikipedia states that it is considered a bad omen to cut trees from the clump she inhabits [1]. Thai Wikipedia adds that bringing a whole banana leaf into the house is regarded as an ill omen, and links that idea to an older custom of placing three leaves under the bottom of a coffin [2].

Stories about men

English Wikipedia says she may harm men, especially those who have wronged women, though she is mostly considered benevolent, and that she may give food to passing Buddhist monks [1]. The Thai Wikipedia article also records folk stories about men and the spirit; we do not repeat them here because they describe supposed rituals and are unsupported by a second source [2].

A recent press example of the practice

A 2024 report in the Thai newspaper Naewna describes a shop owner in Phetchaburi province who linked a banana plant that fruited from the middle of its trunk to Nang Tani. According to the report he placed bananas and a dish of food in front of the plant, tied coloured cloth around it and lit incense [14]. The report presents these actions and the owner's own interpretation of events as his belief; it is a news story, not evidence about the spirit, and this article takes no position on any outcome claimed in it [14]. The report's headline and the owner's remarks frame the plant's growth in terms of good fortune and a lottery result; we record that only as reported practice [14].

What are nang mai, and how does Nang Tani fit in?

Nang mai (นางไม้, literally "lady of the tree") is the Thai category for female tree spirits. English Wikipedia's Nang mai article describes a ghost that lives in a large tree, usually imagined as a young woman in a pleated robe with shoulder-length hair; if male, the spirit is called a rukkhadeva [11]. It names Nang Tani and Nang Ta-khian as examples [11]. Wikipedia's article on ghosts in Thai culture also groups Nang Ta-khian and Nang Tani as nang mai [7].

The Nang mai article reports that, according to the belief, someone who cuts the tree may fall ill or go mad, that villagers who saw such a spirit would tie a three-coloured cloth around the tree, and that a ceremony asking forgiveness was expected before felling large trees [11]. This overlaps with the cloth and cutting customs reported for Nang Tani [1], [11].

Rukkhadeva and nang mai in Thai verse

A 2024 article in Akkharaphiboon Journal (the author is at Kasetsart University's Faculty of Humanities) studies tree deities and nang mai in five Thai travel poems (nirat) about eastern Thailand [17]. It reports that nang mai, including Nang Takhian and unnamed forest spirits, appear in Nirat Mueang Klaeng, Lo Nirat Chachoengsao and Nirat Prachinburi, and that the beliefs do not appear in two other poems in the set [17]. The author reads these beliefs as expressing human relationships with nature, the sacredness of trees and the poet's feelings toward a beloved [17]. The abstract does not mention Nang Tani by name, so it is context for tree-spirit belief in Thai literature rather than evidence about her [17].

How does Nang Tani differ from Nang Ta-khian?

Nang Ta-khian (นางตะเคียน) is the better-known spirit of a large forest tree, and the two are often named together [2], [3].

What the Ta-khian sources add

English Wikipedia describes the ta-khian as a tall, massive tree that can live for centuries, found naturally in the forest [3]. It says that before felling, a special ceremony had to be performed to ask the spirit's permission, and that about the only place the wood is used as lumber is a Buddhist monastery, where the monks' merit is considered sufficient to render the spirit harmless [3]. The Thai article says that a ceremony to ask permission is needed before a ta-khian is dug out for a boat or used to build a house [4].

On the botany, English Wikipedia says Hopea odorata is a tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae, reaches up to 45 metres in height with a trunk base of up to 4.5 metres across, and has wood that resists termites [6].

What is Mae Ya Nang?

The Thai article on Nang Ta-khian says that when a ta-khian tree is turned into a boat, the spirit becomes Mae Ya Nang (แม่ย่านาง) [4]. English Wikipedia's page on ghosts in Thai culture describes Mae Ya Nang as an elderly ghost believed to possess a boat or ship, a belief popular among Buddhist fishermen in the south and in the Royal Thai Navy [7]. The two descriptions do not match in every detail, and no source consulted describes Mae Ya Nang as a form of Nang Tani.

Where does the belief sit in Thai religion?

English Wikipedia describes Tai folk religion (Satsana Phi) as the ancient native ethnic religion of the Tai people, primarily based on worshipping deities called phi, khwan and ancestors [10]. Two of the sources above show Buddhist elements inside spirit customs: monks are sometimes invited to chant at the Nang Tani offering rite [2], and ta-khian wood is said to be usable in a monastery [3]. The sources describe the practices and do not say how common they are today.

Nang Tani in films and popular culture

English Wikipedia lists several screen works and media featuring her: the 1967 film Nang Phrai Tani (นางพรายตานี), described as a classic, the 2000 film Phrai Tani (พรายตานี), further films and Thai comics and story books, a Thai light-bulb commercial and the animated film Nak [1]. It also compares her with the Japanese Bashōnosei, a ghostly banana tree with a human face [1]. As noted above, the article on Phraya Anuman Rajadhon places her among ghosts whose iconography has origins in classic Thai films [9].

Are there Nang Tani amulets?

English Wikipedia says amulets featuring Nang Tani are popular and come in a variety of shapes and sizes [1]. None of the sources consulted for this article name a maker, a temple, a date or a material for any such piece, so this article does not describe specific amulets or figures.